Washoe property owners to propose possible road through Storey County

Storey County officials have adopted a wait-and-see attitude about a request by Dolan Properties LLC to allow a road through Storey County.

"We haven't seen any plans for a road yet," said Storey County planner Vince Angle. "We're not opposed or in favor; we want to wait until we see what they want to do."

The company, part of a group known as the Virginia 40s who own more than 2,000 acres they are seeking to develop, will make a presentation Thursday before the Storey County Planning Commission on its planned development. The commission will not vote on the issue at that time.

"We just think it's important to talk to neighbors and let them know what we're doing," said Jack Dolan, primary owner of the property.

Dolan, whose family also owns 80 acres on the Storey County side, wants to put in a master-planned community of about 3,000 homes. Owners of 52 parcels are combining their properties to develop the land, Dolan said. He said his Storey County land would not be part of this project.

The property is south of the Sunny Hills Rancheros property, where about 1,700 homes are planned, west of the Virginia City Highlands and southwest of the proposed Cordevista development in Storey County.

The Reno Regional Planning Governing Board voted to add the Dolan Properties to its annexation area last week. The Sunny Hills property was added to the annexation area earlier this year.

The property touches Storey County to the east, Dolan said, but does not abut Geiger Grade, which is to the south.

The application mentions a possible access east through Storey County.

"If we're going to do one, it would be just through our property," Dolan said. "Sunny Hills has planned one from Storey to Washoe."

The company is seeking to include its project in the Truckee Meadows Service Area for water and sewer service, and has proposed roads to the north of the development as well as to the west. It also includes the possibility of access to the east through Storey County.

The company's application states access through Storey County is not planned right now, and would only be pursued after cooperation and approval by the county.

He said the county has noticed the people in the Virginia City Highlands don't want to see development in that area, mainly because of a lack of water.

The Dolan project, however, is looking to bring water in by joining the Truckee Meadows Service Area, as part of the Southwest Reno. The Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Commission approved the inclusion last month, and the TMSA Governing Board added the property to the service area last week.

Dolan said the project isn't even at the development stage. "This is all hypothetical right now."

However, Jim Wilson, of the Virginia City Highlands, said the issue should be investigated before anything is permitted.

Wilson said a company called Wilderness Preservation LLC has spent more than five years trying to buy up the 40-acre lots in that area under the guise of wanting to preserve them as wildlands.

"I just think we should put the brakes on basically to figure out what's going on," he said.

Dolan denied that Wilderness Preservation LLC, which he owns, misled anyone, and added much of the company's property would be preserved.

"Actually, we're going to preserve a lot of it under open space," he said. "That's my company, and my dad owned that property 30 years ago and he called that the wilderness, so we called it Wilderness Preservation LLC."

• Contact reporter Karen Woodmansee at kwoodmansee@nevadaappeal.com or 881-7351.

If You Go

WHAT: Storey County Planning

Commission meeting

WHEN: 6 p.m. Thursday

WHERE: Storey County Courthouse,

26 South B St., Virginia City

CALL: 847-0966