Tell the Reno City Council to Oppose StoneGate

 

I’ve been concerned about growth and water issues since I was a kid and saw my favorite hunting and hiking grounds paved over in 1971. But never have I seen something of the magnitude of “StoneGate,” a sprawling development the size of Ely on the back side of Peavine Mountain. This is the big battle for conservationists and everyone else concerned about the changing character of our community. Nobody who supports this can call themselves a conservationist or smart growth advocate.

 

The City of Reno has been revising and defining its Master Plan values. One of the values is to do infill before sprawl. StoneGate flies in the face of this.  The Master Plan does not contemplate this new, intensive, sprawling city that was annexed into Reno thanks to a contiguous tiny corner and zoned as industrial.

 

The fiscal picture on this is upside down. By the developers' own estimates, it will cost the public $10 million more in expenditures than would be collected in tax revenues. Washoe County School District can’t afford to build three new schools, let along staff them. One quarter of our roads are “failing” and we can’t provide city services to our core. There were more public swim hours available when I was a lifeguard in the ’70’s than there are now, even though the population has grown tripled or quadrupled.

 

The good old boy developers made smart investments with campaign cash to elect representatives who made you and other working stiffs fund their developments, so they didn’t have to provide commensurate services. For example, the Skyline fire station is 55 years old and with only two people is understaffed. Other fire stations remain understaffed. Shouldn’t the city fill these enormous gaps before committing our scarce resources so far out?

 

It is not impossible to imagine the horror of turning on your tap and seeing nothing come out—the result of approving so much development on the gamble that the water will always be there. 

 

To address the lack of available water, the city and developers rely on the Vidler water importation project. This will induce demand for this inter-basin water transfer that I and others have been fighting since 1980’s. Vidler can’t make money until the spigot gets turned on. Land use decisions should not be driven by Vidler’s thirst for profits. 

 

The secondary source of water are existing wells in the area, which have not been approved by the state engineer, and are located in a water basin of highly dubious integrity:

 

"The 2035 Regional Water Balance identifies a water supply imbalance in both Cold Springs and Lemmon Valleys that will need to be addressed over the long term. In particular, the combined demand from domestic wells and permitted municipal groundwater pumping exceeds the perennial yield of the Cold Springs basin. This is an issue that affects both existing and future water users and exists under both current and projected 2035 conditions.”  The Northern Nevada Water Planning Commission (NNWPC).

 

In addition to water supply,  effluent is also a problem. Again, here’s what the experts at NNWPC say: "Importation of a new water supply into the Cold Springs hydrographic basin would result in the generation of additional effluent and storm water run-off volume in this closed basin.”  Because Vidler water is too high in Total Dissolved Salts (TDS), it can’t be dumped into the Truckee River. It will remain in the closed basins, which could become a big sewer lake.

 

NNWPC has also recommended that both a facility plan and a comprehensive water resource plan be prepared for the Cold Springs basin. Shouldn't this happen before big decisions are made?

 

The lawyer for TMWA (Truckee Meadows Water Authority), which is responsible for providing water to the developers, also works for the developers. 

 

Two of Reno's top planning staff have been conflicted out and can’t work on this project, although it is unclear whether they are “officially conflicted out.”  One key manager represented the project developers in the past and has equity interest in adjacent property next door.  Another planner has a personal relationship with the developer representative, so he also has a conflict. 

 

StoneGate will create enormous pressure on US 395, which must be widened, taking about five years. The developers won’t pay a penny, except in higher fuel taxes, which they and the other elite 1% can easily absorb but gut-punches working class families already struggling to get by.

 

Now EDAWN's Mike Kazmierski has shocked everyone with insistence that Tahoe Regional Industrial Center (TRIC) requires another highway, heading to the far north through Sparks.  This would take away scare road dollars from the North Valleys.

 

Increase air quality issues from long auto trips = more health care issues, longer trips to the hospitals, dividing scarce financial resources.  

 

If the city is concerned about climate change and housing, this project takes us in the opposite direction. Where are the affordable homes?

 

The wildlife and cultural resources studies have been ludicrous in their shallow analysis. Some of the last of the best of what’s left of deer habitat and other wildlife range on Peavine will be lost forever.  

 

We have to stop growing at this scale.  We've created a monster by electing representatives who genuflect to EDAWN and the Chambers of Commerce. People are teetering on the edge of rebellion with housing prices and rents going up.  

 

Let's build something more sensible and more to scale with the infrastructure we have and stop giving away our tax revenues so we actually have some money to improve the city we all call home.