Carson planning commission OKs senior facility, trailhead work

The Carson City Planning Commission on Wednesday unanimously approved a special use permit (SUP) for a 105,000-square-foot congregate care facility within the Lompa Ranch North Specific Plan Area on 13.29 acres zoned general commercial.

The property, being developed by Mission Senior Living, lies south of East William Street at the south end of Gold Dust West. The two-phase development consists of two buildings: a 130-unit senior residence and a 124-unit assisted living and memory care facility.

Primary access to the site would be from Gold Dust West Drive as established in a Memorandum of Understanding between affected parties, though the city and commission added a condition of approval the developer procure legal access to East William Street.

“The project does have to have legal access before they get any permits to do any work on the subject site,” said Associate Planner Heather Manzo.

When asked by planning commissioner Greg Brooks about the need for the project in the community, Manzo said: “There is a need. Northern Nevada is aging, and so there is a need to provide for housing for all ages including those that are kind of aging out of living independently on their own properties and needing to provide for additional services and activities kind of closer to home base.”

Mike Deines of Carson-based Mission Senior Living said the company operates six senior communities across western states.

“We’ve been looking at Carson City for a long time, being our hometown,” he said.

Deines said each phase of the development is a $35 million project.

“We started this company in 2012,” he said. “We’ve looked at Carson City. There’s an unmet need in Carson City. We have third-party market studies that show that it’s actually a fair amount of unmet need.”

Commissioners also convened as the Growth Management Commission (absent commissioner Nathaniel Killgore) and unanimously approved a request for 18,892 gallons of water a day for the project — an amount the city maintained it could accommodate.

Any commercial project requesting more than 10,000 gallons a day of water usage must obtain GMC approval.

“What we’ve seen in the past is there is keen public interest in the city’s water availability,” said Stephen Pottey of Carson City Public Works.

Pottey said this specific request was higher to similar facilities in the community but involved more rooms. Water per room, he said, was below average.

The applicant agreed to conditions of approval including monitoring water usage three years after phase 1 is complete and minimizing turf and maximizing xeriscaping.

In other action, planning commissioners:

• Continued to June, at the applicant’s request, a SUP hearing for an accessory barn and horse-riding academy at 2170 Alfred Way.

• Unanimously approved a recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to change zoning for portions of public of right of way on south Carson and Stewart streets on the southeast side of the Carson Mall from public zoning to retail commercial.

If approved by supervisors, the change would allow mall operator Carrington Company to establish a drive-thru ATM at the site. The subject right of way generates around $6,000 a year for the city through a licensing agreement, according to City Engineer Randy Rice.

• Unanimously approved a SUP for the conversion of a storage facility into a residence on .81 acres zoned general commercial at 5432 Lynnett Lane.

There are three residences and a commercial building on the site, according to a staff report, but residential use within a commercial zone requires a SUP.

“It’s really an ideal multiuse property for Carson City,” said applicant Peter Sinnott.

• Approved a SUP for Ryder Homes for a 6-foot-tall wood privacy fence along the streetside of four parcels zoned single-family 6,000 including at Monitor Peak Street, Pyramid Peak Drive and Porter Peak Drive.

The vote was 5-2, with commissioners Teri Preston and Charles Borders voting no due to concerns about consistency in the neighborhood.

• Approved 6-1 a SUP for the Carson City Parks, Recreation and Open Space Department for trailhead improvements and a new trail on property zoned public regional about a third-mile east of the Koontz Lane terminus.

Improvements include access, drainage and parking updates, a new vault toilet and covered picnic tables. Though sections of the 2.4-mile multiuse trail along the west side of Prison Hill will be on city-owned property zoned single-family 1 acre, the portion of trail on public regional zoning needs a SUP.

“It goes back as far as 1995 when the Eagle Valley trail system report was developed which first suggested a loop trail circumnavigating Prison Hill,” said Carson City Trails Coordinator Gregg Berggren, emphasizing the project is part of the Prison Hill Master Plan.

He further stated: “Improvements to the Koontz Lane trailhead have been requested by the public for many years.”

Commissioner Borders wondered how to ensure the trail’s nonmotorized use, and Berggren responded some fencing and bollards would be used.

“Part of it is monitoring; part of it is enforcement,” he said.

Members of the public worried about impacts to the neighborhood from the 10-foot-wide trail.

“This project is designed not to contribute to any additional erosional issues anywhere along its length,” according to Berggren.

Commissioner Vern Krahn brought up the monkeyflower, a native plant, and it being a “potentially threatened or endangered species up there on Prison Hill.”

Carson City Open Space Manager Lyndsey Boyer explained the Center for Biological Diversity filed a petition with the federal government in January to protect habitat for the monkeyflower.

“They (U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service) have approximately 90 days to develop a response,” she said, adding the city is in a holding pattern awaiting results.

“As of right now there are no considerations for the plant legally; however, we’ve been aware of the monkeyflower in Open Space for some time,” she said.

She said habitat is taken into consideration for projects per the Prison Hill Master Plan and other plans.

Commissioner Nathaniel Killgore voted against the SUP, arguing it wasn’t compatible with the surrounding neighborhood.