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!