Carson City Planning Commission meets this afternoon

The Carson City Planning Commission could recommend that the board of supervisors approve two major items during its meeting today.

The commission will meet at 5 p.m. today.

Silver State High School, a charter school, wants approval to build a new $10 million school. It will ask for the land at 2222 E. College Parkway next to the Carson City Airport to be zoned "public regional" so its 73,000-square-foot school can built.

The independent public school that concentrates on online learning will add a junior high, expand its computer labs and grow its aerospace technology program.

It plans to open the school in 2011 and eventually expand from 500 to 1,500 students. The school's current building, located at at North Carson Street and College Parkway, opened in 2003.

The planning commission also will look at an ordinance regulating private windmills. Windmills are now treated like any structure more than 32 feet tall. A resident has to get a permit from the planning commission to build a windmill on private or commercial land.

The planning commission could recommend an ordinance that removes the requirement for a special use permit if the windmill meets other guidelines. City staff have suggested several requirements under the new ordinance.

Supervisors said in April that the first recommended ordinance could violate the property rights of neighbors of windmill owners.

The new ordinance would require a minimum yard size of one acre. One windmill per acre at most would be allowed. The maximum height of a windmill would be 75 feet.

The original proposed ordinance was more lenient. Windmills could be up to 90 feet tall and there was no minimum property size for a windmill.