Lot of projects in the pipeline

A lot of chickens are coming home to roost this week as developers seek modifications to a variety of projects next to the two towns.

On Tuesday night, Gardnerville Town Board members got another look at the zoning for the 1,020-unit Virginia Ranch project and a 160-unit apartment project just south of the old garden store along Highway 395.

According to the maps, the Virginia Ranch folks have apparently succeeded in their negotiations to eliminate a 10.5-acre school site in exchange for eight teacherages.

County commissioners are scheduled to discuss a zoning map amendment, planned development overlay and tentative subdivision map to subdivide 89.39 acres for 304 homes and 20 apartments on Park Ranch Holdings property north of Buckeye Road and east of Minden Elementary School.

Commissioners are also scheduled to discuss a request from Ranchos LLC, for an 85-unit project located off Dresslerville Road just east of the Gardnerville Ranchos.

Both the apartments and the Ranchos LLC project are discussed in Gardnerville Town Manager Erik Nilssen’s report, where he points out the challenges they will pose for the intersection at Riverview Drive and Highway 395.

The Douglas County Transportation Plan approved in 2017 calls for Riverview which includes a bridge over the East Fork to be expanded to four lanes to handle additional traffic.

That intersection sees a lot of collisions, including the occasional fatal.

We don’t know if anyone besides us will raise the question about whether development of the parcels along the east side of the Ranchos will require a new route across the river.

The real question is when and whether all those homes will be built?

The Parks have already put the property where approval of Buckeye Farms is being sought up for sale. Most of the pressure to get approvals locked down for these projects may well be related to the housing market, which we’ve already heard may be challenging.

Having a project approval on a piece of property definitely increases its value, but the market will determine when any of those homes will actually be built.