Supervisors give south side housing plan green light

Clearview Ridge, a planned-unit development in South Carson City designed to contain 75 single-family homes within a 3.8-acre site, was approved by the Board of Supervisors during a special session Thursday evening.

"I told you this would be an uphill project," Mayor Marv Teixeira told the property owner, Ernesto Flores. "Parking was the biggest issue."

Teixeira and Supervisor Shelly Aldean voted against the project, though she described her overall view of the project as "kind of tentative" because of its density.

She did say, however, it was well-designed and attractive looking.

A substantial number of residents living on the south side oppose the project. They have cited concerns with that many homes coming to their semi-rural neighborhood such as traffic, noise and a lack of compatibility with the character of the area.

"I didn't move here to live near this many people," said resident Michael Kechely.

Flores told the board he was frustrated with the process.

"I've given you my best shot," Flores told them after a small army of people involved with the development spent more than 90 minutes presenting details about such things as its design, architecture and target market. Two attorneys for Flores also explained why the Carson City Planning Commission, who wouldn't recommend the project, were wrong.

Planning commissioners didn't recommend the project to the supervisors when they met last month. Open space strewn throughout the development, and inadequate traffic circulation and parking for a project with roughly 20 homes per acre were major reasons cited by the commissioners.

"Their vote shows this project doesn't follow the spirit of the (city's) master plan," said Tony Pilant, who lives nearby.

Flores said he has been cooperative and trying to meet the city's needs since discussions about putting this type of project on the south side started more than a year ago. Its overall design has been changed six times to meet city specifications, he said.

And anyone putting a planned-unit development in a mixed-use area, such as the one at West Roventini Way and West Overland Street, and Cochise and Voltaire streets west of Highway 395 where the homes will go, will request that normal rules be waived there. There is no zoning code for mixed-use.

Lower density would have sent "me into freefall," he said.

Part of the neighborhood in which developers want to build is zoned for commercial use and the rest for one-acre lots.

Aldean suggested after the meeting that projects this large and complicated be brought before the supervisors as they progress. It might have eased tensions, Aldean also suggested.

"I felt badly we invited this man to town," but the supervisors aren't bound by commitments made by others, Aldean said.

• Contact reporter Terri Harber at tharber @nevadaappeal.com or 882-2111, ext. 215.