RV park rezoning request delayed until next month

A request to rezone 32 acres for a recreational vehicle park has been tabled until Dec. 16.

Dave Richards of CivilWise Services, a consultant for American Eagle RV and Resorts, was unable to show his presentation Wednesday to the Nye County Commission, leading to the delay.

American Eagle RV and Resorts is requesting to rezone 32 acres of a 55-acre tract at 600 S. Leslie St. from rural estates to general commercial, and master plan the entire 55 acres general commercial.

American Eagle had previously submitted plans for a zone change, master plan amendment and conditional use permit for a 213-slip recreational vehicle park with a three-acre artificial lake. The planners recommended denial of the application by a 5-2 vote on Aug. 13. The County Commission remanded it back to the RPC to review an impact study that wasn’t included in their backup material. The RPC voted to recommend approval of the zone change and master plan amendment without the conditional use permit for the park by a 5-2 vote Oct. 15.

In another bureaucratic slipup, the resubmitted request for the conditional use permit for the RV park and artificial lake was supposed to be heard by the RPC on Wednesday, but the agenda wasn’t posted in time with the Veterans Day holiday and the RPC won’t meet again until Dec. 10.

On Wednesday the support by commissioners for the project seemed lacking in this latest go-round. American Eagle submitted a revised conceptual site plan to develop the entire 55 acres with the RV park, artificial lake, nursing home/senior care facility, Alzheimer’s care facility, restaurant, medical and professional offices, retail stores, even a post office. The conditional use permit for the RV park would have to be considered later.

County Commissioner Frank Carbone, the county’s liaison to the Pahrump Regional Planning Commission, made the motion to approve the rezoning but he didn’t get a second. Carbone made the motion to approve with the condition no artificial lake shall be constructed; the maximum density of an RV park can’t exceed 12 RV spaces per acre; the developers must provide a water mitigation plan donating three acre feet of water rights for every acre foot required; a conceptual site plan must be presented.

Also, if the property isn’t developed within three years it reverts back to the previous zoning category.

The request then appeared dead, but Richards protested he wasn’t able to make his presentation before the RPC or the county commission. There were technical difficulties Wednesday.

“So you’re denying us an opportunity to make our presentation to you that we wanted to make?” Richards asked.

“Unless one of the commissioners asks you to present your material, your assessment is correct,” County Commission Acting Chairman Lorinda Wichman said. “I cannot force a motion to come forward out of this board. So I’m sorry we can’t do anything more with this.”

After a break in the meeting, Deputy District Attorney Tim Sutton said Richards had the right to make it.

“The code specifically states that the applicant has the right to present evidence,” Sutton said.

Richards asked for a postponement to allow his clients to prepare the presentation in the proper manner, the rezoning and master plan amendment request was postponed until the Dec. 16 county commission meeting. County Commissioner Butch Borasky said he’d prefer to hear it when all the commissioners are in Pahrump, only Commissioner Donna Cox was in Pahrump.

Greg Dann, a member of the committee drawing up a groundwater management plan for the Pahrump Valley, voiced objections to the proposed RV park at the public hearing.

“I’m fully committed to the water woes of Pahrump Valley. Therefore in my research of this parcel I’ve discovered the present day well was first drilled in 1954 with a static water level reading of 34 feet as reported by Stanley Ford,” Dann said. “Now today in the last 30 days the last measured water level is 80 feet. Therefore, by simple math you can understand there has been a 57-foot diminishment of the water level at that well. This is almost equal to one foot per year of decline.”

Dann, who said he lives 700 feet away from the proposed development as the crow flies, said another well he has been monitoring for the last 25 years in that area showed similar declines in the water level.

“Continually lowering the pumps to reach water is not good management,” he said. “I don t favor any changes to zoning or the master plan that include an excessive depletion of an already depleted resource, water.

A high intensity development at that location would also produce high levels of sewage that must be processed and discarded, in an area already over allocated with septic systems, Dann said.