The city needs answers about an abandoned raceway before plans for a 521-home subdivision can move forward, the board of supervisors said Thursday.
Sacramento-based developer Reynen & Bardis and the two other owners of the Schulz Ranch in South Carson City wanted to get a one-year extension at the city meeting to turn in final plans for the subdivision.
Supervisors, however, said they wanted a Reynen & Bardis representative at their next meeting to explain why the business hasn't started cleaning up the remains of the Champion Motor Speedway since getting a notice in early May.
"For Carson City to have a nuisance and a blight is uncalled for," said Supervisor Pete Livermore.
Developers of the ranch, the largest approved but undeveloped subdivision in Carson, will have to start over in the long and expensive planning process with the city if it doesn't get the extension at the July 17 meeting.
The city approved the Schulz Ranch project in 2005, the same year the raceway closed after opening 42 years earlier.
"Here we are and we have a toilet out there," Mayor Marv Teixeira said. "The toilet, as far as I'm concerned, reflects the project."
But Larry Gualco, division president for another one of the subdivision owners, Lennar Communities, said his business cannot control what Reynen & Bardis does with its property.
An approval of the final plans will benefit Reynen & Bardis, though, supervisors said, because the entire Schulz Ranch, and all three owners, are listed in those plans.
But it isn't Lennar's fault the city lumped all the owners into one process, Gualco said, and delaying the approval of plans will only make Reynen & Bardis less likely to clean up the raceway.
The business is also having finical problems, he said, and the slow market has hurt everyone.
"It's not that they don't want to clean it up," he said.
But Reynen & Bardis is a major developer, said Supervisor Shelly Aldean, and the argument that it doesn't have the money for the work "isn't really legitimate."
The work, according to said Kevin Gattis, chief city building official, could cost the developer around $500,000 if it wants to totally clean up the raceway, but less than $100,000 to just make the area safe.
- Contact reporter Dave Frank at dfrank@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1212.