Carson City Planning Commission probes Brunswick Canyon access complaints

The Planning Commission on Wednesday voted to investigate a 40-year-old special use permit for noncompliance.

The permit allows Brunswick Canyon Materials, LLC to operate its concrete batch plant, a hot plant operation, and to remove earth products at 7400 Brunswick Canyon Road.

But, it comes with a condition the business can’t restrict public access through its property to Carson City’s Brunswick Canyon open space. A gate on the road has been periodically closed recently, sometimes all weekend, keeping the public from the open space area.

“We have received numerous complaints,” said Jennifer Budge, director, Parks, Recreation and Open Space.

Park rangers have found the gate locked, restricting public access, on at least six days in the last two months, according to the staff report.

“This is the first step in revocation. We do not want to revoke it, but we need to do this to work with the business owner,” said Hope Sullivan, planning manager. “I recommend the director (of Community Development) investigate and we would come back next month to tell you the results of the investigation.”

An application by the business owner to modify the condition is also expected to be on the commission’s agenda next month. The change would let the business close the gate from dusk to dawn.

Budge said city open space recreation areas are generally closed dusk to dawn, and there are numerous signs in the Brunswick Canyon area stating those hours.

The commission also started on a two-year process to overhaul the municipal code pertaining to zoning and development.

Sullivan and Lee Plemel, director, gave a brief presentation on the portion of Title 18, the section the commission will be looking at, that outlines responsibilities and procedures. The commission will be reviewing the code in workshops outside their regularly scheduled meetings and during meetings when its workload allows.

The review is part of a citywide, four-year project by the District Attorney’s office to revise the entire city code.

The commission also voted to modify an SUP for a daycare business at 2321 N. Carson St. to expand into an additional 4,980 square feet; to recommend the Board of Supervisors abandon multiple public rights-of-way in and around Cochise Street in an area being developed for an apartment complex; and to approve an SUP to continue use of an existing off-premise billboard at 2794 Highway 50 East.