Carson City Planning Commission to take up growth management; medical marijuana; Little Lane development

The Planning Commission on Wednesday is conducting its annual review of the growth management ordinance.

The ordinance was enacted in the late 1970s to help Carson City ensure it doesn’t develop beyond its water and sewer capacity.

The commission, acting as the Growth Management Commission, recommends to the Board of Supervisors the number of building permits that should be allowed for the next two years in order to keep a check on growth.

The ordinance hasn’t had much impact in recent years due to the recession, when permits dropped well below 100 a year for 10 years straight.

But building has started to pick up in the last few years, albeit slowly and nowhere near the highs of the 1980s and 1990s, when 300 to 400 permits were routinely issued every year.

City staff is recommending the commission allocate a maximum of 640 residential building permits in 2017, divvied up between 275 for general property owners and 365 for developers, as well as “establish the commercial and industrial development annual average water usage threshold of 15,000 gallons per day,” which is where it currently stands.

According to the Public Works department, Carson City has 18,272 acre-feet of usable water rights. Of that, 11,186 acre feet are currently used and 1,333 acre feet are committed to approved development, leaving approximately 5,753 acre feet for new development.

The commission also will consider special use permits for two separate medical marijuana facilities.

Two SUPs for a cultivation and production facility on Deer Run Road that were already granted were being reapplied for because the business has been sold to Anthony Georgiadis.

Georgiadis is also applying for a new SUP at the same site to operate a medical marijuana dispensary there.

BioNeva Innovations is applying for two SUPs to run a medical marijuana cultivation and production facility in a 7,811 square-foot building on Morgan Mill Road.

The property is zoned general industrial.

The commission also will revisit requests for a variance and a tentative map recommendation to the Board of Supervisors from Capstone Communities to build 147 single-family attached homes on 10.31 acres on Little Lane.

The commission first heard the applicant at last month’s meeting, where residents adjacent to the proposed development said during public comment they were concerned about privacy and traffic.

The developer agreed to meet separately with the homeowners to see if the design could be changed to address those issues and the commission moved the item to its next meeting.

The Planning Commission meets at 5 p.m. in the Sierra Room, Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.