Letters to the editor for Tuesday, June 23, 2015

No benefit from Douglas County solar plant

I am sure you have already heard from many but I would like to express my opinion regarding the Park Cattle Company and Greenstone Renewables, LLC Solar Industrial electrical plant that has been approved by the Douglas County Planning commission. The plant will cover 260 acres of pastoral farmland between Genoa and Muller Lane. The following are reasons this project should not move forward.

It will be an eyesore right in the heart of Douglas County; wildlife will be negatively impacted; tourism will be degraded; it does not economically benefit the citizens of Nevada and especially Douglas County; property values will be diminished; weed mitigation was never considered and there was not an environment impact evaluation prepared; people who live close to the site are going to have to deal with the glare; view from Kingsbury Grade would be diminished; there are many other more appropriate sites; the project will only employee three people.

The citizens of Douglas County have expressed their concerns about unbridled growth and the need for preservation of our rural environment on several occasions over the years. Why can’t the Planning Commission and the Board of County Commissioners get the message? The Planning Commission should reverse its decision before concerned citizens and the county have to pay legal fees and court cost to resolve the matter. I don’t know who is benefiting financially from this project but it certainly is not going to be the voters of Douglas County.

Mario Pietrangelo

Genoa

Stop gambling on water

We are writing in response to the request noted on the Carson City Utilities invoice, asking citizens to voluntarily reduce their water usage by 10 percent, on top of the mandatory watering restriction.

At the Planning Commission meeting a few weeks ago, approval was given for a zoning variance to develop an 18-home subdivision off Hillview Drive. The project was approved to go forward, the result being an additional 18 new homes, the occupants of which would use a gallon or two of water over their lifetime.

At the same meeting, approval was given to proceed with the Capital Mall project. What we can’t appreciate is the development of a 150-room hotel. This equates to 150 rooms of additional people turning on the water tap. We are sure a study has been done that shows less than a 100 percent occupancy rate of the hotels/motels in Carson City. If a study hasn’t been done, perhaps it should be.

The problem we have is 45,000 more people in this valley than there needs to be. There isn’t anything to be done about that. What can be done is mitigate the damage caused by bringing more people to this community just for the sake of a dollar.

What the city planners, supervisors and city manager are doing is gambling on the hope the drought is going to break and all is going to be right with the world. While we realize Nevada is built on gambling, we would prefer not to have someone other than ourselves gambling on our future, especially when it comes to those natural resources needed to survive.

Hope A. Tingle and Jennings family

Carson City