Carson City officials prepare requests for state Legislature

City officials have prepared several bills for review by the 2205 Nevada Legislature, including a request to ask voters for the authority to raise gas taxes.

Carson City Manager Linda Ritter said she is close to completing four bill-draft requests for submittal by the Feb. 14 deadline.

"These are all tools we need to better manage the city," Ritter said Wednesday.

They include a bill, BDR 596, that would allow the city to practice gas-tax indexing with voter approval.

"It's an increase based on inflation," Ritter said. "It would allow for the city to afford things such as asphalt, which is getting more and more expensive."

The city currently imposes a tax of 9 cents per gallon of gas, up from 4 cents per gallon in 1997. That 5-cent hike was implemented by the Carson City Board of Supervisors to fund the Carson freeway extension, scheduled for completion in 2010.

If the Legislature were to approve the bill draft request, city officials would first need to seek the approval of Carson City residents through a vote before moving forward with any tax-rate increase, Ritter said.

The city's second request, BDR 815, would allow the city to finance projects with tax-increment financing, a funding method normally used in redevelopment.

In a redevelopment district, the amount of taxes the city collects from assessed property values is frozen. As property values rise, tax revenues on the difference between when the district was formed and any increase, are used for improvements in the area.

The bill request, if approved, would allow the city to implement tax-increment financing for undeveloped pieces of land without rules that apply to redevelopment, including no designation of the parcel as "blighted," or in need of improvement.

"Say someone wants to build on a bare piece of land and the city would like to give an incentive," Ritter said. "We could use tax increment financing to fund the infrastructure (water/sewer, etc.)."

Another request, BDR 215, would allow members of city and special district boards - including the Redevelopment Authority - to purchase property in a redevelopment district.

As it stands, Ritter said, board members are not permitted to purchase property in the city's two redevelopment areas: the downtown redevelopment area and the South Carson Street Redevelopment area encompassing 84 parcels covering 133 acres along both sides of South Carson Street, inducing eight car dealerships.

The first draft the South Carson Street Redevelopment Plan was not approved and was sent back with the order to remove supervisor Pete Livermore's business property - the A&W Family Restaurant on Clearview Drive - from the redevelopment map last year.

If passed, the new proposal would allow city lawmakers, such as Livermore, to take advantage of redevelopment.

The fourth and final proposal sought by Carson City is BDR 447, a bill that would eliminate the ability for group homes to be located where city codes prohibit it.

This comes after a proposal for a care home for the elderly in the Lakeview Estates neighborhood was shot down by residents surrounding the proposed home last spring.

Residents packed city board meetings to block the project from moving forward, claiming the area's zoning only allowed for residential development and a care home is a commercial endeavor.

Ritter said city codes did not address the issue, and while the project never got off the ground, the city wouldn't have had a legal reason to reject it.

If passed, BDR 447 would enable the city to specifically address the zoning issue within its codes and regulations, prohibiting group homes in residential areas as long as the change complies with the state's Fair Housing Act.

"It's in the lawyers hands now," Ritter said. "We'll see what they come up with."

The Carson City Board of Supervisors will review the bill requests one last time before submittal to the Legislature at 8:30 a.m. Feb. 3 in the Carson City Community Center Sierra Room, 851 E. William St.

Contact reporter Robyn Moormeister at rmoormeister@nevadaappeal.com or 888-0564.

Carson City's Legislative list

The City's Bill Draft Requests to the 2005 Legislature:

• BDR 596 would allow the city to practice gas-tax indexing with voter approval.

• BDR 815 would allow the city to finance projects with tax-increment financing, a funding method normally used in redevelopment.

• BDR 215 would allow members of city and special district boards - including the Redevelopment Authority - to purchase property in a redevelopment district.

• BDR 447 would eliminate the ability for group homes to be located where city codes prohibit it.

IF YOU GO

What: Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting

When: 8:30 a.m. Feb. 3,

Where: Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.