Columnist Susan Snyder: Pahrump offers lesson in planning

Monday, April 14, 2003 | 8:49 a.m.

Susan Snyder's column appears Mondays, Tuesdays, Fridays and Sundays. Reach her at snyder@lasvegassun.com or (702) 259-4082.

A three-story crane building was among the first signs that Pahrump's first master-planning effort wasn't going according to plan.

Or maybe it was more of a sign that the 1999 master plan wasn't much of one.

No matter how Pahrump's plan looked on paper, the crane building clearly didn't fit in the minds of residents who lived next door.

"It abuts residential properties. Those people used to have a great view of the Spring Mountains. Now they don't," said Cheryl Beeman, assistant planning director for Nye County.

Beeman's job would have to be one of the most unenviable on the planet. I'd rather clean litter boxes at Dewey animal shelter than try to tell rural folks what to build and where. (But I'd rather eat dirt than clean litter boxes at Dewey, so don't call.)

Suffice to say that master planning ain't a picnic in areas where people value open space, freedom from urban trappings and freedom from oppressive forces such as homeowners' associations.

This is not exclusive to Nye County or Pahrump. I once attended a planning meeting in Perry, Utah, where both police officers were called to break up a fistfight.

In 1999 Pahrump residents were so afraid of prohibitions, Beeman said, they ended up with a development free-for-all.

"They didn't come up with a usable document that helps anybody. It's so broad, there's no application," she said.

This time will be different.

The Pahrump Regional Planning District has embarked on a plan to update the plan. It has fashioned a process where residents are being asked what they want before anything goes down on paper.

With the help of consultants from Arizona and New Mexico, residents are being surveyed by telephone and invited to open houses, where they are polled on issues such as transportation, air quality and community character. (No, not "a community character." That's another topic entirely.)

During the first open house in February, Pahrump residents voted on more than 100 issues, rating them according to importance using colored dots. Higher-paying jobs, water-conserving landscaping for new developments and better weed control ranked high, as did expanding youth programs, managing dust and building roads.

Housing density was ranked important by 89 percent of the open house attendees. And 64 percent were against considering recreational vehicles full-time residences.

Seems we aren't so different no matter how big -- or small -- our city.

Consensus can work. It just takes a three-story crane to get us started, sometimes.

"It's a double-edged sword," Beeman said. "But it can protect property values."

And community values and the sanity of rural planning staffers.

The Pahrump planning process is expected to take 20 months, and a plan can't come too soon. Experts predict Nye County will be second only to Clark County in terms of population growth over the next 20 years.

The next public open house is noon to 7 p.m. April 30 in Pahrump's Bob Ruud Community Center.

Sounds like a plan.