Nye County schedules hearing on proposed zoning code changes

Nye County has posted a public hearing notice for Bill No. 2026-01, a proposal to amend Nye County Code Title 17, the county’s comprehensive land use planning and zoning chapter. The notice points to Chapter 17.10, although the snippet cuts off after that chapter reference, which signals a targeted land-use rewrite with real consequences for who can build, what can be built, and how quickly approvals move.

For property owners, builders, and small businesses in Pahrump and other fast-changing parts of Nye County, the stakes are immediate. Title 17 is the rulebook that governs whether a parcel can be used for homes, commercial space, agriculture, solar facilities, or other development, and whether a project needs extra review, setbacks, or a conditional use permit. If Bill No. 2026-01 tightens those rules, projects could become slower and more expensive to approve. If it relaxes them, some uses could become easier to place on land already in the county’s growth path.

The county has taken up Title 17 repeatedly in recent years, and those revisions show how specific the changes can get. Bill No. 2022-19 became Ordinance No. 590 and removed solar photovoltaic facilities as a permissive use in RH-9.5 Rural Homestead Residential zoning. Bill No. 2019-15 became Ordinance No. 555 and removed commercial farming and growing of crops as a permissive use from certain residential and open-space districts. Bill No. 2017-10 proposed changes to multifamily residential setbacks, permissive uses and conditional use permit rules, while Bill No. 2013-13 targeted animal-related zoning rules, including a multi-pet permit and kennel regulations.

That history matters because it shows the county is not talking about zoning in the abstract. Nye County has also considered far broader action, including Bill No. 2024-03, which proposed repealing Title 17 entirely. More recently, a July 7, 2026 agenda item referenced Bill No. 2026-11, a separate Title 17 bill that would create Chapter 13 for data centers and prohibit them. Together, those items show the county is still actively sorting out what kinds of development it wants to allow as growth pressure continues around Pahrump.

Anyone reviewing Bill No. 2026-01 should look closely at whether it changes permitted uses, adds new permit steps, alters setbacks, or shifts rules by zoning district. Older planning records list the Nye County Planning Department at 2041 E. Calvada Blvd. N., Suite 1, Pahrump, NV 89048, with Darrell Lacy as planning director, the office where many of the county’s land-use questions are handled before they reach the Board of County Commissioners.