The Pleasant Valley Estates development  off of Rhodes Road in Pleasant Valley will be the subject of an appeal at the County Commission meeting on Tuesday, May 12, 2020 starting at 10:00 AM.  This is a development of 58 homes on 42 acres representing further suburban influence in the area.  The development had been denied by the Washoe Planning Commission in October 2019 as not consistent with the character of the area.

This is item 17 on the agenda.  The meeting will be closed to the public due to the pandemic, but concerned residents can express their views in various ways.

• Residents can send statements to the county clerk to be read during the meeting by e-mail; washoe311@washoecounty.us
• Residents can attend the meeting remotely via Zoom and speak: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/93594432713.
• Residents can express their opinions to individual commissioners by e-mail.

The agenda indicates that the developer will amend the development to reduce the number of lots to 45.  The smallest lots will still be 0.3 acres.  There does not appear to be a new tentative map available for the public to review.

Residents are concerned that this development is not consistent with the character of the area.  They are also concerned at the dilapidated condition of the Rhodes Road bridge over Steamboat Creek.  This will be the primary access to the new development.

The Board of County Commissioners has a near perfect record of overturning the planning commission to favor developers.

UPDATE 5/9/20

I stand corrected.  The development is located in Steamboat Valley adjacent to Pleasant Valley.

…

Dr. Bob Parker has raised the following concerns.

This amended plan is seriously deficient in the following areas.  He has conveyed this to the county clerk.

1. Fire and EMS
   1. The developer assumed that fire protection and EMS coverage would be provided by a volunteer fire station on old US 395 at the junction of Pagni Lane. That station has not been active for about 20 years and was sold to another owner in 2017. The developer contends that the TMFPD had told him that it was active, and that contention is repeated in the appeal, which makes it clear that the developer’s statements about sufficiency of public services are imagined and not real. That is sufficient to deny the appeal.
   2. If a structure fire requires a water tender to respond, the bridge at Rhodes Road and US 395 not strong enough to handle a fully loaded water tender.
   3. The secondary access proposed from Star Point is not wide enough for emergency response at the junction with Star Point.
   4. Proposed secondary access via Rocky Vista is a dirt road not sufficient for an emergency response.
2. The development is in a pocket valley. The developer assumed he could collect runoff in a retention pond (On Parcel A) and pump it off the development. The original idea was to pump it in the southerly direction onto an adjacent property; there was no concurrence from that owner.  It is not clear what disposal is imagined in the new application, nor is it clear how the retention pond would be managed to prevent disease or injury.