After roughly four hours of discussion during a joint meeting Thursday, the Carson City Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission didn’t pass a specific motion regarding the latest draft of the Master Plan update, but they did direct staff and the city’s consultant to work on numerous revisions as discussed on the record.
Supervisors and commissioners went through each chapter of the draft, parsing statements and word choices, while acknowledging it will be a guiding document to steer land use and development of the capital city.
Revisions as noted by city staff and Clarion Associates — the consultant hired in 2023 to facilitate the update — will be incorporated into the Master Plan draft in the new year, with Planning Commission adoption tentatively planned for February and Board of Supervisors adoption tentatively planned for March.
Supervisor Maurice White said the document “is the bedrock of where this community is headed,” adding that it would inform municipal code and other master and strategic plans.
“Carson City is a community proud of its past and prepared for its future. We take pride in our role as a state capital and offer a balanced community with housing, employment, education, shopping, and recreation opportunities. We value productive collaboration between residents, businesses, partner organizations, neighboring municipalities, and state and federal agencies to engage in opportunities and challenges that affect our quality of life and sense of community,” reads the vision statement from the latest draft.
Seven guiding principles for the updated Master Plan are: well-managed growth; access to open lands and recreational opportunities; economic vitality; vibrant downtown and gateway corridors; livable neighborhoods; unique history and culture; and a connected community.
Each guiding principle is broken down into specific imperatives. The draft is online: legistarweb-production.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/attachment/pdf/3029212/MasterPlan_CCNV_AdoptionDraft_Dec2024.pdf.
Mayor Lori Bagwell on Thursday requested changing in the vision statement “prepared for its future” to “confident of its future” to match the city’s motto and seal. Other board members were amenable to the change.
Supervisor Lisa Schuette noted a section in Chapter 3 about working with neighboring counties (to be revised to “neighboring communities”) to minimize land use conflicts along shared borders.
Acknowledging that other counties can act regardless of neighboring input, Supervisor Stacey Giomi said: “Again, all it means is that we should work with them. If Lyon County is going to build a thousand-unit housing complex in Mound House, we need to go talk to them about that, about how it’s going to impact us. They may decide to say — to Mo’s (White’s) property rights point — ‘up yours!’ But at least we have a discussion with them, and that’s all it’s asking them to do.”
“Wouldn’t it be nice if we can normalize having discussion, normalize having those collaborations and outreach, and present it in such a way that it’s win-win, instead of ‘too bad?’ I think that is incredibly important,” said Schuette.
In a conversation about economic development as outlined in Chapter 5, White wondered what role the city would play given existing partnerships between city leaders and the Northern Nevada Development Authority and similar organizations. Whether to hire an economic development staff member was one question that arose.
“We’re going to reach a point — and I feel like we’re already there — where we do need a single person in that position to focus on economic development for the city,” said Supervisor Curtis Horton.
Planning Commissioner Teri Preston said one thing brought up by the public during the update process was “the fact nobody knew where they were able to start a business.”
“We’re not necessarily talking about the larger companies that GOED and NNDA are going for. We’re talking about the people that maybe have five, maybe 10 employees, that just want to start in kind of an incubator type of thing,” she said. “They don’t know where to start in Carson City. I realize everybody is able to try to help them, but there’s not one resource.”
Community Development Director Hope Sullivan clarified the Master Plan does not recommend staffing — just that the city develop an economic development strategy.
White also took issues with incentives as outlined in Chapter 6. One section reads: “In coordination with outside agencies, explore the use of incentive programs, such as capital projects subsidies, design assistance programs, tax credits, subsidies to mitigate rising and prohibitive land costs, or similar strategies to promote reinvestment. Consider establishing regulatory incentives (e.g., density or height bonuses, an expanded range of permitted uses, or reduced parking requirements) that complement existing redevelopment tools.”
White worried about the government picking winners and losers. Planning Commissioner Greg Brooks argued “thoughtful regulatory burden easing” is effective in the right circumstances, while Giomi stressed that the draft language didn’t commit the city to any specific action.
Giomi insisted regulatory incentives can drive down costs and help people, giving the example of a density bonus for affordable housing.
“If we’re talking about developing homes that people can afford — which I know we heard a lot of, a lot of — then a regulatory incentive is one of the only ways government can get involved with that absent pouring direct taxpayer money into it,” Giomi said.
Board members did agree to remove references to particular vacant properties in the city, which could benefit from such incentives, from the Master Plan document.
Darcie White of Clarion emphasized the plan is still a draft and described consolidation of some land use categories. For example, a new land use designation, corridor mixed-use, would subsume mixed-use commercial, community/regional commercial and neighborhood commercial.
Industrial land use would stay as such, but, according to current proposals, mixed-use employment would be revised to either a medical category or a new “flex” industrial category. The latter, Darcie White explained, is meant for small-scale industrial and commercial operations.