Hello neighbors!

First, we know many of you have been asked into private meetings with the developers. Of course you are free to tell them any concerns you wish but we want to remind everyone that we are all stronger together. This development impacts all of us and we share the common goal of keeping it from affecting our roads, our schools and our general way of life out here in the Galena area.

As I posted last week we met with the Washoe County Planning department on the 10^th. We came away feeling very good about the meeting. The flow of traffic and everything involved with it seems to be the strongest issue we have on our side. They shared our concerns for our little roads and our way of life, as well as other complications the current plan presents such as emergency access. They were also concerned about potential environmental hazards posed by the old Galena lead mines. If you would like to know more about this, one of our committee members wrote an op-ed you can read here:
http://www.rgj.com/story/opinion/voices/2016/08/15/one-view-south-reno-development-may-disturb-toxic-materials/88806308/

Everything else, as we already knew, many of the issues raised will boil down the results of impact studies and what the developer has to do to meet the requirements asked for by the county. This process will not move forward until the project is submitted.

We are not sure when it will be submitted. But we do know it was not submitted in time for this month, so the next time they will be able to submit is September 15^th. We are not sure why they delayed their submission. When the plan is submitted you will be able to view it at https://www.washoecounty.us/csd/planning_and_development/ under “applications commission District 2”.

We had originally planned for a meeting with the developers on Friday, but after the info we gathered from the planning department, and learning of their one on one meetings with other residents, we felt there was nothing more to add or learn from a meeting.

So now it’s a waiting game. Knowing that we have the planning department’s ear on a few issues, and the support of a few members of the planning commission, we are feeling a lot stronger. We will let you know if there are any new developments or when we know more about the submitted plan.

As always, if you’d like to know more detail about specific issues we are discussing as a committee, or would like to add some input you feel is being overlooked, please feel free to contact us.

Hello Neighbors!

First a quick correction note. We had posted on the website that Hunsberger Elementary would be triggered for double sessions once they hit 120% capacity. In reality it will trigger a Multi-track calendar. They will switch to double session once they hit 120% capacity while on multi-track. The correction has been made.

There are a few important updates for you today. First, at the most recent open house held by the developer, they unveiled a few more details to the project as well changes made to the access points. This change lowers traffic through Callahan by 25%, but increases traffic to Fawn Ln. I will not be able to address updates to the website in a timely manner, but you can look at the updates on their website ascentenevada.com.

I have heard from Fawn Ln residents who are upset about this change. Please know that this change was not made based off anything that our committee has done. Any input they have received so far has come from their open meetings held at the south valleys library. We will continue to fight the impacts for ALL area residents.

We also have a few important meetings coming up. We have scheduled a meeting with the Washoe County Planning department on Wednesday. We are going to be talking to them about Ascente’s access points and the traffic studies. We also want to question them about the zoning change in 2010 to find out why it was switched to medium density and see if there is anything we can do to affect this decision.

Most importantly we are in process of scheduling a meeting with the developers on Friday. At this meeting we will present a list of requests as they make their final plans before submitting to the planning department. At this early stage in the process, this is really our only option to see if they’d be willing to mitigate some of our concerns of their own volition. Once submitted, the county will do their impact studies and we will know more about what the developer can and cannot do to get approval. If we are not happy with the changes made, it is at this point that we’ll know more about what we can do to fight further.

Because we want to properly represent the community as a whole, I want to give a chance for feedback before our meeting. Our formal requests will include:

1. Lowering the density of the development. Fewer houses would help to alleviate all issues across the board.
2. Gain their own private access directly to Mt Rose to alleviate traffic through Callahan and Fawn Ln. This one is especially tricky as they would have to purchase the forest service plots to build that road. This could take up to 2 years. To accomplish this we would have to find a way to delay the project as a whole to allow time for this to happen.
3. Donate to the school district to help in the building of a new school. This school would be a middle school built on forest service land adjacent to Hunsberger. It would take on the 6 grade class from Hunsberger addressing overcrowding at both Hunsberger Elementary and Pine middle schools.

If any of you in the community have any input to add, or have any concerns about this list of requests, please contact me. Not everyone will have their needs met, and in all reality the developer doesn’t need to meet any of this demands to move forward with their plans. But I want to make sure we take everyone concerns into account and stay together as a community.

I hope you all have a lovely weekend and good luck with the first week of school for those with children!

Just a quick reminder that the developer is holding a public meeting tomorrow (Thursday) at 5:30 at the south valley libraries.

As for our committee, we weren’t able to put together a private meeting prior with such short notice, but we hope to see you all at this community meeting and will continue to gather information. See you soon!