Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

good afternoon everyone uh today is February 11th this is the Douglas County Planning Commission and I will call the meeting to order we have two new members and we'll recognize them at the appropriate time uh so if you would first join us uh with Lori leading the Pledge of Allegiance please stand thank you I pledge aliance to the flag of the United States of America and to the repic for it stands one nation under God indivisible with liy and Justice we'll start with opening public comment uh public comment is limited to 3 minutes per speaker over matters which the Planning Commission has jurisdiction supervision or control the Planning Commission wants to encourage the respectful consideration of All Views by members of the public if the content is willfully disruptive of the meeting by being irrelevant repetitious slanderous offensive inflammatory irrational or amounts to a personal attack or interfering with the rights of others the individual will be asked to stop speaking in addition to opening public comment public comment will also be taken on public hearing agenda items that are identified for possible action and closing public comment if you plan to speak on a specific agenda item that is on the public hearing agenda and identified for possible action then please provide your public comment when that agenda item is heard at this time public comment will be taken on those items that are within the jurisdiction and control of the Planning Commission additional public comment periods may be allowed on individual agenda items at the discretion of the chairperson it is requested that members of the public comment on those agenda items when they are considered is there opening public comment again please sign the uh sign-in sheet and then uh you can begin your comments and we will state your name for the

record also and then we'll begin your three minutes uh good afternoon Ellie Waller this morning I attended the legislative legislative ways and me committee trpa was presenting budget as well as uh the and for those that don't know Tahoe Regional planning agency uh as well as um Mr Meer uh Department of of um conservation and natural resources so it was a really good eyeopener how to learn uh what goes on and how budgets are um obtained tomorrow I'll be attending the trpa advisory Planning Commission to provide public testimony to the Planning Commission for recommendations to be forwarded to their governing board on our Southshore area plan that has been before you this is the zoning and map amendments as you have had discussed to be clear Barton hospital and Associated healthc care subdistrict are not being reviewed uh as they were removed and will be heard it another time uh also trpa will be um initiating a basinwide um phase two affordable housing amendment to our um area plan as well as plaster Cy's tomorrow uh that's something that I'm hoping that Douglas County uh can get a present ation I know staff has tried and have been uh denied um having a presentation I'm not sure why they don't want to come visit our Planning Commission or our Board of Commissioners many in the public may not know um that we haven't really engaged in that phase to and I have participated for two and a half years so I will be providing comments on that subject as well tomorrow um I strongly urge you many of you hopefully that might be interested in the future how trpa advisory Planning Commission discusses

amendments and provides recommendations to the trpa governing board that's at 9:30 tomorrow morning at the trpa offices at 128 Market Street off of kingsburry grade thank you thank you is there an additional public comment Paul thanks for very much uh our uh chairman uh I uh am Paul Bruno as a member of the public but also as a member of the Planning Commission want to inform our um industrious and very highly competent staff as well as the public that I will not be here for the March meeting I'm undergoing a uh medical procedure which uh I have preparation for at the end of February Ary it will take me through about the third week of March and I will just be unavailable so my apologies to all I'll be back uh in April and ready to go at our April meeting so thanks thank you Paul we uh wish you the best and uh we know you'll be a strong member when you're back in April so thank you very much uh if there's no other public comment then yes if you'd like to make public comment please approach the mic microphone sign in state your name and give your comment good afternoon Jeff Shamir triester estate's resident I just wanted to make a brief comment about the the Martin Creek Town Home Development that you guys are going to talk about today excuse me if if you're here to make comment on that item we would request that you make the comment when we hear that item unless you're not able to be here nope I can do that thank you you bet is there additional public

comment seeing none then I will close public comment before we uh move to approval of the agenda I do want to recognize that we have two me new members of the Planning Commission Dan St John and Jim mccallop uh welcome gentlemen uh we look forward to your participation if you would like to make any uh opening uh comments or remarks uh you can uh make them at this point if not we'll move to uh the rest of the agenda great great thank you welcome uh we will now move to approval of the agenda for this is for possible action approval of the proposed agenda the Planning Commission reserves the right to take items in a different order to combine two or more agenda items for consideration and to remove items from the agenda or delay discussion relating to an item on the agenda at any time and we will be uh postponing and not considering agenda item number four which is the discussion of vhr ordinance 2 202 5650 that item will not be heard at the Planning Commission today uh so with that in mind uh does anyone have any questions on the agenda or would like to make a motion on approval of the agenda Mr chairman I move to approve the agenda Bryce Bryce moves to approve the agenda and Moren seconds the approval Mr chair uh AJ is that a motion to approve the agenda without item four sorry uh I move to approve the agenda removing item number four thank you second thank you very much AJ thank you Bryce thank you Moren so the question is on approving the agenda with the deletion of agenda item four is there any discussion if not all in favor say I I I any opposed motion carries unanimously we will now move to approve the uh minutes this is for possible action discussion to approve the draft minutes of the

December 10th 2024 meeting of the Planning Commission morning Mr chair I had a small correction that I gave to the clerk last week if no one else has any corrections I would like to move for approval of the minutes from December 10th 2024 Moren has moved to approve the minutes of December 10th 2024 meeting Mr mccallop um I will need to abstain as I wasn't a member the time thank you very much Jim will be abstaining since he was not a member at that meeting Dan would you like to abstain it's not a requirement that you abstain okay thank you it's all at the prerogative of the individual members the the minutes are a public record and uh any member of the Planning Commission or non-member of the Planning Commission can uh can exercise their right to comment on the minutes so uh Morin has made the motion is there a second so move uh Bryce second the motion to approve the minutes uh all in favor say I I any opposed and Jim you'll go on the record as abstaining so this will be six in favor and one exstension so the minutes are approved we will now move to the first item uh on the agenda this is for possible action discussion of the election of chair and vice chair in compliance with chapter 2.06 of the Douglas County code and section 2.1 of the Planning Commission bylaws I would like to say it's been an honor and a privilege to be a chair for the last year I do want to thank all of the uh members of the Planning Commission and the staff for uh their great participation and their excellent service to the county and U I would uh entertain suggestions on a possible chair we'll take them individually if

that's uh all right with the members of the Planning Commission so is there a suggestion or a motion for the chair of the Planning Commission Bryce uh Mr chairman I'd like to move uh uh that Moran Casey uh be chair is there a second of the motion Paul seconds Bryce motion that Moren be chair of the Planning Commission uh is there discussion uh one item of discussion yes Paul uh I must say chairman you ran a tight ship and it has been a pleasure me this last year having you as the chairman thank you I appreciate your comments I guess AJ in a formal sense I should ask for public comment since this is for possible action so I will before we take a uh Vote or have any further discussion ask for public comment on this agenda item you can comment on the either the chair or the vice chair uh that might be more efficient if there is public comment seeing no public comment then I'll close public comment on agenda item one and uh entertain discussion on uh Bryce's motion that Morin be appointed shair Paul thank you uh uh Mr chair chairman for our two new members I uh need to tell you that during my tenure uh the first year was uh Moren Casey was our uh chairperson and did a magnificent job uh which is part of the reason why I seconded because this is a known uh product and indeed she did a magnificent job uh during my tenure my initial tenure and that is why I seconded the motion thank you Paul any further discussion Lori I just want to comment on um the fantastic job that you've done chairman in the past year this is the

year that my first year my first chairman I think you did a fantastic job I know Meen will do a fantastic job as well so thank you for your support thank you for your comments any further discussion Chim I have attended Planning Commission meetings in the past with both as uh Mr Walder as chairman and as Moren as chairman and uh I am very much in favor of Moren so I think she she'll do a good job thank you Jim any other comments if not I'll call for the vote all those in favor of electing Moren as chair uh say I I any opposed the motion carries unanimously we'll now move to election of the vice chair uh is there a motion for uh election of a vice chair Paul I'd like to move that uh Bryce Kutz uh member of Planning Commission and current Vice uh chair to the extent that he would accept uh I'd like to nominate him for the vice chair position for the upcoming year thank you Paul is there a second Lori I second that thank you very much Lori I would concur Bryce has done an excellent job as Vice chair we rely on him for a whole host of Duties many of which are unseen uh and he does an excellent job so I am in concurrence with that any other comments on the motion well Bryce you're not Mark but you'll do well it's this it's this left foot of mine that keeps you chairs in line so that's what when he says unforeseen it's the kicks that I do under underneath the table thank thank you any other comments on the motion if not I'll call for the vote all those in favor of Bryce being uh elected vice Chair say I I I any opposed the motion carries unanimously we will now

then take about a three or four minute recess Mr former chair I'd like to make a comment I learned so much about being chair from you thank you thank you I appreciate it so we'll take a a three or four minute recess and we'll change chairs and then we will resume the meeting with the chair Casey e e e

I recall this meeting of the Douglas County Planning Commission to order item number two for presentation only presentation by the Douglas County Community Development Department on land use Planning and Development applications and the respective roles of the Douglas County Community Development staff the Planning Commission and the board of County Commissioners Kate marus O'Neal no mistakes there Kate presenting thank you chairwoman Casey uh for the record Kate morus O'Neal um planning division um good afternoon to all of you today um welcome Mr mccallop and Mr uh St John um we appreciate your dedication and willingness to be on the Planning Commission you have a very important role but um the meeting that we had I have no doubt you'll be a great asset to the commission um this presentation will look for to most of you um but for Mr M and Mr St John this is um new to them and just think of this like as a refresher course in case there's anything you might have forgotten so what is planning and why do we plan so I want to begin with a few quotes from the American Planning Association that um is a good summary of our role in planning and how important it is to our communities the first being the goal of planning is to maximize the health and economic well-being of residents in ways that reflect the unique needs desire and culture of those who live and work within the community cities and counties need to consider what consider what can and should happen to a community how it should grow and

change and what it should offer residents 10 15 or even 20 years into the F future lastly planning establishes goals and policies for directing and managing the future growth and development of a community or region so the more most important thing I believe in planning is proper planning and how it helps us improve our community and its members how do we accomplish this well let's take a look at these key components to proper planning first is to develop a common Vision this will increase Buy in and effectiveness of plans and save money by avoiding duplication sizing facilities properly and promoting efficient and coste effective Investments we also need to create a sense of place and reinforce reinforc sense of community by incorporating architectural environmental and aesthetic elements as part of the planning to connect people to their Community thirdly proper planning creates and enhances property values by enhancing these values with a community that plans for Parks Trails playgrounds Transit and other amenities in relation to planning for parks and trails this directly relates to having to how planning safeguards Public Health health and safety planning provides opportunities with access to physical activity and healthy foods Public Safety is protected with strong building codes and other regulations to prevent fire or flooding as well as designing buildings parking

lots streets and neighborhoods to reduce OPP opportunities for crime in addition proper planning must provide public facilities and infrastructure by preparing communities to meet future demands for public services and Facilities such as water and sewer systems roads and Transit lines fire and police stations schools parks and libraries planning can improve Economic Development well-planned communities offer residents and businesses a range of convenient and affordable choices it can also protect the environment and conserve Resources by identifying important natural and cultural resources conserve these resources and protect the environment lastly proper planning needs to set clear expectations to all those involved in the process land owners developers Builders boards community members and a staff reviewing application in order to help minimize conflict the master plan is very important part of any land use in Nevada the Douglas County master plan was updated in 2020 and the update the next update will be this year NRS which is the Nevada revised Statute requires a master plan to be created when a Planning Commission has been established the master plan is adopted by the Planning Commission then the governing body the master plan is a long-term General plan for physical development of the county and is typically looking 10 to 20 years into the future it also identifies current

issues and needs in the community the master plan again is the general plan that summarizes goals but does not indicate detailed regulations we see more specific or detailed regulations in our Douglas County Title 20 development code lastly the master plan includes actions to achieve goals this is seen in the implementation part of our master plan what are the actions and how do we get there and accomplish each goal so now that we see what the master plan is and why is it important let's look at how we implement the P plan first and foremost it starts with Title 20 and Zoning for land uses zoning is what separates a community into zones in order to regulate land uses and the goal is to make sure these uses are compatible with surrounding neighborhoods in Douglas County we utilize Title 20 to regulate development and determine whether to approve or deny any project some of the provisions from the development code we look at when determining the validity of a project our zoning and land division to flood plane regulations growth management as well as processes for applications for planning engineering and for building permits next let's take a look at who does what in the planning process beginning with the Comm Community Development Department staff we are responsible for day-to-day implementation of the master plan and Title 20 of Douglas County development code we review development applications

per master plan and Title 20 development code we are responsible for providing a high level of customer support we track and we track and issue building and Zoning permits review plans and respond to development questions or even Community inquiries General inquiries we prepare public notice for hearings we provide technical advice to the Planning Commission and the board of County Commissioners during public hearings and lastly administratively hear minor development applications as Allowed by development um code Title 20 an example would be design reviews minor variances and tentative parcel Maps this slide is an important one regarding our advisory bodies in Douglas County which are the town of Genoa the town of Minden and the town of Gardnerville per Douglas County 20.08 all zoning permits and tenative parcel maps and subdivision Maps within Town boundaries must be reviewed by the town prior to final actions exceptions to this would be sign reviews or temporary use permits or surveys no final action shall be taken until a formal written recommendation has been received by the director or hearing body failure of an advisory body to make a recommendation may not operate to deprive an applicant of statutory rights there are timelines that are set by NRS uh for some of these items to be heard by various boards and commissions actions by an advisory body are evidence to be considered by the final decision decision

maker resolution 20.20 r-125 Douglas County will implement the Minden and gardenville design standards Douglas County works to implement these Town um design standards to the greatest extent possible so when recommendations are given to the county um more times than not we Implement and include their conditions of approval within our conditions of approval you as the Planning Commission body um are a very important part of the planning process a Planning Commission is required by NRS as Douglas County does have a population of more than 45,000 people the Planning Commission has seven members appointed by the board of County Commissioners members serve a four-year term and the Planning Commission meets the second Tuesday of each month the the Planning Commission reviews various applications such as amendments to the master plan zoning map and Zoning text amendments as well as subdivision maps and plan developments the Planning Commission are a recommending body just as the towns are so you as members are not the final decision maker with the exceptions of approvals for special use permit major variance requests and variance to Improvement standards the final decision maker in the planning process is the board of County Commissioners the commissioner's role is also vital in the planning process as Commissioners they evaluate recommendations from Planning Commission staff analysis and public input they are the final decision maker on master plan Amendment zoning map and text amendments and subdivision maps and they hear appeals of special use permits and variances from the Planning Commission

variance also associated with an application heard by the PC or also heard by the BC so here I have a brief flowchart of how the process works starting with a typical planning application and how it proceeds through this process so first is preapps we often encourage these preapp meetings with an applicant to address any issues um maybe get the Kinks out something that we might see CU we want the applicant uh to avoid having to pay like for filing fees or design work because a lot of times when they bring in an initial plan we might be able to see some issues that are going to occur so before they spend the money on a professional plan set we can say hey you're going to need to make some revisions you know prior to submitting your application um and and this collaborative work can also help make for a better product moving forward secondly um in regards to the application so it's reviewed for completeness for three days so once they submit there's three days to ensure that the documents that are required um have been submitted and they're complete um once that happens and we've determined it is complete uh then it's distributed to the various departments planning engineering um and the the different workflow will be set up so if an application comes in and I'm the planner then it will be assigned to me Jerry Jeremy Hutchins may be the engineer on the project it would be assigned to him so we know throughout the process who's on the workflow for each application typically within a few weeks we have an internal project meeting

usually it's two weeks for staff to discuss projects and take any notes um based on our discussion next we would send out to the applicant to notify them that Corrections are required um prior to moving forward um Andor conditions of approval with the application so sometimes they move quicker than other times depending on how many uh Corrections we might be requiring whether we feel a correction can be actually a condition of approval or is it something we need them to correct before we even move forward ward in addition we also provide a staff applicant meeting within our process uh we implemented this last year many major projects that staff encounter um are projects that have been approved years earlier um you're probably all familiar with Virginia Ranch that's a really good example um that this this staff applicant meeting that we had with um Virginia Ranch we were able to meet with them to discuss some conditions and to make suggest sus um to ensure the best project was perit presented to the community what can happen is when a when something was approved 20 years ago things have changed so that staff applicant meeting um prior to moving forward with additional review we were able to um you know say I think we should do this and not do this moving forward seeing how code has changed and some things may have changed over the course of 20 years if staff does run into a project um and we make suggestions and there's a major issue with the project and the applicant disagrees and doesn't want to make any improvements and they want to move forward to a scheduled public hearing um staff at that point would recommend

denial um if appropriate and staff can support that based on a finding so if we feel that it's a major issue we call it Big Rocks um then we will go back you know to that applicant but it is it is up to the applicant if they feel that they've met all the findings and they can move forward they are more willing to do so once the review is complete staff prepares the staff report for each of the applicable advisory bodies and the board of County Commissioners staff report will either have conditions of approval and findings or justification for denial the report is laid out for you stating the summary of the project including some background on the site images and descriptions of zoning the surrounding zoning and those types of things you will see a description of the project as well as an evaluation of the project ending with findings of fact if you project if your project is within again the town of Minden Gardnerville or Genoa and then the project would be heard at their Town board meeting and they would make a recommendation to staff so we would receive a letter from the town manager um giving us the you know what happened at the board meeting and what the possible action what the vote was and whether or not they're recommending approval or denial and that letter usually includes conditions of approval also and staff will include that in the staff report when applicable um the Planning Commission in turn makes recommendations to the board of County Commissioners so once we make a recommendation to the Planning Commission you've you you make a recommendation on an item and then that item moves to the board of County Commissioners with the exception of things like a special use permit um ones

that really are only heard major variances are only heard by the Planning Commission um I've mentioned these previously so I'll skim through these real quick the master plan Amendment applications um these are accepted annually in June and December so only twice a year they are approved by you the Planning Commission then adopted by resolution um by the board of County Commissioners um zoning map and Zoning text amendments are heard by the Planning Commission also and board in any given month um the board adopts these amendments by ordinance after two readings plan development is another zoning layer we refer to them as PDS um is another zoning layer and the use and intensity must be compatible with the base zoning and the master plan the zoning standards can differ from existing but does require minimum of a 25% open space within that plan development typical applications heard um tentative subdivision Maps you're hearing one of those today um th those are land divisions creating five or more parcels uh again heard by you the Planning Commission and then proceeds to the board of County Commissioners special use permits is generally compatible with the zoning um but gives Planning Commission an opportunity for an additional layer of review again these are only heard by the Planning Commission uh unless it is appealed so if the applicant um wants to appeal your decision for example you've denied their special use permit um they can appeal that and it would be heard by the board of County Commissioners so what are the findings of fact so ultimately as I said the

staff report is going to end on the findings of fact or the evaluations of those findings by staff to determine if we feel the applicant has met the findings or they fail to meet the findings of fact this is the most important sentence in this presentation in order to approve or deny a request the approving body must make a recommendation indicating whether a proposal meets the findings of fact this is vital when determining validity of a request if a if as a member of the governing body you want to deny a project it must come from a finding or findings that you feel an applicant did not meet and that finding or again findings are voiced when you are requesting the denial so when you're um go either not going with a motion you would include I'm denying this project based on the applicants you know inability to meet finding number four the findings are found in NRS and then some are particular to Douglas County um such as being bring transparency order and predictability to a proceeding allow the applicant in public to understand the factors the commission consider provide a rational structure to guide meetings the burden is on the applicant to prove that the standards have been met that's really important um there's a a misnomer that it's up to staff to determine we do we give our you know based on what we think but ultimately it's up to the applicant to prove that so it's not up to staff to prove it to you it's up to the applicant to prove whether or not they have met a finding met all the findings staff will provide unbiased analysis of the

findings in the staff report comments made by applicant public staff or Commissioners should always relate to the findings of fact and it must be followed in order to reduce the chance of litigation you can see the findings of fact are very important so you really want to pay close attention to those when you are reviewing staff reports uh that wraps up my presentation uh again I appreciate uh your attention today and um again your dedication to civic duty um and our community I know it's a lot to um remember all the time in these meetings I know these packets at times can be a thousand Pages um so I don't think of people um realize it is it does take a lot of work um so your work is is greatly appreciated so if you have any questions for me um I'm happy to answer any at this time thank you Kate you're welcome wonderful presentation as always are there questions comments Kirk uh thank you madam chair uh Kate if you can go back to how does the process work uh slide I think that was a very informative one that a lot of people will miss um there are nine steps there and uh it's really not until you get to the uh uh 7th or even the eth one that it really becomes a matter of public record and we're all clued into what's going on um and I just want to praise the staff and and highlight to everybody that the staff goes through those first six steps in great detail uh and with a lot of uh time and effort uh we have a smaller staff than I think we'd like to have to do all the things and uh as Kate has

pointed out to me many times uh the volume of requests and U uh information that they have to process in those first steps is significant so I do want to uh pay recognition to the good work of staff for doing all the things that they do behind the scenes to get us to the point we are uh today on the one project or on the other projects come for forward so again I thank the staff for the effort that they put in and the time that they put in and the product that they produce so thank you thank you Kirk Dan I just a simple question does uh chapter 20 Define what you have to address in terms of findings of facts where do those come from yes that is correct so for example in Title 20 today you're going to see a tentative Subdivision map So within Title 20 there are findings you have to meet for that application so the various applications do have findings they have to meet good question Mr St John and thank you chairman Walder also not chairman o sorry Mr Walder um I appreciate that and I I'm sure my staff is listening um they do the amount of work they do and I think it's just the daily inquiries that people don't understand I mean they do over thousands of inquiries a year so um it it's greatly appreci app it and I am I and I'm always proud to have them acknowledge because they definitely deserve it so thank you um so in uh when we see something in a project that's a finding effect fact Jim please speak into your microphone oh that that you've listed as as a f that that you've listed in the affirmative but maybe I have questions that I think maybe the applicant could have done something better is that proper to question that or bring that up

good question Mr mccallop absolutely so you could do it one of two ways um and I would consider both ways you could reach out to the Planner on the project and just say hey I'm reading your staff report and I just have a couple questions um about this finding maybe it's just you want to be clear on what the finding means means and and maybe the planner then gives you their answer but more importantly the applicant presents at at the project so for example today for the tenative Subdivision map um the applicant representative will be here and if you have a question about a specific finding you would also more appropriately address that with the applicant thank you Kate a question since we are so limited in staff and staff's time is so limited to be responding to emails is there a preferred way of communic ating with staff and the Planning Commission uh another good question thank you chairwoman Casey um you know we we have a planning inbox planning at Douglas mv.org um. org or. us Ellie I know you know what is it Ellie I know you know what is it is it.org us. us I knew Ellie would thank you Miss waller for that um see I don't email so in my defense I usually don't email our own planning inbox but the planning inbox um staff but you can also you you can always email us directly because normally you'll know who the planner is but General inquiries would be the planning inbox you can call the General number that we have on the website um or the planning if it's a general question like hey I want to know what I can do on

my parcel um and we get a lot of those on a daily basis but that's the best way is an email um in this day and age it's just trying we're keeping up with emails um is just more efficient than trying to keep up keep keep up with phone calls thank you I know you're so bogged down we only have three planners that it's it's just very important that we not spend a lot of time tying up staff with questions that could best be answered other ways thank you Kate again any other questions and since this is not for Action there will be no public comment and we will move on to item number three which is for possible action discussion on a tentative Subdivision map application DP 244-253 a request to divide a 4.45 acre parcel into 30 Parcels consisting of 29 multifam individually owned units parcels and one common space parcel the subject parcel is own multifam residential in the Gardnerville community plan the parcel is located off of Giles Lane behind Gardnerville Elementary School the applicant's representative is Keith Rubin RL Anderson a Wilson engineering company and the owner is Chip Hanley Santa inette as Valley Construction APN 1320 d33 d42 d79 Kate mores O'Neal presenting uh thank you chairwoman Casey so for the record Kate mores O'Neal planning Division I do want I do have some clarification on this item in the

financial impact section on page 73 of your packet I inadvertently transferred over some previous information from another project it's normally something that is part of every Financial impact this one is a little different specifically this project will establish an HOA um and that HOA will maintain the open space the RV lot the guest parking the private Drive AIS the storm drain facilities and Landscaping so in that financial statement we mentioned um you know for the that the county um they could offer that the the road that's that's an incorrect statement and and that was my bad water will be maintained by Gardenerville water company and Sewer by the Minden Gardenerville um Sewer District the subject parcel is Zone multif family residential and is in the Gardenerville community plan the project consists of 29 multifamily individually owned units and one common open space parcel um in addition staff approved a previous design review application in 2023 and a recent modification to that design review the only modification was changing the ownership um from a single owner um of that subject partial to offering for sale 29 individual units so due to financing terms it the owner it just became not a viable situation to keep as one ownership and you know lease or rent units um and so the decision was made by the owner for these individually owned units we did receive and I I wanted to point this out because I think it's important we did receive a few public car um comments regarding two-story homes um and how that would

block the views of adjacent homes so although this project does consist of on story units only um it is important to share that views are not protected in code so buying next to a v vacant land um does not mean that land won't be developed in the future and and we do run into this quite a bit um here in the valley when community members purchase um a property next to vacant land and they have these spectacular views of the mountains um so I I I know it can be really frustrating because I we get these phone calls when then a development comes in years later um on what was previously a vacant land but although we emphasize um we empathize with them losing their views uh it's not from a planning perspective and the Douglas County Title 20 development code we cannot prevent a developer from building on vacant land with an allowed use um because it may obstruct views from neighboring properties unfortunately it just that that's not part of code that being said planning does look at compatibility um to neighboring properties when reviewing projects uh unfortunately that does not mean that a twostory development won't be next to a one-story development that does happen um but again in this particular case it is one story units but I just wanted to address because we got several comments about that um as much as we would like to protect people's views it's just not a reality and it's not um unfortunately part of code or something that we can we can support I also want to add that on February 4th the town of Gardnerville um board unanimously approved this sub tenative Subdivision map um request and

included additional conditions of approval uh the town board approval um letter was part of supplemental um again that that just happened on the 4th um we had already um it was too late to get it in the packet so this letter will will be attached to the county um conditions of approval that begin on page 80 of the packet so typically we have a little bit more time and and when you see the conditions of approval in your staff report you'd see right after the county conditions is the town conditions um again most of the time at least in my experience here at the county we support that the town any of the town's condition conditions of approval sometimes there might be a dis agreement um it is ultimately up to the county because the town's our advisory um in this case we are including the conditions of approval that the town has requested as part of our um County uh conditions of approval staff does believe the applicant has met the findings for this tentative Subdivision map so at this time I I know it mentioned Keith as a representative but I'd like to introduce Rob Anderson of Wilson engineering formerly um Ro Anderson uh Mr Anderson will be providing a PowerPoint presentation on this project and then he can address any specific questions uh that you may have on the proposed Martin Creek uh project thank you Kate hi Rob Rob before you get started I would like to disclose that I did attend the Gardenerville meeting and ask if there are any other disclosures by other planning Commissioners does anyone own property within the noticing area Dan you want me just let me know when to move forward is that okay

Dan do you own property within the disclosing area noticing area okay do you have any disclosures to make okay Jim you're fine you live in the ranches uh I don't own any property I did visit the site okay other than that no any conversations with the applicant or anyone okay just checking want to make sure thank you rob Madam chairman members of the commission my name is Rob Anderson I am now with Wilson engineer formerly R Anderson Engineering um I'm here today on behalf of Santa ANZ Valley Construction the application before you as Miss moris uh pointed out is a request for ATT tenative subdivision um the application is um a little bit unique um again uh Kate re made reference to this that this project already enjoys a design review approval so the elevations are set the design is set um of the street layout that's already been previously approved the request that's before this board today is a merely a tenative Subdivision map to approve individual ownerships as opposed to having a rental project so it's uh the project is a a market rate project it is a single family or excuse me is a single story um structures are proposed um the design again has um been approved and is part of the um part of your package as well additionally there's um there's been a some um miscommunications maybe even some misunderstandings really relative to the ability to have more than 20 units in what um someone might characterize as a as a culdesac and so this I'll speak to this during the presentation but this project is um fully sprinkl and therefore falls under the fire code

is Town Homes which allows more than 20 units under Douglas County code uh the inter uh international fire code um does permit more than 20 units in a um in what some people might consider a culdesac but with that um if you could move to the next slide so again as K pointed out the town of Gardnerville heard this last Tuesday um a week ago um that evening they they did support it unanimously there were comment from various Commissioners or town board members excuse me that were supportive of it particularly that it's a market rate rather than a a rental or even a low-income housing project uh they were appreciative of the fact that it was single family um units there was some discussion about the widths of the road uh the widths of the driveway which I will speak to now or as we go through this so each unit will be owned privately owned um each unit be for sale it is a town home related um project where they have have common walls um most units have common walls um there are no ownership um above in a second story so these are truly just Town Homes um they have the undivided ownership interest as I mentioned in my initial introductory remarks each is equipped with a fire sprinkler system in accordance with the international fire code the driveway that is proposed which you'll see on the site plan here in a moment is privately owned and is to be privately maintained by the homeowners association um again the association would be established and again as I referenced in my introductory remarks the the homes will each be um constructed not in not only um in compliance with the international fire code but also certainly the international codes they're applicable to the building permits um so this uh slide on the left the left side shows you the relationship of the project site to triester estate which bounds it on the East uh

gardenville Elementary to the South the the white space to the left where the project location notation is is actually the Martin slooh Corridor uh that's owned by the town of Gardnerville the Martin SLO Trail runs through there and then you can see Gilman Avenue up on above uh the the diagram to the right is more of a vicinity map provides a larger scale um context for where the project location is so it is immediately north of the gardenville elementary school okay uh the zoning is um and land use are both shown in this exhibit um there's no changes proposed each um in each instance both for the land use and the zoning the project complies with those as previously established not only by the Planning Commission but the bard of County Commissioners these are just some photos of the um from the site to to show you the bottom left photo is one that looks back towards gardenville elementary school and you can see the fence in uh in the foreground there a mountain certainly in the rear um other sketches or other photos there are to the properties to the lying to the north the upper leftand corner is uh one to the Northwest from the site and that shows you the old historic or what I would consider the historic hell Winkle Barn that's existed there for many many decades continue please this is the tenative Subdivision map layout the um I don't have a a pointer but to the uh what I would North is to the top of the page uh to the right is Guiles Avenue where it enters the property gues Avenue was extended as part of Chichester Estates phase one in 19 92 is um it was uh extended there at the request of Douglas County School District for the purpose of providing a secondary access way to get the buses off of Toller Lane those of you that

might have been here in 1989 1990 time frame uh the congestion that we see in front of Gardnerville Elementary School was magnified because they didn't have um there were or excuse me that we see in front of carsonville middle school was also magnified there at Toler Lane um this secondary route provided the ability for the school buses to come out GS go around come down Gilman and and reach the signal there so that was a discussion between the developer at that time and the school district um they negotiated to have a common easement there so that this property could be developed in the future uh where the cursor is shown where Miss moros is showing that that is a a 50 foot wide um common access easement um common for both properties both the school district and also the uh what is now owned by SS construction the um so access to the property is through gues Lane A P public um Street rway publicly maintained um and then the school district has pavement to the South it's shown there and then there would be pavement to the north um as we come in there's been quite a bit of discussion during these uh hearings with the town of gardenville um about that access point because during when school go um is let out children are picked up at that location families uh reach out and pick them and it gets kind of congested uh several of the Neighbors in inside Chester Estates have commented on that the uh the design here to um will extend essentially gues Lane and the width of gues Lane to the west to the uh the west side of that first intersection of the driveway that will afford enough circulation in our estimation to handle that traffic um at least uh the combined traffic now with these residents plus the school traffic

and should um should work well um to um and frankly consistent with the original plan when it was proposed and ultimately adopted by the school district and the develop so that is the configuration that is a driveway that goes around looped around as you see it does have uh separate parking um spaces provided in a couple location the North West corner is a retention Basin um we've tried to size that um well certainly it's been sized to meet the standards of Douglas County but it's also been sized hopefully with the uh and would be landscaped in a fashion that could be used for a multi-use facility so when there wasn't water standing in there uh children could play in it if they chose or U whatever uh the use might be of the residents within the development and then each of the units are shown these units are a little bit unique in that their driveways are um long so they're um there's ample room to bring um the vehicles there and get them off the street um so it's kind of it's a little bit of a unique design that the developers come up with again there are 29 um that are Town Homes those would be the ones that are three plx or three units together and then the the other ones are um what I would call duplexes are two units um but each is fully sprinklered next slide please this is the open space configuration under a tentative subdivision map we're required to demonstrate that there is 25% open space available and the green areas um compute out and if we were to zoom in or maybe you can see it on your the package that you have um that we've achieved that requirement um this slide just demonstrates that um for you and it does not include either the the driveways nor does it include the residents of course nor does it include um the the individual driveways or the driveway around so with that next slide again 25%

open space is required um that would equate in this particular project site to 48460 square feet we have about 48,6 53 so doesn't make it by a lot but it does make it um it the this site does allow 16 units per acre which would give us up to 71 if we could achieve the other criteria which um this is a classic property uh to demonstrate how hard it is to make a 16 unit per acre density that's allowed in Douglas County Cod it just um somebody who's been doing this for a while in the community it is very hard to get to 16 units per acre and meet all the other requirements you have to go up and then there are height restrictions that further restrict it so I don't call a single property in Douglas County making that um in Carson Valley in particular there might be some at Tahoe that meet that um 16 units per acre it's just the other constraints just don't allow for it nevertheless we would be allowed up to 71 uh however we propose as I've said before 29 units on the site which is about 6 and a half units per acre uh there's a population calculation but go ahead and move on this is the fire code reference that I spoke to earlier that allows for uh more than 20 units in the event that each of the units is sprinklered next slide um again another fire code reference here uh from Douglas County code um or actually from uh the uh the fire code itself so with that I'm happy to answer any questions Madam chairman members of the commission that you might have Bryce thank you madam chair uh Kate would it be an accurate statement to suggest that given the current zoning of multif family residential that there's really only two options here either apartments or town

homes that is correct okay thank you Jim um I guess it bothers me a little bit about not having a secondary access um my sister-in-law was trapped in Paradise if my brother didn't know this little road out of town the back way I don't know if we still have her yeah um I get it and I'm really happy about the fire sprinklers and I think that's a great thing what I was wondering is if you could put up the the map again that so I take it the Loop Road and then on the other side of the fence CU I did visit the property is the one that goes behind to the school correct um how about something as simple as a gate that either the fire department or the sheriff could open that would allow people in an emergency hopefully an emergency that never happens to Simply open a gate and get cars out that way if there was a sudden reason there are other reasons besides fires where sometimes there has to be an evacuations I live in a community where the sheriff serving search warrant found dangerous chemicals in a garage and evacuated an area very quickly and that's what kind of thing concerns me again you hope the whole life of the project never have to open that gate but would that be something that would could be considered that simply put in in that kind of emergency that gate could be opened by again the sheriff of the or East Fork fire and cars back back to GS or get out through the through the school parking lot I know I drove that way yesterday so yeah you drove through the school there I did I'm probably not supposed to but I wanted see I don't know that that I don't know whether you're supposed to or not but um the uh

so there's no gate propos there's a gate uh where you the school district has a gate there to restrict access to their property um obviously it's open when they're they' got buses coming and going and perhaps even parents um we did early on in the um as we started considering this plan we did consider going to the school district if you might recall um this was a couple years ago two three years ago School District had itself kind of embroiled in some other subjects so uh we did not actually pursue um a specific request to the school board at that time they were um seemed like they had their hands full so didn't uh something like this didn't seem to be um rip for consideration if you will uh we certainly have no objection to a gate it would have to be approved by the school district though if Jim if is the direction you were had intended yeah that's what I'm thinking it just be something again if if the whe whichever the eastw fire the sheriff could literally just say hey we need to get this up empty now sure open a gate and bring it through the school parking lot and um not again ever to be used for anything but an emergency but I feel a lot more comfortable without having a secondary access there is something that you could do an emergency and and if the applicant would consider addressing that with the school board um so I think I can represent for the applicant that we'd be happy to approach the school district to request an emergency gate um as long as you don't condition it that I have to have it because we don't have any control over private what another party's property and um but if you were to impose a condition that required us to go do that I'm happy to enjoy a good relationship with this the administrative staff at the school district and I think I could get that done for you thank you you're welcome thank you rob other questions

Dan you'll have to forgive me I'm a retired engineer so some of my questions may be nitpicky no no you're good it looks like your driveway entrance you need to get an easement from the school district because of the way that tapers into your property so the the reason that tapers the way it does Mr St John is that is uh intended to be the new pavement so the the pavement in the school district is to the south and west of that already exists the and the easement already exists all the way to where the vertical line is you see it was just I was just curious about that no um I think I found the answer but but you are required to build The Pedestrian connector going to the West is that what my understanding is no there's a pedest well so we proposed that at the time of the design review and um the recommendation is it did end up being required well there's a condition 6f know what it was yeah we had a um yes you're right 6f there I'm sorry um I'm getting older Mr St John but uh we had a pipe actually that went out of the storm drain so it would be a detention Basin and that was summarily dismissed by the town of Garnerville well the reason I bring it up is because when I visited the site it was obvious to me that that the community is using that parcel to cut across I mean there's there's bike traffic there's pedestrian traffic it's already using you know to get from the East side to the west side of the property you think they is that trespassing I don't think my client object it's Nevada open space no fences remember no fences yeah anyway so my my my that's why I was interested to make sure that there would be a pedestrian public access to get through to the West yeah not P I don't think it's public I believe it's an access from these residents to that but I don't think they intend to have Public Access through there okay so I guess my question is

what are you going to do with the existing traffic the existing traffic that uses that today is going to be cut off are you're saying you're going to cut them off I think that's kind of the plan well how do you do that ex let me say this San inz has not specifically told me that they I don't think they want the public walking through the private development um to get to that Park that par but it's not gated it's not gated and it's and and the public it is a private well it the public has a right to drive through there if they're visiting somebody so you can't exclude the public you can't exclude the public so if you were coming to visit me you would always be welcome of course but you would um maybe not after these questions no no you're fine um the uh but I don't know that um I could come if I knew you and you lived there and I came and parked in front of your home and then continued and walked across the rest of the property and into the um to the public way that is in in the town of gardenville I'm not sure that that um is uh consistent with the intent well I I'm I'm just concerned anytime that Public Access that exists gets cut off without well it doesn't exist though um so while it physically people are using it there's no Public Access through there today there's no legal public easement for people to pass through there are you doing anything special for the uh the special Hazard Zone the the flood zone we are outside the special flood Hazard Zone oh you are I thought I read that you were in it no it immediately abuts it to the west but I was just curious as if that was affecting your your project at all I noticed that your Willl Ser of letter from gardenville water expired in 2023 is that a problem it is not they they will so it's part of um garville water company has um a place of

use map that's on file with the state Engineers office this property is within it and I believe the property is annexed so um I don't think there's any um is it Annex I can't remember so Kate moris O'Neil for the record um that is correct it will be annexed you will need to do that prior to sip and final map um but that the expiration like you said the land use it was already approved so there is they're fine with like I said I can be a little nitpicky no that's okay good question there was there was a comment in here about how you're handling the garbage yes and I've been around Public Works enough in my career to know that one of the big problems with recycling in multifam is that there is no space provided for recycling correct are you doing anything to help that situation with this project no okay so you're not promoting recycling people just have to throw out their recycle correct or take it themselves yes and that's not obviously not a requirement of the county or the towns okay good to know uh and same thing question with water con or uh energy conservation anything that the developer is doing to enhance energy conservation electrification uh reduced gas use that kind of stuff um nothing beyond what is required by the um International codes and Douglas County code relative to energy okay so nothing special there nothing special all right I think that's all my questions thank you Mr John your name is familiar to me remind me it should be yes where did you work at uh I i' I've been around very good I look forward to visiting the way I answer that is I was a public works director somewhere the

last 25 years of my career oh somewhere that's somewhere okay we need to move this along you guys can catch up outside Lori any other questions yes I I have some serious issues about the access as well okay I believe that um this interface with the school we have a a school driveway hold on Lori Dan can you turn off your microphone please oh okay we've got the school driveway we've got a fence we've got the other driveway we've got a shared access point with buses coming in and out and and um parents dropping their children off and people trying to get out of there to go to work I know that the code authorizes additional units beyond the 20 off of one drive while but I don't believe it guarantees it and I just feel like this is over intensifying this this site given the constraints on the access um I I don't know if any additional work can be done with the school district to try to resolve some of those interface issues um I I would not want to live in one of those units facing the school you've got this big driveway probably have another the chain link fence remaining or some other type of fence and then another driveway to me this is just an accident waiting to occur at this this choke point um so has there any has any other design been considered for accessing this property yes could you share that information sure we um again um as I related to Mr mccallop um we early on in the project we consider going to the school district and often or excuse me discussing uh building it as a shared access for the full distance there that you see um however because of those

circumstances that I described earlier with respect to the school board and all that they had at their on their played at the time that um no became uh or our perception was that was not a feasible alternative as a result we went and continue with this design so this design achieves it all on site if there were an ability to do more with the school district um perhaps that's a that is another alternative again we did look at that early on Lori um and then dismissed it as not feasible due to um the political conditions that existed well since those conditions have changed I think it's prudent to maybe reexamine that I I certainly can't support this design I think it's still conceived thank you other questions Paul thank you madam chair uh just to make sure that I understand as I read the report of uh Wilson Engineers that there is one parking space which is obviously owned and part of each parcel outside of the garage yes and then there are two as I understand within the garage yes are they uh uh tandem no I well they might be I I don't recall speci I didn't see the width when I tried to extrapolate and I know it's not scaled and and frankly it might be scaled but it should be it's not scaled for for a lay person to be able to tell you exactly how many feet but I couldn't see how you could get two cars uh in the building plus one and then I recognize that you have Provisions for four on the top and six on the bottom which is part of your open space

25% which I find interesting because they're parking spaces and those were um for uh mobile homes As I understood from the report mobile home parking no RV sorry I didn't mean mobile home because spaces there are four RV spaces okay the RV spaces the ones up by the uh Pond yes okay uh am I also correct that all of those spaces are available for guests of the entirety of the group of the um subdivision plus the spaces at the bottom such that the only order that can be brought to the uh use of those spaces to avoid storage of cars and things of this nature will have to be the homeowners association so we kind of give that to them correct okay um if you or someone could help me with the parking of the three per parcel it helps my situation you follow what I mean I just added uh I don't have the design the elevations that was part of the design review applications um but there it's certain width it's 20 feet um width of the garage um and we looked at it at the it's just off the top my head I can't remember the width of the garage does support the two um and the turning radius those are all things that we look at in order to fit the two in the garage and it's and it's not a surprise that I couldn't do that calculation no that's okay and I off the I know it's 20 ft typically for single car garage and I just can't think what it is for the the

double all right and my last question which uh may not be our concern here uh but it is going to be a concern as as my colleague uh on the commission indicated that there is a a egress and and uh and traversing of a piece of property which is currently the homeowners association or will be anticipated be the homeowners association and I now ask I apologize our district attorney in Nevada can an entity such as a homeowners association suffer a prescriptive easement by individual ual who may not be associated with the subdivision with the use of the property such that it becomes permanent AJ hes from the DA's office for the record I don't think there would be any reason why the HOA would be treated differently than any other entity well then I'm concerned that you have no a uh access or egress for the public as you've indicated to my colleague you have actual use based on observation uh so that you don't have a you haven't prevented them from using it it probably has continued over a period of five years is it our concern whether there is a lawsuit that arises out of the access and Ingress to a subdivision such as this that we have to consider it or just hand it off AJ hes again for the record I don't believe that would be something that we would need to concern ourselves with now because that would be a lawsuit that would arise between private parties whoever claims ownership of a supposed prescriptive easement and

then the HOA and it would be up to them to resolve that dispute that actually gives me a little bit of comfort as the Planning Commission in the county but it should concern the engineer and the owner yeah don't think that has that subject has not come up in my discussions with the client but I'll be sure to raise it um it it be it becomes a difficulty because you when you pass title you might have to disclose that potential yeah the the the regulations with respect to prescription are pretty um pretty discreet and um there are certain things you you got to the person who's claiming prescription at least as I understand it from an engineering perspective is you've got to be able to demonstrate the the person who's claiming it it's got to be able to demonstrate you know uh a consistent use it has to be uh you know um in cases that I have been involved in on um in one fash another as an expert uh you have to have a consistent use it has to be um open and notorious um it there's there's a whole bunch of them and the thresholds are relatively high no you're you're correct that open notorious it can it doesn't have to be continuous but it has to be consistent even if it's over a period of time it has to be for the entire it has to be for the entirety of the period the prescription only U vests to the point to the extent that you've used it so if somebody used it once a week uh or once uh in every six months that's the only right that they would have but never here neither here nor there I think council's advice is best um and we will um we will address it directly I'm just I have my concerns apprciate I am not licensed in Nevada California Texas yes yes good but not Nevada not Nevada Kirk uh thank you madam chair uh just a

couple of uh observations and then a couple of questions Rob that you could answer or Kate if you need to weigh in uh first of all I do like the uh the open space layout I think that's very good I think that's a attractive feature of this type of a design uh I do like the the Martin slooh connection I think that's a valuable asset uh for everyone uh the couple of questions and observations one the street the private drive that will be two ways right yes so in the uh event of an emergency people can go left or people can go right out of their driveways and uh get to the access point uh it's not like you'll be backing up all the way around having to go in One Direction you're correct okay and then sidewalks are I haven't had the privilege of looking at the design review is there anticipated sidewalks uh there's not probably going to be a lot of pedestrian traffic uh in the neighborhood except people walking their dogs maybe but Mr waler I apologize I should have um as Kate related briefly a few moments ago I should have looked a little more closely at the design review to be able to answer some of these specific questions and to all the Commissioners I apologize because I I prepared in such a way that I was dealing with the the ownership issue I believe there are sidewalks I can't recall Kirk as I stand here whether it's around both sides of the street um but there are sidewalks thank you um I I think Kate you probably recognize and and Rob as well uh when you go to the board it probably be valuable to have some of the design review information uh graphically or uh uh enunciated so that the board can have a a clear picture of what you're doing um and then I I do think Jim made a very good point and and my other colleagues have also addressed the issue that the chain link fence I did go out and uh and tour the uh area uh so I'm familiar with the uh the way way it lays out from all different angles I drove around a couple of times um but the chain link fence uh I think

Jim makes a very good observation and that's worth pursuing on your end with the school district so that there would be access but um I do think the chain link fence is kind of an important feature for protection of the school and the community I don't know that you want to have the community going through the school or the school kids going through the community um and I guess I I would observe in in the event of probably a serious matter if you got to go out the access point and if the chai shester neighborhood is backed up you can turn around and go through the school if if you even don't have a a secondary access from uh that you can make a U-turn to go out to the Chai Chester and pull around I think you're only going to have a limited number of vehicles probably in the community at one point if you've got 29 units it's not like there's going to be 100 cars there that are going to have to to uh leave the facility at one time correct um so I I you are constrained by the U the uh measurements of the land and I think Bryce made that point at the start of when we're asking questions so you have done your vest it's a it's a project that I think does meet all of the findings um but I uh look forward to you providing further information uh if necessary to the uh to the board okay very good thank you thank you madam chair um I'm not into beating a dead horse but I I do want to just address a couple things here um Kate is it true that there is a design review that's approved currently and that that's not before us today or not within our purview Kate morus O'Neal for the record yes and I apologize I can't again the design review was already approved and with that application you need to send you do the the elevations the sidewalks all of that a tentative Subdivision map doesn't

require elevations so it was always all already approved but a good thing to include I think in the future um just for informative like you said for various questions because it's been so long since I really looked at that in particular those items that like the width of the garage I'm like well we wouldn't have approved it I can't remember what the it was in 2023 so but Point well take I just think for informative it'd be good to include those documents as a reference um moving forward but they are not required for for a tentative Subdivision map application and yes the the design review um was approved and let me give a little background and Clarity the original design review um was based on more than 20 units and at the time our design criteria manual not code but our design criteria said 20 units or more needed secondary access the the this tenative Subdivision map hadn't come forward so at that time if they had brought it Forward I don't think it would have been approved by the Planning Commission or the board of County Commissioners at that time based on the design criteria and what it said however in January of 2024 the board of County Commissioners did approve the resolution that includes if it's less than 40 units and the units are sprinker sprinklered a secondary access is not required so that trumps the design criteria so that is what code States now so um just keeping in mind you know Miss ly just I know as far as secondary access we just have to go by what code

says in that resol solution was adopted um by the board of County Commissioners um adopting the international fire code regulations which states if they are sprinklered and it's 40 units or less a secondary access is not required uh thank you Kate that was going to be my second point that um although I may not necessarily like the fact that a secondary access isn't there once again it's not required by code and therefore cannot be mandated by this body um furthermore if if we look at the configuration of this particular property there's no way to provide access to the east because you're not going to go into Chai Chester there's no way to provide secondary access to the north because you're not going to go through the public facilities and so the this it leaves basically access into the school which would have to be agreed upon and honestly it opens up a whole another can of worms in terms of safety and and all kinds of other things so one it's not required by code and two it may not even be feasible to do it based on on this particular piece of property and then my my third point is as I mentioned earlier there's really two options for this particular piece of property based on the zoning one is to build single story town homes or is to build multistory for rent apartments um with a certain density and and unit count based on parking and all kinds of other things and so you know for me not only does it meet the findings um but it it's really the best of the two options available for this particular use of property uh in the way that it's zoned and master

plan Etc um so although there may be concerns um I don't see anything in the findings that would allow me to to deny this uh application thank you I have a couple of questions but they can wait till after public comment okay I will open this may I make one comment to Kate can I wait until after I just want to thank you and and say that I apologize that I tried to scale this thing no I'm glad you did because I you know you learned something new all the time and just having these other documents available not only for my reference but it enables me to be able to answer your questions more thoroughly and than having to sit here and think now what did those documents look like three two years ago now thank you wait until after public comment just a real quick qu clarification I'm pretty sure I heard we're talking single story tow houses and anything in our approval would restrict it to single story because I think that would address a lot of these these comments we got from the public that that is what the design reprove the elevations that we approved were all one story so they couldn't in order for that to change they'd have to come back with the modification um and again that's not something that you know you know we would look at the one story seems um compatible and we don't want to block anyone's views and I I agree with with what Bryce said on that um it does say in condition 6C that it it is a 26 foot pavement with four feet of sidewalk on both sides thank you so that that's stated in the report thank you yeah thank you chairman thank you I would like to open this for a public comment

speakers please come to the microphone one at a time and sign the roster good afternoon Jeff Shire I already signed in I just want to make a couple comments about um I it sounds like you as a board probably have to approve this based on some of the criteria that's established but we need to not forget about common sense um the fires in Los Angeles with multi-million dollar homes I'd venture to guess a lot of those had sprinklers and sprinklers don't work when your house is on fire on the outside only if it starts on the inside so that it might be a moot point but I want to my 25 years of living and working here I can tell you from the Sheriff's Office standpoint which I retired from that speeding Vehicles is our number one complaint throughout the county I'm not sure if a traffic study was done but 29 residents probably going to have three cars per people that live in Chichester make frequent trips to the the various services that are nearby so three four five trips a day times two three cars that adds up the streets in Chester are already in horrible shape and people speed relentlessly through there this is the second development that's trying to squeeze our neighborhood to have an access point so they can make their money I wouldn't want to be in your shoes because you probably have to approve this but it's going to be a pretty bad day when a kid from that school gets hit by a car from someone that was late to work that's all I wanted to say thank you thank you sir is there another speaker please come to the microphone and sign the roster state your name for the record Mara Williams I live on edlesborough right

here okay some of my questions have already been answered but I did have a question on this drawing it looks like there are slanted lines on the back of all the exterior Lots is that a backyard yes yes your questions will be answered after your time is up when we close public comment your questions will be answered oh okay um second one um it looks like uh uh the development of is taking most of Giles in the beginning and then it's tapering off into the road through the development um the only adjacent road to Giles is mar and Russell so during the development of the project you're going to have construction equipment going in and out of there until the project is done after that you're going to have a minimum of probably 29 cars going in and out of just off of Maran Russell to get to JS to get to the development so I'm just I I think uh the traffic on Mary and Russell is uh going to be a problem um and that's all I had to say thank you very much next speaker ups at GS try to do this quickly uh my name is Nova cook I Live on Chester Drive now I have a fourth grader and a fifth grader at GES I pick them up at the back of the school every day it is scary right now there are no

crosswalks there is one um either teacher's aid or whoever can field it for that day that helps the kids across the current easement that goes by the the school field um I have no idea how they're going to widen that I see the angle um my dad was a carpenter and a contractor I've been in landscape construction for 25 years myself when I saw this go up I was appalled I have friends that live in that corner lot to the north um they heard about it last year they thought it had went away I'm very surprised that it is approved sorry I'll try to get through these and um town home definition I looked up it does say multistory you guys are saying this is one story with shared walls to pack that many humans and that many cars in that lot that I walk my dog across is crazy and again it's been brought up to only have one exit point on marry and Russell where people are already speeding it's 15 in there there's people going 3540 all the time um it's a problem uh besides money to be made what's the benefit affordable housing the other development Martin slooh those places are going for 400 to 500 right now that's I've been here two years I can barely cross um Gilman with my dog these days because there is so much new traffic not just from those twostory condos that have been built but from that other area back there with haby born um it's definitely changed you know my sister's been up here 10 years in Chai Chester I understand the price of progress my grandmother lived in Fletcher Hills in San Diego that was once a rural nice area three freeways later the trolley it's ruined at it's a horrible it's getting to be a horrible area um sorry the property values of all

the folks that live there I feel very bad for them they've been there probably 20 years and I would not want 10 29 condos behind my house um I thought when I saw the flowchart that this was the prea stage to hear that it is potentially approved makes me really sad and think about my my three minutes up oh okay um I'm bringing this to the PTA on the 13th the people that I talked to yesterday at the back of the school had no idea so I hope more people will attend these meetings and um yeah I'd rather see it be a park personally I think that'd be way safer so thank you all thank you my name is Beth hanowski I serve as president of the Chai Chester Estates Property Owners Association um I've had some of the same concerns that have already been raised um Kate can you pull up thank you um we also back two years ago suggested that the developer get in touch with the school district and try to get some emergency access I'm very disappointed to find out that was never followed through um Chichester States will not absorb this HOA we will not have any part of it so that is out of the question um the town of Gardnerville approval includes damage to the town's existing infrastructure something needs to be put in there about damage to existing fencing and properties in Chichester and if you look at this map down here in the corner this has always been a concern about the tapering and

the tapering never seems to come off these Maps the tapering of the street from Giles Avenue into the Ingress of the development um it makes it narrower with the school buses and the children and we want it wider so unless that is fully straightened out that little curve on the line I think there's going to be a lot of concern in not just Chichester but all the parents at the school that pick up their kids uh I would also like to recommend in future that we not just approve a single story elevation we've had developments come before and then we had to go back and talk about well can they build second stories here not not because people didn't understand that the elevation wasn't approved as it was I think it needs to be put in the text that it is single story and that is what is approved and that would eliminate a lot of these comments that I saw from some of our residents online and I guess that's all because everybody else has already covered everything I had thank you very much thank you other comments well good afternoon I'm Clarence Brewer I own FIS land and lifo Company we have a could you put the map back yeah we just oh that's okay we have a house uh right around where Wilson is by the grammar school and uh the late Bob Chester and I

were good friends and he convinced me to buy this house it been built by the Builder and he said it'll be quiet you won't have any problems there well you only have one entrance way in there and I at one time got in a jam and so I was going to put a subdivision in but I had to have a double entrance you didn't have a single entrance and this only another thing is I got stuck with Rocky Terrace uh beautiful it's a beautiful subdivision but the water I have to take it off through my irrigation system in the Rocky slooh and there's no detention Pond and I don't see any detention Pawn Mr da don't we still have to have a detention Pond is there one on there where is it right okay so there is a detention point then okay and where does that run into the there ditch there then Jeremy there's a question for you okay uh when I was our farm present we got down where you only could have five houses to an acre and your in structure is had in this County there shouldn't be any more billing till you get your incture in there another thing is they just put on our awells a meter is they're going to put a meter on our irrigation system coming next because the decree was built on waste it was built on conserving the water it had

nothing to do with subdivisions but we are in the minority here in agriculture and they're pushing your developers are pushing to get that water right now we own the water for agriculture but they're getting where they can vote and we have no vote on any longer not in the county but alone in the state of Nevada for agriculture and you like the open space and uh our kids don't want to come back on these ranches they don't want to work and we've got to keep the open space because I think that's our number one priority in this county is the open space it draws the people in here but we also got to keep the open space and a for agriculture first the alphabet and the planning department here we're bound down to Z and uh I have a couple problems I had a interv next door and build a road and it's only supposed to be 6 in and it's 18 in and pl individual went out there and looked at improved it and uh there you have to start looking at the overall picture for agriculture and help us out if we need some help there and we need help we need somebody in the planning division that's been been on a Rancher reform let's get the practicability back into it so thank you and let's look at our infastructure people because you're out of water believe it or not it's the water is not all that great in this Valley as long as agriculture is running their water too in the winter time for their livestock it's filling up the oer uh Bary penil his last thing uh he did he wanted a $100,000 to study

the groundwater and that was the first thing when he went off the board okay thank you Mr bur and we need to do that because you don't have all the water that you think you have so thank you thank you for your comments next speaker I'll close public comment sir you wanted to speak yes please my name is Dan Howard and the entry to this the open space here on this map I walk by every day when I walk my dog in the morning and I can tell you there is sidewalks on both sides of the street and both of those houses if they have visitors and they're parking on the street a bus that comes through you don't have any room for anything else it's it's tight um so that that's a concern to mine that you're going to have congestion you're going to have traffic blockage the other thing is that that the open lot there there was mentioned that about public access to that that property and that that uh um the kids that go through there every morning that go to school I walk through there and there's probably I say six or seven maybe 10 maybe a dozen kids that walk through there every morning to go to school and walk back after school so now all the traffic's going to be diverted so they're either going to have to go down to lampy and go up and come back to school or they're going to have to go the other direction go around to walk to school so then I have safety concerns that all these kids now are going to be walking in the traffic so I don't know if there's been

a lot of thought into this single axis I think it's just dangerous and we're just asking for catastrophe thank you thank you any others then I will close public comment and bring discussion back to the Planning Commission Rob yes please answer a couple questions you have a lot of uh comments yes I try to take copious notes but if I missed one I I trust Madam chairman you'll um remind me so um I'll just start uh with Jeff's comments regarding and I'm sorry I didn't get your last name down um with respect to the um fires in La certainly sympathetic to that and I understand that um that will be a ever um ever before us um the speeding issue is honestly something the sheriff has to deal with with that uh certainly my client nor the code has any ability to deal with it beyond what is already um available within it with respect to the traffic um study question this there is a threshold in Douglas County code that dictates when we um when the estimated traffic meets a certain level then a traffic study is required this project does not meet that threshold and therefore there was not a traffic study performed the um Miss Williams um asked the question about um or Express the concern about Mary and Russell traffic um again I uh we we don't meet the threshold to dictate the need for an additional traffic study um the slanted lines that you saw in the backyards are in fact private ex exclusive use um areas for those homeowners so that is in fact accurate your your assessment of

what those were um Miss Cook uh raised some questions about uh the town homes some spe speeding issues again um then that she prefers a park and then question the benefit of the project the project um certainly is private property and as we know here in Nevada we um enjoy private property rights we as a community this Planning Commission the County Commissioners have planed property plan development and dictated where it would go and one of the early presentations or earlier comments that I had made during the presentation was that we meet those um current planning documents Mr Burr uh raised it again about protection of Agriculture that is what the master plan attempted to do is protect agriculture but provide for private property rights and this this is a landowner with private property rights with zoning with a master plan designation and if they meet the code it's my estimation um that they should be allowed to proceed um Beth related um some concerns about the narrow access again it's it's unfortunate the way we've uh diagrammed this because it's it has apparently introduced some confusion there is not a reduction in the width at gu's Lane that there is an existing Access Road anybody that's been there knows how or can see how the school district uses it they're working on their portion of that uh reciprocal access easement that was granted again in the early 90s and that pavement is not being removed is not changing that we are in fact as I mentioned in an earlier remark widening it out so it will be a full width back to that first intersection of the driveway um so there is not a reduction as um the the exhibit apparently um implies and then um with respect Mr bur of have great deal of respect for

Clarence and um his knowledge and understanding of of water in Douglas County and irrigation practice historically certainly um somebody who um who does that or who knows that intimately and has lived it um for I suspect more than 50 years however having said that there are just two there are two recent studies relative to groundwater there's the drri study that was uh funded by um garal Rancho's General improvement district and indicates um as I understand it from one of their board members as recently as yesterday um that they have the capacity to serve another 1400 homes in gardenville Ranchos um which the project that Clarance related to um Rocky Terrace is within that that development additionally Douglas County just recently received the USGS uh USGS report on the groundwater Basin and while there is trending of water declines in uh the Johnson land area which for the 40 plus years that I practiced in this community that has always been a concern is declining water levels out in Johnson Lane the nitrate levels and the Arsenic levels there um perhaps are growing but for Carson Valley that's not the case this property is served by Garnerville water company they have had and continue to have groundwater rights appropriated by the state Engineers office for this type of development and they have the proven pumping capacity which is that particular water company is regulated by the Nevada uh excuse me um the Public Utility Commission of Nevada and they regulate it each time we Annex a piece of property to it they they review it confirm it and they have to demonstrate their capacity which will occur in this project as well so um in all due respect to the the water concerns I think we are adequately protected uh for this particular use at this particular site Madame chairman that is um the the bulk of the um the comments that I made notations of if you have others um I'm

happy to do my best to address it okay Marth Marsha Williams was concerned about construction equipment and uh the traversing of Miriam Russell um there uh there's no prohibition about construction equipment using public access roads she is right or whomever maybe it was Beth with the homeowners association um those roads the pavement section that we used when we when those roads were designed in construction the pavement type was uh what we called an a20p it had polymer asphalt the ac20 P asphalt unfortunately you know while we specified it in Douglas County for years um we found that it would block crack so when you drive down the road and you any one of these streets and you hear that clunk clunk clunk there's about a 2-in um block crack that is a result of the pavement Mix Design that we used in the 80s and the early 90s uh we went away from that but that when people look at those streets and they say they're terrible the infrastructures failed um it's unfortunate but that as a result of the AC the type of AC pavement that we used in that particular period of time in Douglas County we've since gone away from it and um streets I think are will endure in last much greater period of time going forward but um the infrastructure actually in this community is U very very strong in my opinion um you know the streets town of gardenville in particular town of M do a great job maintaining their streets gardenville Rancho spends a lot of money each year maintaining their streets taking care of their water system Sewer District does a great job um and I do notice that the town of Gardnerville has one of their conditions that any damage to their infrastructure has to be repaired and also Beth expressed um I take it a tad frustration because the HOA in Chai Chester will have no say over this subdivision that's correct I wanted to acknowledge that we

deed it we don't want anything okay well you will have no say over it be assured and let's see my questions my couple of questions were in the town of Gardnerville meeting they had a comment about the sidewalk and the width of the sidewalk and ADA requirements being either 5 foot or 4 feet with a pass around every 200 ft correct so will that be addressed with further design review or how will you address that we um I did speak to the client afterwards we will address that in the Improvement plans that come forward as part of the design review and um ultimately well they'll come forward with the design review the side Improvement permit we'll show we'll demonstrate that okay and then is there I don't know if uh Kate can answer this if you can answer this or if Jeremy has to answer this the different standards for a driveway because this says it's a private driveway or a private road are there different standards construction standards no well um this is just my professional opinion these roads these is labeled as a driveway um but it will be constructed to the standard rural or excuse me standard um Suburban Road um thickness relative to um for structural purposes so they will be desired to the public Street standards but um it will be privately maintained how wide will it be 26 ft okay and with the engineering conditions on page

81 under 6C it says the private driveway SL Drive Isle will have a 26t with pavement with a rolled curb on each side and a 4ft side walk on each side if we have that condition that says a 4T sidewalk and that's going to be readdressed will that condition have to change and also it's my understanding that the street sweeper and the snow plows pref prefer a squared curb does our code only allow rolled curbs why do we do rolled qu curves when the squared curves seem to work better and people don't drive up on squared curbs like they do on the rolled curbs re if I could I'll take first St Mr Hutchings i' I'd love to hear your answer on this um but I would tell you the roll curbs are used because in many instances we don't know where the driveways are going to be we as design engineers and design professionals and so uh you look at the subdivisions in Carson Valley that is why roll curbs reused um and they work well and so um there's uh there's no reason they can't can't be used the difficulty with the L Type curb is you you've got to know where the driveway is going to be otherwise you're going to cut that roll or that L curb um every time you go to put one in so that's the difference in the distinction roll curbs have been used um in Carson Valley for the full 40 years that I've been here I'm just always dodging cars when I'm walking on the sidewalk oh yes that's one of my big issues y I understand completely Jeremy you want to talk about the uh the sidewalk condition

please uh yeah Jeremy hings for the record so I understand that Rob you're agreeing into a wider sidewalk than four is that what I'm hearing well no we we were presented the alternative um so um Miss Casey after the meeting um I met with my clients about whether we do five- foot wide sidewalks or we do fours the the difficulty is is we're constrained right and so while the drawing shows four-footers I I suspect that's what we will end up doing four-footers with a step out um every 200 feet pursuant to the ADA requirements um if you did five if I agreed to five all of a sudden I've lost two feet of open space and um it's gonna it's going to constrain the project so I just want to make sure it's consistent between what you're saying and what it shows in our conditions I think it is actually they four feet it says 4 feet but it doesn't say the 200 it it does not pass through I just want to make sure we're all on the same page and I think we could address that and then improving plans is that what I heard you say I I think staff's acceptable to that are there other questions comments motion oh one comment Kate um thank you chairwoman Casey I I do think um also since Rob agreed again again it's not based on the approval but I think within the motion requesting that the applicant approach the school board again that's not based on the school board saying yes but that um that request be made to the school board um on behalf of the applicant again that doesn't mean that if the school board says no the project goes away but just that they request that they do that I think it's fair relevant

Dan are you ready for a motion yes I move that the project uh be approved in that it meets the findings of fact did I say it right Dan the motion is on page 73 oh of the packet okay okay uh recommend that the board of County Commission approve tenative subdivision map application dp24 hyen 0253 as presented uh because of the F required findings have been met and request that the applicant approach the school district and request a gate at the appropriate place to to give somewhat of a uh emergency access and uh request that staff clarifies the the comment on the 4-foot sideway walk and makes it consistent with what the town of Gardnerville said in their findings just your your point about consistency thank you I would second that a Jane do you have that yes as I understand the motion it was a motion to approve the tenative map subject to the conditions set forth in the staff Report with two added conditions or at least well one added condition that the applicant contact the School Board to see whether an emergency access can be provided and then not an additional condition but a clarification or request that staff work to draft the conditions so that they're consistent with the town of Gardnerville proposed condition on the sidewalks thank you ryce uh I I just have a question um if

the this is for the the DA's office if the school board does not Grant permission we're only asking that they they approach them we're not asking that that that actually is done because I don't want to condition U the approval of this tenative Subdivision map on their approval correct as I understand the the intent of the the condition it was to require secondary access only if the school board is agre able and allows for it so if the school board rejects The Proposal then it would not be a requirement that's that's not my understanding excuse me and I'll due respect AJ my understanding was for Mr mccallop during that discussion is that we would approach them to request a gate to allow emergency access by in the event that either fire any public safety official required it to open up a gate so um quicker we could get quicker access that my client is agreeable to but that that gate would only be required if the school district allowed correct but it's not secondary access per se it's just a gate right right just a gate yes and then I'm agreeable to it thank you for the clarification you good with that yes I'm good with that I just I'm glad Mr Anderson brought that up because I was just I just don't want to condition it on that that is a secondary access it is just for emergency if the school agrees to it all those in favor I opposed I no um I just wanted to clarify my position I believe that the the um access point I realize there's only one

um but I believe that that design is going to be um detrimental to the community and to the school in the long run so that's my why I voted no on this I believe the finding um for number four or number three rather that the public facilities um are appropriate for the transportation facilities is cannot be met so that's why I voted no vote passes 6 to1 Lori voting no thank you very much for your time today look forward to visiting with you sometime and that concludes our agenda for today item four on the vhrs will not be held and I would like to remind all the planning Commissioners to get your ethics training done oh sorry closing public comment then I will remind planning Commissioners oh sorry this is brief one um I've been here uh six years in Douglas County been through two master plan plan updates with no community plan updates some of these issues brought up today and other projects some to come before you some of these things could be resolved at the community level the plans are over 20 years old the communities have changed and I would like to see that be brought forward as a priority uh in maybe the 2026 budget because I know we're reviewing the 2425 and it's not going to fit but thank you for the opportunity thank you Ellie any other seeing none I will close public comment and now remind planning

Commissioners to get your ethics training done at the ethics commission site with the state and also your open meeting law training which you can find on the website for the uh January 6th hearing with the Board of Commissioners both need filing as soon as possible and you can uh sign your open meeting Law certificate down in the county manager's office thank you all welcome Dan welcome Jim it's been a pleasure and we will see you next month e