County: Property on Dyer is not public nuisance

A property on Dyer Road is no longer considered a public nuisance, however, county officials found multiple code violations on the site.

The Nye County Planning Department and Pahrump Fire Chief Scott Lewis inspected the property, at the direction of the Nye County Commission. Both submitted reports to the board.

According to the documents, there has been a “significant amount of cleanup” and most of the trailers and salvage material have been moved to an area behind the house. The property has been fenced, which limited public access to dangerous conditions.

At the Nye County commissioners’ meeting on Tuesday, Lewis said the property doesn’t meet the criteria that constitute a public nuisance under the Nevada Revised Statutes.

“It does not appear to meet the actual intent of the nuisance requirements,” Lewis said. “There are clearly issues that concern me from a fire suppression standpoint, which I addressed with the occupant. The majority of these issues centered on the egress and exit from the primary dwelling and those are things that are kind of in a different arena from what we are discussing right now.”

The back part of the property would make it problematic for firefighters to do a rescue, Lewis said.

“On a residential environment, fire codes don’t pertain to the same level as they do with a commercial structure or governmental or educational, where you invite people onto your property as far as conducting some type of business. That gives us a lot more leeway and authority under fire codes to make corrective measures. In a residential situation like this, people have the ability to live how they choose,” he said.

County Planning Director Darrell Lacy said residents cleaned up the front yard, but there are still multiple code violations on the property.

“There has been improvements made to the property, materials in the front yard have been cleaned up, the property appears to have full fence,” he said.

County Commissioner Dan Schinhofen said the public nuisance had been abated.

“I do believe that this is now turning into a private nuisance. There are code compliance (violations) on the books. So there’s still an avenue to help clean up and deal with the other concerns. But as far as a public nuisance, I find there’s no longer a public nuisance, provided the gate is still closed and all the other issues can be addressed through code compliance,” he said.

Several neighbors disagreed with the decision. Neighbor Mary Dixon argued that the place is not permanently fenced.

“Regardless of inspection by the planning department, there’s still a large stack of tires, three RVs, a motorhome, semi-trailer in the back of that property. They have farm animals up there and there’s untold amounts of personal belongings in the front yard and the back,” she said.

Dixon said that a rodent that had been found in the neighborhood made a residence a public nuisance.

“Rats are not native to the desert. We now have a health problem and therefore, I would think it would be a public nuisance,” she said.

Officials said the issue will be handled by a code compliance officer. “We just approved a code compliance officer, we have somebody who will work that,” Schinhofen said. “There is a complaint there that is the best venue to move this forward and we have bodies to fill that. That’s our best bet, I think.”

Contact reporter Daria Sokolova at dsokolova@pvtimes.com. On Twitter: @dariasokolova77