Randi Thompson has a new piece in Sunday’s RGJ promoting the new “Plan Truckee Meadows” survey.  It has several lies that we should counter.  I’m hoping to see letters to RGJ countering her assertions.

1. “Current development is better planned that older developments.”  She cites Ascente as an example of a good plan with attention to traffic and safety.  Safety concerns weren’t addressed at all.
2. “Community input is valuable and important.”  This is patently untrue.  The county ignores citizens’ input and the Citizens Advisory Board reports.  Lucey appears to be truly owned by the developers, and maybe Berkbigler too.  All the citizen involvement is a sham.
3. “Growth is inevitable.”  Some growth may be inevitable, but EDAWN, Berkbigler, and Sheive are making a special effort to lure businesses to the area through special incentives and tax arrangements.  So, at least some of the growth we’re seeing is artificially stimulated.

It’s easy to hate Randi, but that’s misdirected.  She’s a paid lobbyist for the developers and real estate interests.  I think of her as being like the doctors that spent a generation claiming that cigarette smoking didn’t cause cancer.  They were paid by the tobacco industry.

RGJ will only accept one letter a month per person, and so I can’t submit one now.  Submitting a letter is easy (link to instructions).  My approach is to write a draft, and then go back and pare it down to meet the 160-word limit.  Washoe County is blatantly corrupt with regard to development.  We need to keep this perception at the forefront.

It’s been slow with a bunch of intermediate steps, but the WRAP PAC is taking shape.  We need to get going since we’re fighting entrenched interests with a lot of money.

• Bob Parker, David Sater and I are the officers for the PAC.
• I have sent the PAC registration form to the Nevada Secretary of State
• I have sent a request to the IRS for an Employer Identification Number.  While we have no employees, we need this number to get a checking account for the PAC.
• I visited a Great Basin branch and have a list of the documents needed to open an account.
• We are reviewing a draft set of bylaws for the organization.

The officers are needed to establish the PAC, but that does not define their roles.  We are considering candidates to join our board from all over the county.  Once we have a board, we can begin to consider the principal efforts of defeating Lucey and maybe Jung in 2018.  Also, we need a sustained outreach effort to individuals and area groups to advance the cause.

Lastly, I’ve created a new “In the Media” page showing recent articles about the commissioners and development in the area.  I still struggle mightily with WordPress, but I have some progress to show.  I hope this page is visible on the site.  I encourage neighbors to continue the drumbeat of negative press about problem development and problem commissioners.  We will not have the campaign budget to cover a lot of TV advertising.  We need to build on the widespread dissatisfaction with the commissioners and the direction of development.

Hello everyone following this blog, and all the new people from around the county who have found this website following all of the recent publicity. I apologize for the lack of activity in this space since mid July. I have been out of town on either vacation or business for the last month, and in that time a lot has changed. Now that I am caught up, I wanted to take this time to let you know where things stand on Ascente and where things are going.

The Present

Like the rest of you, I was dismayed at the outcome of the appeal. As promised we have been working behind the scenes to formulate a legal strategy. The next logical step would be to force a judicial review. However we are coming up short on both money, and willing lawyers. The crowd funding page we put together for legal fees were in effort to get a lawyer to help with our appeal, but we ran out of time to hire one. To get someone to take the case at this point would be far more expensive than the fundraising goal that we met. Maybe more to the tune of $50,000. Even with the money, the other hurdle seems to be finding a property lawyer who is willing to take the case. Most of them make their money working for developers and the others don’t think we can win. But we are still working hard trying to find someone.

The Past

The hard truth is, we may have lost this battle 8 years ago when the zoning was changed. The Forest Area Plan that we have quoted so often in our defense, is the very same document that gave these developers the ability to so dramatically increase their density in the first place. The powers that be played the long game and slipped that in under the rug. This is why it is so critical to have an active, participating community. Had we been as involved on the development of the FAP as we are now, we could have avoided all of the urban sprawl development we are now having to fight. It is with that sentiment, however, that we look to the future.

The Future of Washoe Residents for Appropriate Planning

I’m sure you have noticed some changes to this website, most notably the name. I am proud to announce the launch of WRAP, or Washoe Residents for Appropriate Planning. It dawned on us during this process that there is nobody in this government looking out for people like us, the health of our communities, or the welfare of our county in general. The whole machine is run by developers, their deep pockets, and the commissioners are part of that payroll. Everyone in the system from top to bottom is pro development.

Mayor Schieve and the county have been so single minded in creating growth and trying to be the next silicon valley, that they completely lost track of how to handle that growth, and even what makes our area so special. Now, smack dab in the middle of a housing crisis that they created, they are forcing through every project coming down the pipe regardless of suitability. Whether its Lemmon Valley constantly flooding, or Summerset sliding off hillsides, the county has a history of not properly managing development and rolling over residents who speak out. It is WRAP’s mission to change that. We plan to hold the commissioners, the county, and even the Mayors accountable and help guide the management of growth in a more appropriate direction.

This group and website are still under development, but feel free to peruse the pages for more information on our plans and about urban sprawl in general. With the evolution of this website, this blog will also evolve to start covering the fight against urban sprawl county wide.

A Personal Message

It is with this announcement that I introduce Steve Wolgast. Mr Wolgast is a newer member to our fight against Ascente, but he has infused fresh energy into a group that had been grinding it out for over a year. It became obvious early on that he wanted to pursue this larger cause.

As for myself, I never imagined back when I called the first community meeting about Ascente over a year ago that it would turn into a movement like this. Back then it was just to talk about this thing we didn’t know much about. I didn’t even know many people here. But so many of our neighbors stepped up to the plate. We came together as a community and we accomplished a lot. I would be remiss if I didn’t send a heartfelt thank you to Ken Allen and Todd Mihevc who were really the backbone of this entire thing. They took the reigns and did the bulk of the work. The hours they have put in are immeasurable and we all owe them a debt of gratitude.

I will be taking a step back to recharge and reconnect with my family while I contemplate what’s next. I will still be involved in the fight against Ascente, and aid in the development of WRAP, but I have faith in leaving the bulk of the work to Steve and other capable members of our group.

Thank you all deeply for the efforts and care you have put forward.

Ryan Loetscher

We were very frustrated by the unanimous vote by the Board of County Commissioners to deny our appeal.  Our District-2 Commissioner, Bob Lucey, recused  himself since his campaign manager had worked for Ascente.  The vice-chairman, Marsha Berkbigler, chaired the meeting even though she had taken contributions from Ascente investors for her last campaign.  Commissioner Kitty Jung explained to the public that taking campaign contributions from an applicant does not disqualify a commissioner from voting on that applicant’s project.  Really?!  We felt betrayed: our concerns and arguments were apparently ignored.

We will re-group to consider what is next.  We are at a great disadvantage to stop the project now, but there are legal actions we can pursue.

What is not in doubt, is that we will be politically active in the coming year to unseat our commissioner (Lucey).  He is apparently the ring leader for the pro-developer faction.  We will also consider what we can do to replace commissioners Jung and Herman who are also up for re-election in 2018 with candidates who will at least enforce the existing codes and safety requirements.

Stay tuned …

Alright everybody, its time to get serious here. In discussing this case with a few people with the requisite knowledge, we feel its time to take an aggressive step. We are going to file as a non profit in order to obtain representation. We have been advised that having a land use attorney deliver our appeal will send a strong message and help our chances, not to mention the need to retain one if this thing passes as is.

Remember, this is not a matter of just not liking a development, these developers have not put the requisite work in to protect our neighborhood and its citizens. We’re talking thousands of car trips on our rural roads every day with no improvements to our infrastructure, no increase in fire access or exits and the list goes on. This plan has not met minimum requirements to pass and the only kind of commissioner that says it does is a dirty one. We need to fight back on behalf of our community, AND our county.

Many of you have donated graciously to our previous campaigns for the appeal application fee and to put an advertisement in the RGJ to get people to band together. Now we just need a little more to take this next step.

We will need at least 5 grand to retain an attorney, and if this thing continues it could go over 10, so we are setting this at 5k, but there is no cap. After gofundme takes its cut, we will have a few hundred bucks left over from the other campaigns that we will roll into this. Any excess in this campaign will go towards potential future litigation, or be refunded once the process is over.

Thank you so much for your time, efforts and dedication. Please share and help us reach this goal. We are extremely limited on time.

Donate here

Hello neighbors, I have quite an interesting update for you indeed.

Behind the scenes the team is drafting our appeal papers into a 15 minute presentation to take in front of the board. Given such little time we have to be very strategic about what is included. Many hours are being logged looking over the minutes from the Planning board and reading up on changes made in that meeting.

It looks like the appeal meeting will be on August 8th. we are not sure of the time, but it will probably be during the day. Unfortunately Todd and I will be out of town, Ken will be taking on the whole enchilada.

After our 15 minutes, both the county and the developer will have time to respond. Commissioners will discuss and ask questions. They will then open it up to community input. We hope you will all show up in mass once again to show your support. Remember, these commissioners are voted in, and Lucy is up for re-election.

On that note, we have come to a point where this process has become as much about politics as it is about code.

Reno is exploding. Residents from all over the county are dealing with the same problems we are and they are fuming. The Planning Commissioners think they can get what ever they want just slid by residents due to the housing shortage, and we are all going to pay for it down the line with a city built on poor infrastructure.

We need to send a message to the commissioners that we aren’t just one group of residents, we represent anger and frustration felt throughout the entire county.  We need to tell them we will hold them accountable. We need to wake them up to the political ramifications of passing Ascente as is.

To this end, we plan to take out an RGJ ad directed toward angry residents everywhere who are fighting their own battles and don’t know where to turn. We will invite them to join us at the appeal meeting to help strike the first blow in the larger war.

We need help raising money for that advertisement. So there is a new fundraiser you can find here: Advertisement Fundraiser. I hope you will help us.

At the appeal meeting, they can find one of 3 ways. They can pass it as is. They can reject it, or the can send it back to the Planning Board with recommendations. So, in fact, this journey is not yet necessarily done.

As usual we will need help spreading the word about the appeal, and help us get more followers to this blog. It is our best way of communicating with all of you.

Be safe, be happy!

Hi everyone. I’m back from Iceland and just wanted to catch up real quick. The appeal is in and it looks like we’re being scheduled August 8th to give our response to the tentative map decision. It seems we will have 15 minutes to deliver our comments, much like the developer had at the last meeting. We wont have 3 min a person limit, so we will most likely have one person present while potentially calling on some experts.

We of course will keep you all updated as we get closer.

This is it. This is our Super Bowl.

It seems the advice from the board that this was a “long process” was a little misleading. This process will go on for a while, but it seems that the Appeal to the tentative map will be our last shot of putting in community input. Here’s how it works…

In the appeal, we will make the case as to why the approval of the tentative map should be overturned. Our appeal can be rejected and they move forward as is, they can approve our appeal and reject the tentative map in which case the developers would go back to square one, or they can approve with new conditions. Our appeal case will go in front of our elected commissioners (Bob Lucy and crew) and we will be the presenters and get a block of time to state our case. We will have some time to put our presentation together.

We are writing the appeal this weekend. There is a $1,400 fee to put in this appeal. We need help paying for this. Below is a link to a gofundme account. Please donate. To help this thing happen. The deadline for the appeal is next monday.

Fund The Appeal

Another note:  we talked to the fire chief, he does have his concerns about fire safety as well and thinks that adding Thomas Creek would be preferred, but under current code the developer only needs to have 2 entrances. We did suggest some new conditions to make the whole project more fire safe, like adding a fire break on the south and east ends of the property that will also provide access. He liked the suggestions and he is going to request them.

I am leaving for Iceland for 2 weeks tomorrow morning, Ken will also be gone. So we will not be easy to contact for a little bit, but I will check back in with you when I return.

I want to share with you something very refreshing and invigorating that I feel will help sooth some wounds today.

I received a call from our planning commission representative, Michael Lawson. He informed me up front that he could not discuss the Ascente project or vote, but he wanted to share something else with all of you.

He was in awe of our presentation and commitment to our area. He said in his decades of experience in planning that he has never seen anything like it before. He believes that everything that we had to say was compelling and relevant. He was very surprised at the outcome and could not sleep that night. He went on to say that he wants to work for us to make the system better.

He felt the system worked against us Tuesday night for many of the same reasons I shared in my last post and in my opening arguments. This process moves forward in small steps that places our representatives in the position to make split second decisions in a vacuum. It is unfair that we cannot rebut a developer’s answer to our questions. It is not right that they cannot take the time to research hours of contradicting testimony before making a decision. Developers know this and have the time, money and experience to know how to work these system flaws to their advantage. They deftly maneuvered away from the arguments where we had ground to stand on, and sought out the ones that made us look ill-informed. Mr Lawson believes he can work to change these system issues. He was very struck by the comments that if we keep mitigating, eventually there is nothing left to mitigate. I must also point out that representative Sarah Chvilicek had comments to the effect of wanting to change the system as well.

I can say since the meeting I have talked to A LOT of county officials involved in this process. The people that have worked on this to this point have been shackled to code requirements and job description limitations. But I come away with the honest belief that though we may feel that the system isn’t working for us right now, that our representatives most certainly are. I don’t know if this will be able to help us in this fight, but at the least I feel that we have made a difference in the long run.

I find myself renewed and invigorated to keep this up regardless of the potential outcome, if only for the simple reason that we can make a positive change here and now. The next step: we do what we do. We fight. We will be appealing this decision and we feel strongly that we have ground to stand on. We are following up on every potential point and will have talked with every department that matters by tomorrow to refine our best argument. We have a shot.

Take heart and push forward fellow warriors. Fight the battles as they come. Do not allow this to run you or your spirit down. The world is run by those who show up. Have faith in your representatives. Give them the benefit of the doubt. Stick with us and together, even if we can’t win the war against Ascente, know that we have made a difference, not only in mitigating the impacts of this very development, but in the efforts to make this system work better for everyone in our beautiful county.

Dear neighbors,

First, I want to announce that the board of commissioners approved the tentative map of Ascente last night 5-1. Many of you have expressed your dismay and frustration. More still have suggested that they have heard this is a “done deal”. We need to remember that this is the BEGINNING of a LONG process and we have many roads ahead of us. We are at a disadvantage of not knowing the system as well as the developer, and have many more moving parts where unilateral decisions cannot be made. We need to stick together. With that being said, I have some personal thoughts I would like to share.

First, I am proud to stand with all of you. The show you put on last night was unbelievable. Given the outcome, I’m not sure how this comment will play for you, but the county made numerous comments that this was the most organized and we thought presentation from residents they’ve ever seen. I know that that might frustrate you more given that many of feel like you weren’t heard, but I see this a different way.

I believe we were heard. And we HAVE made a difference. I disagree with the commissioner’s assessment that they didn’t need more conditions (more on that later), but if we’re honest, they asked pointed, tough questions of the county planning staff and the developer. However, this is a spot where the system doesn’t help us. We didn’t get a chance to respond to those questions or the developer’s responses. The developer’s people are paid well to do a specific job, and they are really good at it. They were able to redirect and explain away a lot of issues.

As suggested by many, I did not feel that the commissioners were “against us” or that they were paid off. I, again, don’t agree with all their assessments, but let’s remember a few things about this process. It sounds like most of them heard this information for the first time. The only one that took the time to understand this proposal ahead of time, our representative Michael Lawson, was the only dissenting vote. This was his first meeting, and I hope the system doesn’t wear down his vigilance. For the rest of them, the point is they heard over 4 HOURS of testimony before deliberation. I was actually extremely impressed at their ability to retain information and ask good questions at the end. The problem is, with that amount of info flying at them, many of the points we have ground to stand on were lost in the shuffle, or directed away from by the developer’s spokesperson. We need to re-double our efforts at this point to make sure we re-iterate the points we feel were over looked.

Let’s please remember, this was the TENTATIVE MAP process. The ONLY thing they needed to address is if this met minimum code. We have a few points where we disagree that it does, but a vast majority of our concerns are things that need to be addressed by our elected commissioner Bob Lucey, not the appointed officials. As pointed out, this is not the end, but the beginning of a long process meant to wear us down. There are many more meetings to be had. And, as the commissioners pointed out, many more changes and conditions to be made. We cannot fade away now.

In reference to those that heard comments from certain representatives that “this is a done deal”. Remember, this is coming from the developer. They are trying to get us to give up. They are working the system. The first plan they submitted was purposefully bad. They made as many obvious mistakes as possible so they could get “community input” and respond to the low hanging fruit, that way they could bring the real “plan A” to the county and be able to say, “look at all the changes we made for the residents”. They are on to plan B right now because of us. They don’t want us to force them any further down the alphabet. They need us to quit. There is no better way to promote apathy than to skew the results of the process to instill the myth that there is no fight to be had. We may not win the war, but we can win more battles, and we can make them bloody as hell. Let’s win the battles and protect what we can protect.

I call on all of you to rededicate and to take heart in your achievements to this point. We have a lot to discuss over the next few days, and some sleep to catch up on. We will respond to everyone about next steps and where this process takes us.

Right now, I need anyone with writing and administrative talents to come forward and help us organize this monster. I personally cannot keep this pace up and that’s what they are counting on. I am also going to be out of country for a lot of the next month or two, and that’s a lot of man hours for Ken and Todd to lose in this battle.

Remember, there are more battles to win. We need the troops to rally. Stay vigilant, stay strong, stay connected. You will hear from me again before the end of the week.

P.S. As always, please direct people to the mailing list on the website… at this point it is a communication tool. It doesn’t provide a lot of information to newcomers, but it is the easiest and best way for me to keep everyone up to date on the process and to communicate as a group. I can’t stress enough how vital this is as a tool to cut down on the amount of communication work we have to do.