The Board of Supervisors resumed an ongoing discussion Thursday: changing the language of the Carson City appeals ordinance to add clarity to the appeals process.
The ordinance often deals with appeals of Planning Commission or Growth Management Commission decisions that go to the Board of Supervisors. Recent examples include a car wash project on South Carson Street appealed by a potential future competitor, and a slaughterhouse development on Highway 50 appealed by residents near the project. (The supervisors denied the car wash appeal but granted the slaughterhouse appeal.)
But the project that sparked the discussion was Tahoe Western Asphalt Plant, Mayor Lori Bagwell said.
Nevada regulators shut down the plant in October 2020, but prior to that, neighbors in Lyon County spoke against the project. Because they were not residents of Carson City, it was unclear at the time whether they had standing to bring an appeal of the project.
The updates to the ordinance define who counts as an “aggrieved party” who can file an appeal, clarify what an “abuse of discretion standard” is, and address how to calculate the deadlines related to filing appeals.
The new definition of aggrieved party expands the pool of people who are eligible to file an appeal. Anyone who submits written or in-person public comment and either received a notice of a project or lives or owns property in Carson City may file an appeal of a decision.
An abuse of discretion standard refers to the fact that the Board of Supervisors does not vote based on how it feels about the original project application. Supervisors base their votes on whether the Planning Commission made a reasonable decision.
District Attorney Jason Woodbury said, “The language of the ordinance is clear. The language of the ordinance is legally defensible.”
The board approved the ordinance on first reading. The supervisors must hold a second reading to adopt the ordinance into law.
The board also granted an extension to an affordable housing project on Butti Way. The city conveyed land to the developer in November 2021. Securing funding sources and necessary redesigns have pushed back the construction start date, so the supervisors extended the deadline to break ground by Oct. 1, 2022.
The supervisors finished the meeting by approving a maintenance assessment for the Downtown Neighborhood Improvement District and the South Carson Neighborhood Improvement District.
There was one objection from Maria Dufur, whose family owns an acre of property with a billboard in the SCNID. She said that the maintenance assessment is making the billboard unprofitable.
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