Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

I'm going to call the meeting of the Elko County Planning Commission to order. If you would rise as we honor our country with the Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, Thank you. The next item of business is comments by the general public pursuant to NRS 241. This time is devoted to comments by the general public, if any, and discussion of those comments. No action may be taken upon a matter raised under this item on the agenda until the matter itself has been specifically included on a successive agenda and identified to be an action item. This is for anything that is not on the agenda tonight. Is there anyone that has anything they would like to address?

Okay, we're going to move on.

I'm going to read the notice of the appeals process into the record. Anyone agree by an action of this planning commission? may appeal such decision to the Oco County Board of County Commissioners within 10 calendar days of said action. An appeal form may be obtained from the Division of Planning and Zoning located at 540 Court Street, Suite 104 in Oco. When completed, return the appeal form with the required $250 filing fee to the Division of Planning and Zoning within the 10 calendar day period. We are going to move into the August 20th meeting minutes for approval if there's no questions or changes that need made on those.

Mr. Chair, I'll make a motion to approve the August 20 minutes as written. Second.

We have a motion to approve the minutes from Commissioner Gensel and a second from Commissioner Gworski.

Any further discussion on the motion at hand?

All those in favor of the motion, please signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Opposed, same sign. I'm in favor.

Do we have any abstentions?

Motion carries. We're going to move into public hearings. Discussion and consideration of application COZ 26-010, Charles and Sandra Eckberg, requesting a change of zoning from highway services to tourist commercial district. from Highway Services and Tourist Commercial District to Agriculture Residential District. Corey? Ian, sorry.

What are you doing over there?

Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Staff report for application COZ 26-010. An application submitted by Charles and Sandra Ekberg requesting a change of zoning from a highway services and tourist commercial C2 district to an agricultural residential AR district for uses consistent with AR districts. The subject parcel is developed as an existing single family residence. Location is APN 054-004-008, being lot 8 of block 4, track 201, Spring Creek Corporation, as shown on the map thereof, on file in the Office of the County Recorder of Elko County, State of Nevada, as file number 63718. It's situated in the west half of Section 33, Township 34 North, Range 56 East, Mount Diablo Basin Meridian, County of Elko State of Nevada. The physical address of the parcel is 588 Spring Valley Court in Spring Creek. This parcel is located Just to the, pretty much to the north of Corey's. Here, let me scroll down to the map here. So Corey's is located here, or excuse me, Ridley's now. This parcel is located up here. A parcel to the north of it is currently zoned agricultural residential. A couple of these parcels, this one included, had been changed to C2 back in, 2000 let's see and in the year 2000 I believe the applicants requesting to change the zoning to ar for conformance with the existing residents that's been on the parcel since 19 the building permit for the home was issued in 1979 Staff, so Spring Creek Association has reviewed and granted approval of this change of zoning and that approval is attached to the staff report. So staff is recommending approval with the following conditions and restrictions. Number one, at the time of zoning change, the real property owners shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Nevada revised statutes, Elko County code development criteria, and all local building and development requirements pertaining to agricultural residential districts. if said property is sold, in whole, or otherwise conveyed to a new owner or owners, the deed of conveyance shall contain verbiage that identifies and adopts the recommendations, findings, conditions, and requirements of approval of this specific zone change. and three the the proposed zone change requires spring creek association approval of the application from changes on or for changes zoning from ar to c2 spring creek granted approval of this zone change on july 16th 2026 and that concludes staff's recommended conditions corey

Corey Rice, Elko County Surveyor and Senior Planner. There are a couple of anomalies with this parcel. This isn't going to be conforming with the master plan out there. The master plan does designate that parcel and that surrounding area commercial. However, this really shouldn't be zoned C2. It should be zoned residential. And I've decided that it would be better to have it non-conforming to the master plan than to have a hole inside the master plan. So I just wanted to make that clear to this board on that. And if you've got any other questions for me, I'd be happy to answer.

Originally, all of those lots were AR. That's correct, yeah. And then the gas station went in and the creep started, so. Yeah.

And the parcel to the north of one is also zoned AR. in non-conformance with the master plan, so that's why I decided to go this route. All right.

Wasn't that one to the north just changed here recently? No.

No, the one, there was a parcel to the north and the west, and even a little bit further to the north, that was a hodgepodge of changes there.

Okay. Okay, thanks, Corey.

Thank you.

Any other questions of staff? Is there anyone here that would like to represent this application? Yes.

Charlie, can you sign in for me, please?

Am I a mystery guest?

Yes. It's your time to shine.

I was prepared for lengthy conversation, but it sounds like the river is flowing in the right direction and we've lived on that property for 47 years and It was inadvertently switched to C2 due to bad advice and poor judgment back when it happened. And we just want to bring it back to where it started life and live as residential as what the best use of that property is. So I think that's all of your time I'm going to take.

Okay. All right. Thank you, Charlie. Is there anyone else that would like to speak on this application? Corey, real quick. So this would be non-conforming and not a master plan revision?

That's correct. It'll be non-conforming to the master plan, which I prefer doing that rather than having a hole inside the master plan.

So we don't need to open the master plan?

No, we're not opening the master plan. It'll just be a non-conforming parcel.

Okay.

All right, thank you.

Okay, I'm going to close public comment. We got nobody on Zoom, right? Questions, motion from commissioners? What do you want to do?

Mr. Chair, if there's no comments, I'll make a motion.

Okay, go ahead.

I make a motion that we approve change of zoning 26-010 with staff's condition findings and recommendations.

Okay.

I will second that motion.

We have a motion to approve with staff's recommendations from Commissioner Gensel and a second from Commissioner Roach. Is there any further discussion? All those in favor of the motion at hand, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. I'm in favor. Motion carries. We're going to move on to application VAR 26-007, Scott and Kim Wilkinson. Discussion and consideration of application VAR 26-007, Scott and Kim Wilkinson requesting a variance for a rear yard setback reduction in.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Application number VAR26-007, an application submitted by Scott and Kim Wilkinson requesting a variance for a rear yard setback reduction from 30 feet to 20 feet in an agricultural residential district for a new attached garage addition on an existing single family dwelling. The location is APN 047-014-017, being lot 17 of block 14, tract 402, Spring Creek Corporation. As shown on the map, they're filed in the Office of the County Recorder of Elko County, state of Nevada, on May 15, 1972, as file number 67848. A parcel of land, 1.6 acres, more or less in size, situated in a portion of the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of Section 32, Township 33 North, Range 57 East, Mount Diablo Basin Meridian, County of Elko State of Nevada. The physical address is 993 Wolf Creek Drive in Spring Creek. So this is a corner lot here, Wolf Creek Drive, the home front's to and the address is assigned to. The existing garage on the home is on the left-hand side here, on the west side of the home, which is where the applicant is requesting to put this attached garage addition. It's not a substantial variance from the setback. And staff is recommending approval. The Spring Creek Association has reviewed and granted approval of this application. And staff did not receive any comments back Other than well, yes, so Spring Creek Again has approved the application so staff is recommending approval with the following conditions and restrictions Number one this variance is subject to restrictions and conditions as outlined in Elko County Code Title 4 chapter 9 section 5 Number two, at the time of development, the developer shall comply with all applicable provisions of the Nevada revised statutes, Elko County code development criteria, and all local building and development requirements pertaining to agricultural residential district properties. Number three, if said property is sold in whole or otherwise conveyed to a new owner or owners, the deed of conveyance shall contain verbiage that identifies and adopts the recommendations, findings and conditions, and requirements of approval of this specific variance in future residential development. Number four, the granting of the variance is contingent upon review and approval by Spring Creek Association. And the Spring Creek Association Committee of Architecture approved this variance on August 13, 2026. And number five, the minimum rear yard setback shall be reduced from 30 feet to 20 feet and shall apply to the new attached garage addition only. as shown in the plot plan submitted with application number VAR 26-007. And that concludes the staff report. Mr. Chair.

All right, any questions of staff?

I have a question. Sure. Just looking at this plot plan, and I'm sure that this is in our code somewhere, is that, or what is the reason that this is considered a rear yard instead of a side yard on this corner lot?

Well, yeah, go ahead, Corey.

Okay, so the way the front yards are set up is where the address points at. Okay. And so that puts the front yard over on Wolf Creek.

Okay. Thanks.

Good question.

All right, is there anyone that would like to speak representing this application? Please come forward and sign in and state your name for the record.

Scott Wilkinson. My wife and I own the property at 993 Wolf Creek Drive. I just want to kind of emphasize that with this corner lot, Two of the lot lines are on street frontage. And so the other two that are perpendicular to a street act as side lot lines for the budding properties, which allow them to encroach within 20 feet. So the request is treating this pretty similar to a side lot and maintaining that 20 foot setback. And so I don't really believe granting the variance you know, goes against the intent of the county code. And it's consistent with a lot of other districts in northeastern Nevada to treat those type of lot lines as side lot lines. And I'm here to answer any questions you might have.

Yeah, because your neighbor on the other side of the fence, his setback is 20 foot off that line, and yours is 30. Yeah. We get into a few. There's some oddball ones. I'm in a cul-de-sac with five different sides, so I just pick whichever side is convenient for my rear. Okay.

Yeah, I evaluated alternatives to attach garage space to the home, and it's really not feasible due to utilities, access to the home, locations of septics, water services, and things like that. So this is what works. And it's part of a larger home improvement project that we're planning. So we're looking forward to hopefully an approval of the variance.

Any questions of Mr. Wilkinson? Okay, is there anyone else that would like to speak on this application? All right. Questions, comments, motion?

Mr. Chair, I move for approval of variance VAR 26-007 with the staff's recommendations, findings, and conditions as presented.

Okay.

I'll second it.

We've got a motion from Commissioner Gworski and a second from Commissioner Gensel to approve with staff's recommendations, conditions, and findings. Any further discussion on this? All those in favor of the motion at hand, please signify by saying aye. Aye. Opposed, same sign. I'm in favor, motion carries. Staff update and commissioner comments. Ian, do you have anything?

Good evening, Corey Rice, Elko County Surveyor and Senior Planner again. All I've got is I'd like to introduce our new member to the board, Joe McNeil. Thank you, Joe. Thank you for getting on board and look forward to working with you.

Thank you.

Were you going to say anything about the special meeting?

About what was pulled off the agenda? So we are working on updating our water master plan for the entire county, and simultaneously we're also working on a source water protection plan that will encompass the entire county. There was originally going to be a presentation by RCI. We've contracted out to them as a consultant to help us with one of the sections of the water master plan. We're getting funding from DRI for that. And we didn't quite get all the paperwork done in time, is why that got pulled off the agenda for tonight. We will probably be holding a special meeting with this board in October. Because it'll need to go to this board first and then to the county commission. And we're kind of obligated to have these funds committed by the end of the month, by the end of October. And so it's going to be a little bit of a jam getting that in there.

So how long of a presentation do you think that's going to be?

I'm going to guess maybe 10 or 15 minutes. Oh. It's nothing really big. All right. Okay. Okay. And they're modeling it really similar to what they did with Humboldt County's one. Curtis and I both reviewed it, and we were happy with it. So they've modeled it very similarly to that one.

Okay. Yeah, let us know as soon as you can.

Yeah, if I will, we'll try to get that squared away either tomorrow or Monday. And then also just to let you know, you'll probably be seeing a draft of the source water protection plan sometime in January. or during the January meeting is the goal we're shooting for.

Okay. Sounds good. Corey, just to follow that up, the source water protection plan, is that the one that's tied to the possibility of a water board, county water board, or are those two separate issues? No, that's a totally different separate issue.

Okay, thank you. No, the source water protection plan is just there. It's not a mandatory thing, but it's a good idea to have in place. And it's to protect the sources for our water for the public water systems that are in Elko County. Jackpot already currently has one, which we've almost got that one finalized. There's a couple out in the Spring Creek area. We don't have anything in Jarbidge, Montello, Mountain City, or Midas, which is why we've decided to go with an overall county-wide one so we can get those pulled in there. And it's primarily to protect the source water from pollutants.

Okay. And there are some funds available that... Pardon? And there are some funds available to assist in this?

Yeah, DRI was able to do the majority of the plan. Section 5, they can't do that because that's the regulatory section. set by the county. But we've contracted, like I said, we're contracted out to RCI to help us with that Section 5.

Okay.

All right.

Sounds good. Commissioner's comments. Anybody have anything? Welcome, Joe. We're glad to have you here.

Thank you. Excited for you.

You look excited. This is exciting.

Yeah, it is. We'll start you off easy.

Yeah. Yeah.

We've got another ski resort going in next month, so yeah Okay Comments by the general public pursuant to NRS 241. This time is devoted to comments by the general public, if any, and discussion of those comments. No action may be taken upon a matter raised under this item on the agenda until the matter itself has been specifically included on a successive agenda and identified to be an action item. Is there anyone that would like to speak? If not, meeting adjourned.