Warehouse
The developer of a 480,000 sqft warehouse on 28 acres in Mogul has requested a postponement after facing opposition from residents. This is part of the Reno Gateway Business Park development. The City of Reno Planning Commission agreed to postpone the project; voting 5-1. Although the property in the City’s sphere of influence, it is not contiguous with the existing city boundary, so it can’t be annexed. The developer would like to work with residents and City Staff to amend the site plan before re-presenting to City planning commission. The County refuses to hear this project even though the developer has requested to present to the W Truckee Meadows/ Verdi joint CAB. Neighbors have the following concerns.
- The massive size is comparable to the Amazon fulfillment center in the North Valleys that has 65 truck bays.
- Why not occupy the warehouses in Boomtown that are practically vacant?
- Traffic safety is a concern bringing in so much commercial traffic in a residential area. The additional truck traffic may hinder emergency services and school traffic.
- This warehouse is not compatible with the character of the area.
Residential
The new West Meadows development (aka Meridian 120 North) off exit 5 in Verdi is having trouble selling the new homes. They had expected 40% percent of the homes to be sold by this time, while only 7% have sold. The entry level homes have recently been discounted from $550k to $450k. The builder has declared a 90 day moratorium on home construction in the development. TMWA will be bringing a new line to deliver water to the Verdi and Boomtown areas.
The Society for the Preservation of Verdi has issued a brief supporting the City of Reno in a petition for judicial review filed by BT South (aka: Reno Land Development) against the City of Reno due to the denial of their development potentially consisting of 3,000 residences. This includes the Meridian 120 South development. The City council remanded the project back to the planning commission to be ‘all inclusive’. The developer was attempting to get approval of this project piece meal. The developer is requesting approval for 78 homes in one of 6 “villages”. The impact could not be determined by council specifically naming water.
This area has an active neighborhood group: The Verdi Community Council. The area is also represented on the West Valley CAB and the Ward-5 NAB
Washoe Residents for Appropriate Planning 
I live in Silver Knolls. I think it would be better for all of the individual groups fighting this type of development to support each other in these meetings. We need to organize to send a couple of people from each group to the different CAB meetings. If we present a more united front of not just one group but many it would I think be better in the long run for all of us. Just some extra faces/bodies to show up so we aren’t always the same people at every single one. I’m willing to volunteer for evening meetings.
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I believe you’re exactly right: getting a united front across the county is the key to success. We need to look past our fences and our neighborhoods. Historically, people haven’t been willing to make the effort to fight for another neighborhood. I feel the first step is to inform residents of what is happening. They can see that this irresponsible development is happening everywhere and it’s a problem we all face.
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Steve:
In addition, those existing and newly developed areas of Verdi within the City limits, will be served by the TMFPD as the ‘closest’ unit’ under the TMFPD – RENO automatic aid agreement, burdening TMFPD taxpayers, while Reno collects all of the property and C-tax revenue from these homeowners and businesses.
Reno has no fire station in the Boomtown/Verdi/Gold Ranch corridor and no plans to build one there.
TMFPD #40 Mogul is the closest station to Verdi.
Tom
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After 8 years on the Wa. Co. Planning commission, and living very close to Amazon in the North Valleys, you can take my word for the fact that a huge warehouse with a few trucks an hour going in and out is immeasurably better than 200 homes and all the related traffic and noise that comes along with them. Roger Edwards (currently vice chair of the NVCAB)
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With all due respect, that may be true in terms of actual traffic in terms of number of vehicles per hour, but a warehouse with trucks is not a particularly good neighbor for a residential neighborhood, as opposed to more children and families creating a community, spurring retail development and support services, things that are missing in Mogul right now. Healthy growth needs to be planned and zoned so that uses augment and support each other into the future.
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