Apr. 18, 2008

County may scrap desert tortoise plan
By MARK WAITE
PVT

Nye County Commissioner Joni Eastley suggested the county return $225,000 in grants to prepare a desert tortoise habitat conservation plan and dump the agreement, after both sides continued arguing over the latest revision Wednesday.

If Nye County decided not to sign a blanket agreement allowing development on up to 120 acres of desert tortoise habitat around the perimeter of Pahrump, developers would build at their own risk.

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service could enforce its own rules.

The service hasn't filed such action in Pahrump since the listing of the desert tortoise as endangered in 1990, but Fish and Wildlife Service biologist Jeri Krueger warned Pahrump is on the radar screen now.

"You can only run a stop sign so many times without getting caught," Krueger said later.

Nye County has spent all but about $52,000 of the grant already on drawing up the plan.

Mary Ellen Giampaoli, Nye County environmental compliance specialist, outlined changes made after the last discussions, held last week between Eastley and the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Fish and Wildlife agreed to expand the area covered by the habitat conservation plan from 100 to 120 acres, Giampaoli said.

"I do believe this is the best deal we're going to get under a low-effect, habitat-conservation plan," she said.

Giampaoli said in calendar year 2007 there were 1,087 construction projects undertaken in the Pahrump Regional Planning District, 59 of which would have fallen into desert tortoise habitat zones, comprising 308 acres. The mitigation, however, would only include acreage disturbed by construction activity -- not total acreage.

Nye County Commissioner Gary Hollis said, "Even if it was 30 percent (disturbance) it would probably go over the 100 acres."

Fish and Wildlife also agreed with a county suggestion to sign only a one-year habitat conservation plan. But Giampaolil said they wouldn't extend the acreage after that one-year agreement expired.

"We are really pushing the envelope anything beyond this, and they are, in my opinion, on weak ground trying to make that demonstration that there would be no impact," Giampaoli said.

County commissioners attempted to call the bluff of the Fish and Wildlife Service on whether they would crack down on development if the county didn't execute an agreement.

"It could proceed but it would be at risk of enforcement action from the Fish and Wildlife Service if there's any pressure from an interest group," Giampaoli said.

Hollis said environmentalists "are good people" but added, "They don't want any commercial development. They don't want us to even live in Nevada."

"We have to discuss some type of habitat conservation plan for Pahrump Valley in order for development to proceed uninhibited," Eastley said. But she said if commissioners wanted to "let the chips fall where they may," they could decide not to proceed with an agreement.

"This is already a federal law on the books, and we have known for how many years now we have to draft a habitat conservation plan. And we accepted $225,000 from the federal government to produce that plan," Eastley said.

At one point, Hollis said he'd go to Sacramento, Calif., himself to protest to the regional headquarters of the Fish and Wildlife Service.

Giampaoli said a suggestion by Commissioner Butch Borasky to swap the habitat zones on the perimeter of Pahrump Valley for other areas was rejected. Giampaoli said it would be difficult to implement; Fish and Wildlife Service policies are "pretty broad-brushed."

Nye County Manager Ron Williams said the county would be responsible for enforcement if it passed an ordinance adopting the plan. If someone built on their own without the plan, the county wouldn't be responsible for enforcement, he explained.

"Some of the larger developers within the regional planning district have approached the service about acquiring their own permit," Giampaoli said. "I think that's good news."

But developer Tim Hafen blasted the plan, saying, "Nye County is being bamboozled an awful lot by Fish and Wildlife."

Hafen worked out a development agreement with Nye County to build 448 lots on 120 acres for his Indian Roads subdivision at 5400 E. Turner Blvd., in a high-impact desert tortoise zone where he would pay $550 per acre. Across Hafen Ranch Road from the subdivision there's no mitigation fees required as its considered out of desert tortoise habitat.

"It is neither fair nor right," Hafen said.

He called the 120-acre limitation an arbitrary figure drawn up by the Fish and Wildlife Service.

"It doesn't have to be 100 acres, it could be 2,000 acres," he said. "You must allow larger developments to build and not come under the 100-acre limitation.

Eastley said it has to be 100 or 120 acres or less to be considered a low-effect plan on desert tortoise habitat.

Hafen then remarked it would be useless to have another workshop.

"Don't create a moratorium on residential and commercial growth, and that's exactly what this plan as written would do," he said.

  
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