Planning Commission - Regular Meeting

Recording in progress.

All right, it is 6 p.m. on Tuesday, December 2nd. This Washoe County Planning Commission meeting is called to order. Could we have the termination of quorum, please? Jim Barnes. Here.

Michael Flick.

Here.

Linda Kennedy. Here. Daniel Lazareski.

Here.

Kate Nelson. Okay, could you repeat that one more time, please?

I'm here. Perfect.

Amy Owens? Present. Rob Pierce?

Present.

We have a quorum.

Thank you. Ms. Kennedy, would you please lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance?

I pledge allegiance.

liberty and justice for all.

Thank you very much. Could we have the ethics law announcement, please?

Thank you. Commissioners are reminded that if, with respect to any matter or any person coming before the commission today, you have received a gift or loan, you have a pecuniary interest, you have a commitment in a private capacity such as family, employment, business, or similar relationship, or you provide a representation or counseling before an agency, To a person or entity for compensation within the last year on a matter being considered, you're required to disclose that gift loan interest commitment or prior representation at the time the matter is being considered. You must furthermore abstain from deliberation or voting on the matter. If it is clear the gift loan interest commitment or prior representation would materially affect the independence of judgment of a reasonable person. Commissioners are also reminded under the Planning Commission rules, if you've had any contact outside this meeting with any person interested in a matter coming before the Commission today, you need to disclose the nature of that contact at this meeting. With regard to the Zoom instructions, this meeting is being held in the county commission chambers and via Zoom. To attend via Zoom, log into the Zoom webinar using the link found on the agenda. The meeting can also be joined by typing zoom.us into the computer browser, clicking join a meeting on the Zoom website, and entering meeting ID 842-7265-9406. Alternatively, the meeting can be joined via telephone only by dialing 1-669-900-9128, entering the same meeting ID, and pressing pound. For those wishing to provide public comment via Zoom, log into the Zoom webinar using the link. Use the raise hand feature during any public comment period. To provide public comment via phone, press star 9 to raise your hand and star 6 to mute or unmute.

Thank you. Could we have the appeals procedure, please, Mr. Light?

Certainly. Most decisions rendered by the Planning Commission are appealable to the Board of County Commissioners. If you disagree with the decision of the Planning Commission and you qualify as an agreed person or party, you may appeal in writing within 10 calendar days from the date the decision being appealed is reduced to writing filed with the Secretary of the Planning Commission and mailed to the original applicant in the proceeding being appealed in accordance with Washoe County Code. please call the planning staff immediately at 775-328-6100 for information on the appeal procedure and the application fee.

Thank you. Do we have any general public comment at this time?

There is no general public comment in chambers or via Zoom.

Thank you. We all have the agenda for the evening. Unless anyone has any modifications, can we have a motion to approve?

I think we had one withdrawal, right? The Red Rock?

We'll let the applicant make that request for delay.

With that one withdrawal, I'll recommend to approve as written.

Commissioner Owens for a second.

All those in favor? Aye. Aye. Any opposed? All right. We're on to public hearings. So item 7A.

Okay. This is an amendment of conditions, case number WAC 250018 for Rock Springs. I believe the applicant is here and would like to request a postponement.

Good evening, Mr. Chair, members of the commission. My name is Doug Thornley with the law firm of Holland and Hart. I'm here tonight on behalf of the applicant, CED Rock Springs Solar LLC. Unfortunately, we do need just a couple more months to check a few administrative boxes. The planning staff has been incredible helping us work through a couple of sticky and sort of tricky issues. So I do want to express my thanks to them. But with that, we would like to postpone to the February meeting.

Thank you. I'm happy to move to postpone this to be rescheduled in February by staff. We have a motion and a second. All those in favor? Aye. Any opposed? Motion carries. Thank you very much. We have item 7B.

This is Master Plan Amendment Case Number WMPA-250004 and Regulatory Zone Amendment Case Number WRCA-250005 of the Sunset Ranch. For hearing, discussion, and possible action to adopt an amendment to the Washoe County Master Plan South Valley's Master Plan land use map to change the Master Plan land use designation for a 41.7 acre parcel from rural to rural residential. And if approved, authorize the chair to sign a resolution to this effect. Any adoption by the Planning Commission is subject to approval by the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners and a finding of conformance with the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan by the Regional Planning Authorities. Secondly, subject to the final approval of the Associated Master Plan Amendment and a finding of conformance with the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan, recommend adoption of an amendment to the South Valley's Regulatory Zone Map to change the regulatory zoning on the same parcel from general rural to medium density rural And if approved, authorize the chair to sign a resolution to this effect. Representing Washoe County and stepping in for Courtney Wiecky is planner Julie Olander.

Good evening. Julie Olander for the record. So as Mr. Lloyd said, this is a master plan and zone change. for a 41.7-acre parcel in the South Valley's planning area, and the request is to go on the mass plan designation from rural to rural residential, and the regulatory zoning changing from general rural to medium-density rural. This parcel is located off of Old 395. You can see where it's outlined in blue, and then it's adjacent to Franktown Road also. Great. The 41-acre parcel is mostly undeveloped agricultural land. The site is accessed from a north property boundary via private unpaved road that connects with O395 through the property to the west, which is owned by the applicant. The site is entirely fenced with barbed wire for cattle grazing. Appropriate access easements for any newly created parcel or parcels would be addressed as part of the MAP entitlement process. You can see on the left is what the existing master plan is, R, rural, and then on the left is rural residential. And then the same thing for the zoning. On the left is what it currently is, which is GR, and then on the right is MDR. The Sunset Ranch properties have been owned by the Gallant family for nearly three decades and include nine adjoining parcels totaling approximately 578 acres. The applicant states the intent of the subject amendment is to eventually develop a maximum of four parcels through a future mapping entitlement and are intended to serve as future home sites for family members. The proposed parcel sizes are expected to range from approximately six acres up to 19 acres. The applicant states that the remaining portion of the Sunset Ranch properties outside of the project site will continue to operate as they currently do. Envision Washoe 2040 Master Plan states that rural designation is a land use category intended for remote areas suited for commercial agriculture, extraction, energy production, or rural commerce with residential lots typically over 40 acres. While the area is rural, it is not necessarily remote and is surrounded by existing five acre lots to the west and the south. The proposed rural residential designation better supports the area vision by allowing for large residential lots, small-scale agricultural conservation, and rural commerce, with densities ranging from one unit per 40 acres to one unit per five acres. The zoning options under RR also more effectively support these uses than those available under the currently R designation and are more compatible with the surrounding uses and is reflected for the adjacent residential properties, which are an average of five acres. So concerning the regulatory zone change from general rule to MDR, although MDR regulatory zone allows a minimum lot size of 40 acres, the location of this property project site outside of Truckee Meadows service area, the TMSA, requires a minimum five acre for development. to be served by well and septic. Therefore, approval of this amendment would allow a maximum of eight potential future parcels. Adequate dry utilities serve the site and can be feasibly extended to serve future development. This includes the extension of the existing power and communication services into the project site from adjacent properties. Water will be provided through the granting of water rights owned by the applicant and permitted wells for each parcel can be accommodated up on a minimum five acre parcel. It is anticipated that the future development of five acre minimum parcels will be able to be accommodated, accommodate residential septic and leach fields for each parcel. Concerning the access traffic and circulation, the intended roadway network will be established via appropriate easements through the future mapping entitlement process. The site is already capable of accommodating future traffic and is large enough to allow for future development to include separate on-site drive aisles for ingress and egress for residential development. Future development of the project site would require additional site improvements including drainage facilities and would be evaluated based on the density and intensity of the future development and designed to meet minimum requirements outlined in Washoe County Development Code. A neighborhood meeting was held via GULU Meet on August 25th and there were questions and comments including noticing requirements for the neighborhood meeting, purpose of the requested amendment, development potential, site access, drainage, and the applicant responded that the future lot sizes and compatibility will be addressed as part of the future mapping application with the intent of having a maximum of four parcels. And then questions on the process and how to provide comments on this item. Property owners within 1,300 feet of the site were noticed, and 42 notices were sent out. No emails or phone calls were received, and a legal notice was placed in the Reno Gazette 10 days before this hearing. Applicant agency reviewed the application, and their comments are included in your staff report, and the staff can make all the findings as explained in the staff report. Possible motions can be found in your staff report also. And the applicant's representative is also available, is here and has a presentation. And I'm available for any questions.

Thank you very much. If the applicant's representative would like to make their presentation now.

All right, thank you. My name is Derek Hastie. I'm with Woodriders. I'm representing the applicant, the Gilmont's, and Julie did a really good job on this. I don't really know if I have too much more to add other than I just would like to restate that this is for the family use. This Sunset Ranch is part of this larger 578 acres that they've owned since 1998. And so the yellow outline there is the entirety of Sunset Ranch, and the blue parcel is the subject parcel. And you can see that the parcel that's located closest to all those homes that are around the same size acreage is what we're kind of looking to accomplish here. That's why we chose this site for this proposed request. So zooming in on the site, you can see those size acres of lots to the west and to the south are about what we are looking to do. And again, with this master plan amendment and zone change application, currently right now with the current zoning designation of GR, we would not be allowed to go to anything less than 40 acres and put a dwelling unit on there. And so through this application, we are proposing the medium density rural and the The whole reason behind that was because that is what's adjacent. That's the zoning that's adjacent to the west. And so we're just continuing that into this property. We're matching the surrounding neighborhood to the west as well to the south. And looking to... to have up to four lots on here. This would be for the family's use. So just diving into the property a little bit more, there is some FEMA flood zone on there. However, that's something you should think about for development, but that's not going to limit the size of the parcels here. And so, as Julie said, this is outside of the service area, so even though Washoe County Code does allow to go to minimum four-acre lots, the state regulations would only allow a five-acre lot if you're being served by well and septic. Anything else other than four lots would require a tentative map, so we'd have to come in front of the Planning Commission requesting a tentative map application. With the four lots, we would just be able to go to a parcel map. So if we did go over four lots, then we'd have to come back here and go through this process with a tentative map. That's really all I had to add. I would be happy to answer any other questions or concerns that you guys have, but that will conclude my presentation, so thank you.

Thank you so much. Do we have any questions for staff or the applicant from the board? If not, do we have any public comment on this item?

I have no public comment in chambers or via Zoom.

All right. Any discussion? If not, I'm happy to hear a motion. where I can make it. For the master plan amendment, I move that after giving reason consideration to the information contained in the staff report and the information received during the public hearing, the Washoe County Planning Commission adopt the resolution contained as attachment A of this staff report to amend the master plan as set forth in master plan amendment case number WMPA25-0004. Having made at least three of the following, All findings in accordance with Washoe County Code section 110.820.15D are further moved to certify the resolution and the proposed master plan amendments in WMPA 25-0004 as set forth in the staff report for submission to the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners and authorize the chair to sign the resolution on behalf of the Planning Commission.

I second the motion.

All those in favor? Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. For the regulatory zone amendment, I move that after giving reason consideration to the information contained in the staff report and the information received during the public hearing, the Planning Commission adopt the resolution included as Exhibit B. recommending adoption of the regulatory zone amendment case number WRZA25-0005, having made all the findings set forth in the Washoe County Code section 110.821.15. I further move to certify the resolution. and the proposed regulatory zone amendment in WRZA24-0005 as set forth in the staff report for submission to the Washoe County Board of Commissioners and authorize the chair to sign the resolution on behalf of the Washoe County Planning Commission.

Commissioner Owens for second.

Motion and second. All those in favor?

Aye.

Any opposed? The motion carries unanimously. That brings us to the end of hearings. Do we have any future agenda items from the board or requests for information from staff? Hearing none, do we have any reports on previous Planning Commission items? Mr. White.

Yeah, I have a few items to report on. At the November 18th County Commission meeting, the senior housing code amendment was read into the record. It's scheduled for December 16th for the second reading. The Small Housing and Infill Development Code Amendment is scheduled for the December 16th for first reading. Let's see, Iverson Special Use Permit that was heard by the Planning Commission on the 20th of November, that item was appealed. It will be going to a January County Commission hearing. Also, I did send all of you, all the planning commission, a survey. This was an evacuation study survey that was being released from the Washoe County Emergency Management. Just wanted to give you a heads up that that would be in your inbox. That's all I have.

Thank you very much. Any updates from legal? No. Thank you very much. Do we have any public comment at this time?

No further public comment.

Thank you so much we are adjourned.