Bad development occurs all over the Truckee Meadows, in the North Valleys as well as in the South Valleys. There are over 100 new projects in the Truckee Meadows which have been approved by the county and city planning commissions. For many of these, the construction has not started yet.  All of these are voted on by the county commission and the planning commissioners they appointed.  No part of the county can be protected from bad development unless we are all protected.

The new travesty is called Stonegate. It’s a development of over 4,000 homes on 395 between Reno and Cold Springs. Residents are concerned about all the familiar problems related to area development; traffic, fire protection, police services, water availability, flood control, schools, and sewage processing. These issues are inadequately addressed in the developers plans and there does not seem to be the will in the city council to deny it. Traffic is the biggest concern: this part of 395 is already choked and plans to widen 395 are a year or more after the development construction. TMWA has reported that providing water will not be a problem, but they have a history of reckless commitments. The City of Reno expressed confidence that adequate fire and police services will be provided, but they have a history of diluting public services in an effort to balance their budget. Both the city and the county seem to be playing a ponzi scheme wherein tax revenue from new development is used to pay old bills. This is unsustainable and gives the commissions an incentive to support any development just to get the revenue. The logical conclusion is to have development like Vegas, or Phoenix until the rugged beauty of the Great Basin is spoiled and the civic nature of Reno is a memory.

Check out our page: [XXXXX]

As a county-wide entity, WRAP is pleased to ally with the Cold Spring residents in their fight against bad development along with the malfeasance and corruption that enables it.  We count on them to help to change the county.

This is the year that Barnes and Tanguay hope to start the Ascente build.  But, before the blasting and the grading, the trucks and the bulldozers, they will need to meet the 134 “conditions of acceptance” required by the county and get approval of their “final map”.  Some of the conditions require engineering reports regarding the suitability of the site for construction.  My understanding is that the county staff does not review these reports for accuracy or veracity, but simply check-off that they have been submitted.  Given the ludicrous traffic study that was accepted by the staff for Ascente, we can have no confidence that any due diligence is exercised or any the report is not falsified to favor the developer.  I’m told, the staff lacks the expertise, the resources, and the will to review submitted reports for technical accuracy.

This is the year that commissioners Lucey, Jung, and Herman come up for re-election to 4-year terms.  Robert Lucey is reported to be the ring leader of the pro-developer cabal in the commission.  He is an uninhibited beneficiary of developer largess having acquired five new homes directly from developers.  He also benefitted from impressive campaign donations from developers.  As we see much of our view suffer the fate of Colina Rosa (next to Galena), we must ask ourselves if we are angry enough to fight back.  We shouldn’t wait till we feel the blasting and hear the back-up beepers to decide that this is just too much.  There is a WRAP strategy group seeking a good candidate to run for Lucey’s seat.  This candidate will need exceptional grass-roots support to beat Lucey and his developer money.  There will be many ways to support this candidate; large and small.  I think now is the time for each of us to consider what it is worth to see Lucey ousted.  Our neighborhood was sold out for money: it is that simple.

There are new additions to the “In the Media” page from recent articles.  Check out Tom Daley’s piece about how the unincorporated Washoe taxpayers are subsidizing Reno.

Also, see my notes about my meetings with all the county commissioners individually.  I was trying to persuade them to oppose Ascente when I met with them in the summer.  I persuaded no one, but I did get an earfull from all of them about why they support this frantic development.  I put this in my recent op-ed piece to the RGJ, but it was all edited out.  The editor said that they couldn’t independently confirm what the commissioners had said.  OK, I’ll publish it here.

The “tentative map” for Ascente was approved in June. But, before the blasting and the grading, the developers (Paul Tanguay and Michael Barnes) need to get the “final map” approved by the county staff. There are 134 “conditions of acceptance” that need to be addressed in the final map. One of them is a geo-technical study to identify and locate earthquake faults so that homes are not built on the faults. We know the area is very geologically active: home locations in the estates were selected to avoid faults going through the property.
Last fall, the developers used an engineering company (Lumos) to dig trenches to locate, track, and characterize faults on the Ascente property.  Two of our resident geologists took a look at their trenches and also one of the rock core samples from their drilling. The work was quite rushed, and most trenches were filled the same day they were dug. This was convenient to prevent any oversight. These are the problems in the fault study that our geologists identified from what they could see.

• The engineer overseeing the work is not a geologist qualified for this work.
• The trenches were not “open” long enough to be properly studied.
• The engineer claimed that one fault discovered was over a million years old when that is patently untrue (They get to build on “old” faults).
• One of the trenches appears to have missed the nearby fault completely.
• Not enough trenches were dug to accurately plot the faults.
• The trenches were not shored-up to be safe to work in. This is a critical safety issue.
• The core sample (near Patti Lane) showed clear fault activity.
• One of the equipment operators said that the study concluded that there were no faults on the property. Implausible, and demonstrably untrue.

It’s a big deal. There is a good chance that having an accurate fault map would substantially reduce the number of homes that can be built. That would cut into their profit margin and reduce our traffic.
Kris Hemlein, one of our geologists, wrote a detailed letter to the county staff addressing the problems with the developer’s geological study. She shared it with our Planning Commissioner, Mike Lawson, who said he will review it with the county staff to be sure it gets due attention. Mike, remember, is the only planning commissioner to vote against Ascente.

After 4-1/2 hours of presentations and discussions, the County Commissioners voted unanimously to deny the Willey-Colorock appeal of the Board of Adjustment ruling denying their move to Pleasant/Steamboat Valley.  Kudos to the 50 public speakers from the neighborhood.  One played a recording of trucks backing up into the microphone to make her point (imaginative!).  Thanks to Callahan neighbors who attended.  Commissioner Hartung said what a difficult decision it was.  Not true: he must struggle to order lunch.

The arguments to deny the appeal:

1. The 36 acres is divided between steep hillsides and flood plain.  It’s not really suitable for any large development.
2. They would have to redirect Steamboat Creek as part of their plan.
3. They would have reduced the area available for the percolation of flood water.
4. They would have disturbed old Mercury deposits in Steamboat Creek.
5. They would have had to build a bridge over Steamboat Creek that would require Army Corps of Engineers approval.
6. The rock handling would have put dangerous silica in the air that would be carried by the high winds.
7. There would have been a lot of trips by trucks large and small.
8. It was in violation of the General Rural zoning and the South Valley Area Plan.
9. The county staff produced a list of conditions should the project be approved that ran 12 pages long.

Commissioner Jung pointed out that Colorock was not consistent with the South Valley Area Plan.  I remember her telling me to my face that if the Callahan neighbors raised the issue of the Forest Area Plan violations regarding Ascente, people would laugh.  Irony and hypocrisy are yet abundant.

Anyway, I take satisfaction that the board did not do the worst, most egregious thing possible.  It’s a low standard, but I’m relieved that they met it.

Please come!

The County has refined the agenda: the appeal hearing regarding the Colorock move to Pleasant/Steamboat Valley will be at 3:30 PM (or later) on Tuesday, November 28.  In summary, Gail Willey wants to move his wholesale rock operation into an area not zoned for industrial uses.  It will be a travesty for the neighbors and set a precedent in the county for gross violations of zoning.  This move has been denied by the CAB, then the Planning Commission, then the appeal to the Board of County Commissioners was denied, then the proposal to Board of Adjustment was denied.  On 11/28, Willey will appeal the Board of Adjustment decision.  This is truly the equivalent of putting a freeway in your yard.  Let’s give credence to the state motto “of Battle Born” and take the fight to the commissioners.  This is a fight for all of unincorporated Washoe.  Express your rage at the gross violations and non-compliances and stand with your neighbors next Tuesday.  Rumor has it that Commissioner Lucey is in favor of Colorock over the residents (voters).  Being polite and reasonable has had no visible effect on this council.  It’s time to make a little fuss and look toward 2018 for change.

Put it on your calendar: Tuesday, November 28!  The Board of County Commissioners will hear an appeal from the Gail Willey Colorock company to overturn the Board of Adjustment decision to deny their plan to move the operation into the Pleasant/Steamboat Valley area.  This is a travesty!  It has been denied by the CAB, the Planning Commission, the appeal to the Planning Commission, and the Board of Adjustment.  Now, they will appeal the Board of Adjustment decision to the Board of County Commissioners.  It is terrible for the neighbors and a scary precedent that any zoning rule can be overturned by the corrupt board.  It’s not that different than getting a freeway in your backyard.  Those masters-of-malfeasance (the county commissioners) will be led by our own Bob Lucey who reportedly supports this move.  I know we’re all exhausted from the unrelenting county scandals, but please attend the meeting and support your neighbors.  You may find it satisfying to assert yourself against the corrupt machine.  I’ll update you with the time when we have that detail.

Check out the updated “In the Media” page (LINK).  You’ll see that your perceptions about the slowing real-estate market and rage at the senseless development is shared by residents all over the county.  Tolles (developer) says “Houses aren’t unaffordable, it’s that wages are too low.”  Irony is still plentiful.

Few things are more scary than out-of-control development in Washoe.  The latest is the proposed change to zoning in the Zolezzi/Lenz area to allow higher density housing.  There is a neighborhood meeting scheduled for Thursday, 11/2, at 6PM at the Lenz elementary school.  Attend to fight the increased housing density in our area. Zolezzi_School.

We have begun to meet with experienced principals to discuss our strategy going forward.  The priority is to prepare for the 2018 election.  Our present challenge is to find a candidate with high ethical standards who could defeat our Commissioner; Robert Lucey.  Given the political demographic, we’re most likely to win with a Republican candidate who will need to defeat Lucey in the primary.  But, given the national political climate, we may see a higher than normal turnout by the Democrats.

I was pleased to see the Reno Gazette Journal publish my One View piece yesterday.  I was disappointed that the statements the commissioners made to me were edited out.  The commissioners themselves really made my argument.  The editor told me that they did not want to publish them since they did not corroborate them.  Links below are for both the published (edited) version and for the submitted (original) version.

Published in RGJ 10/30/17: RGJ_103017

Submitted 10/21/17: One-View_SCW_102117

I’ve seen no activity on the Ascente property in the last few weeks.  The tracked drill is still sitting on its transport truck at the end of Fawn Lane.

We have decided to refund the GOFUNDME account that was set up to pay for a lawyer to  support a petition for judicial review of the denial of our appeal.  Those of you that contributed should see an e-mail from GOFUNDME indicating the refund.  As it turned out, we were unable to get a local lawyer to take the case, and it was quite unlikely that we would have prevailed despite the derelict action by the County Commissioners.  We will soon be seeking funds to support the WRAP PAC looking to effect the 2018 county elections.  But, this is substantially different from the intent of the GOFUNDME account, and we were not comfortable simply applying the funds to the alternate cause.  Thanks to Ryan for his efforts to set up the account initially and to get the refunds distributed.

The Board of Adjustment denied the request by Gail Willey to move his wholesale rock operation from South Meadows area to Pleasant Valley.  By 4-1, they approved the staff recommendation to allow the nursery portion to move, but this was unacceptable to Willey.  My inference, is that the sole “no” vote was to deny the move of the nursery too.  If so, it’s more of a “hell no” vote.  The staff made the argument that the rural, bucolic area would be harmed by the rock operation as well as the scenic 395 corridor.  How come those arguments were dismissed for our area?  I suspect the reason is that there is a lot more money involved with Ascente.  In some sense, we should have expected the Board’s decision regarding Willey: it was consistent with the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners decisions.

The Ascente effort is moving ahead with trenching to find earthquake faults and drilling to determine the soil depth and rock composition as they prepare to grade the lots.  LINK.

I’ve seen almost no articles, letters, or opinion pieces in the Reno Gazette Journal about development for the past couple of weeks.  I heard they lost their letters editor.  I have to wonder if the paper has decided to limit the criticism of development.

And, development we’ve got!  Take a look at the list of 103 development projects in the County that are being built or approved to be built.  LINK.  Pages 1-3 list the developments as of April while page 4 shows where they are on the map.