NRS543.590. Survey and report of problems; assistance in preliminary planning; adoption of master plan.

      1.  After a district has been established, the board shall cause its chief engineer or qualified private engineers or consultants to make a survey of the problems of controlling floods in the district and to prepare a report setting forth:

      (a) A description of existing facilities for the control of floods in the area.

      (b) Recommendations as to cooperation between the district and the owner or owners of the facilities.

      (c) Recommendations for the construction or other acquisition of facilities to carry out the purpose of the district, with a preliminary plan therefor.

      (d) A description of the property proposed to be acquired or damaged in the performance of work.

      (e) A map showing the boundaries of the district and location of the work proposed to be done.

      (f) A map showing the hydrographic areas to be used by the district for planning and acquisition of projects and improvements.

      (g) Such other facts and information as the board may request.

      2.  In the preparation of the report, the Director of the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and the Division of Public and Behavioral Health of the Department of Health and Human Services may assist in preliminary planning by:

      (a) The assignment of technical, professional and administrative personnel.

      (b) Providing information for engineering and other planning.

      (c) Acting as coordinator and liaison between the district and participating local, state and federal agencies.

Ê Money expended in preliminary planning may, upon application to the Director of the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources and to the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, be refunded, if money for these purposes has been appropriated by the Legislature.

      3.  The chief engineer for the district shall then prepare for each hydrographic area a master plan for the control of floods which must set forth the most effective structural and regulatory means for correcting existing problems of flooding within the area and dealing with the probable effects of future development, taking into consideration the recommendations submitted in the report. In preparing the master plan, the chief engineer shall incorporate insofar as possible the planning completed or undertaken by the county, each city all or part of whose territory is included in the area, and any private engineer or developer for any part of the area. The master plan may include as separate elements the immediate needs, indicating their relative priority, and other future needs. The master plan may also include bridge structures that may become necessary as a result of the implementation of the master plan.

      4.  When a master plan satisfactory to the board, and after review by the Director of the State Department of Conservation and Natural Resources, is available, it must be tentatively adopted. A public hearing on the proposed work must be scheduled and notice of the hearing given by publication. After hearing and any adjournments thereof which may be ordered, the board may either require changes to be made in the master plan as the board considers desirable or the board may approve the tentative master plan as prepared. If changes are ordered a further hearing must be held pursuant to notice given by publication.

      5.  The county and each city all or part of whose territory is included within each hydrographic area shall then hold a public hearing to consider adopting the tentative master plan as a component of its master plan pursuant to chapter 278 of NRS. The master plan or its parts for that hydrographic area do not become final until adopted by the county and each city.

      (Added to NRS by 1961, 437; A 1963, 969; 1973, 1406; 1985, 1197; 1989, 1524)