Billboard request nixed by commissioners

A request to install a billboard facing one of Carson City's busier thoroughfares was denied Wednesday by the Planning Commission.

Cited by the commissioners as major reasons for denying the request: It won't enhance the character of the neighborhood because it will block open views and vistas, and would cause potential glare.

The site, at 4440 Highway 50 E., is now a used-car lot.

"It's not a pretty vision," said Lorretta Marcin, who came to the meeting to speak for her mother-in-law, Thelma, who lives close to the sign. "Another billboard isn't going to beautify Carson City."

Marcin also contends the sign might be too accessible and prove a safety hazard. Teens with "nothing better to do" might choose to climb up the 28-foot-high sign, she said.

The sign also will block sunlight now shining toward Marcin's home and devalue it and others in her neighborhood, according to attorney Ernest Adler of Kilpatrick, Johnson and Alder, who represents Thelma Marcin. He sent a letter to the city last week on behalf of his client to express her thoughts about the plan.

The two-sided sign also has some large trees around it that will obscure part of its display unless they are substantially trimmed.

"Are the trees going to stay?" asked Commissioner Connie Bisbee.

"We don't want you to top those trees," Walter Sullivan, the city's community development director, said to the property owner, Daniel Schulte. "We want to work with you."

Sullivan suggested the city's arborist examine the trees to determine whether they're healthy, then determine how to trim them properly.

"I'm not into ruining trees," Schulte replied.

"At least it's not as objectionable with the big trees," said Commissioner Craig Mullet.

Only four tall trees actually sit on the Schulte's property. About a dozen more large trees are on the east side of the sign. They are on the neighboring property, so Schulte has no control over them.

Special-use permits are required for billboards. They can only be in areas designated as general commercial or general industrial, and this one is zoned as general industrial.

Permitted sites are along Carson Street, between Douglas and Washoe counties; and U.S. Highway 50, between Lyon County and the intersection of highways 50 and 395, according to the city's municipal code.

Billboards must have at last 1,000 feet of space between them, which sharply limits the number of available sites, Sullivan said.

Schulte has 10 days to file an appeal of the decision to the Board of Supervisors.

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

In other business

The Planning Commissioners:

• Recommended a residential development plan for Combs Canyon Road and Timberline Drive allowing 23 homes within 57 acres. Ensuring water service be reliable - especially in case of fire - and that visibility be improved for people traveling along Timberline Road were among concerns cited by commissioners and a resident who addressed the board. An earlier plan for that area that called for 78 homes on 82 acres was assailed by residents.

• Approved a special-use permit amendment sought by ABC Learning Center, 151 E. Park St., to allow the child-care business to increase its number of children receiving care from 60 to 90.