The current land use map in the Carson City Master Plan, which was adopted in 2006 and is being updated until spring 2025 through an extensive community process.
A draft of the Carson City Master Plan update will be developed this summer and fall, and city officials hope the public will continue providing input.
Thursday, the Carson City Board of Supervisors and the Planning Commission met to discuss the update process. The Master Plan was first adopted in 2006 and sets land use designations for zoning and development in the city. In 2023, the city contracted with Clarion Associates to begin a 19-month process to update the Master Plan, with adoption of the update expected in spring 2025.
Clarion and city staff have already coordinated more than a dozen public meetings and events seeing more than 500 participants, according to presentation materials for Thursday’s meeting. Anyone wishing to contribute to the Master Plan update process can email masterplan@carson.org or visit https://www.envisioncarsoncity.org/.
So far, residents have noted existing assets like Carson’s small-town atmosphere, self-sufficiency (a big enough city for amenities and services), outdoor recreation on nearby public lands and a nice downtown, according to Thursday’s presentation. However, residents are concerned about homelessness in the city, a lack of activities for younger people, housing options and vacant properties such as the former Kmart shopping center in north Carson or the Ormsby House downtown.
“There’s a lot of frustration with underutilized properties,” said Carson City Community Development Director Hope Sullivan, adding the frustration is not just with the Kmart building and Ormsby House. “These sort of really visible vacant buildings are a source of frustration. And there’s a lot of misunderstanding about those buildings as well, people thinking it’s the city who is the obstacle to those, but I assure you that’s not the case.”
Darcie White of Clarion said one challenge moving forward is how to encourage revitalization of key corridors in the community. Examples of a key corridor are East William Street and Highway 50 or the North Carson Street corridor.
“As of right now, most of those areas are designated for mixed use and have been for some time, but zoning isn’t necessarily always aligned with that, so that’s one of the areas we’ll be looking at,” Darcie White said. “As Hope (Sullivan) mentioned, we need to make sure we have clear direction coming out of this plan, but we’ll also be making some recommendations for future updates for zoning to encourage that revitalization along with implementation strategies.”
One preliminary recommendation from the consultant is to look at consolidating mixed use designations in the Master Plan. There are currently four: downtown mixed use, mixed use commercial, mixed use residential and mixed use employment.
The Master Plan sets land use designations, and the underlying zoning of a property should align with the designation, so development conforms to an overarching vision. That is the work of the city, Sullivan explained. She said the Master Plan is “the policy document that tells us how we want to grow and develop in Carson City.”
“Then you have your implementing ordinances that are intended to implement the Master Plan,” she said. “That’s why every time you look at a discretionary permit, the very first thing you look at is consistency with the Master Plan.”
Thursday’s presentation also included some demographic and economic data, showing a population in the city of 58,314 (2022) and an average annual population growth of .5 percent. The largest age demographic is 35-54-year-olds as measured at 24 percent of total population in 2022. However, seniors (65 or older) are the fastest growing age category and comprised 21 percent of total population in 2022.
The city is also becoming more diverse, something Supervisor Maurice White touched on looking at results from a recent survey on the Master Plan update. He pointed out that only 5.5 percent of people who participated in the survey identified as Hispanic or Latino. That compares to about 91 percent, out of 127 respondents, who identified as white.
“I’m thinking maybe we need a little more effort in that particular part of our community,” White said. “Because those folks (Hispanic/Latino) are 25 percent of our community now. I would like to see an effort to get a little more engagement with those folks.”
A Spanish-speaking planner has been assisting with public outreach efforts, and there is a Spanish version of the presentation materials at https://www.envisioncarsoncity.org/. The city has also been reaching out to the Washoe Tribe, Sullivan said.
“If anybody wants a listening session, we’ll come meet with anybody anywhere anytime,” Sullivan said.