Leaders get first look at master planning efforts

Carson City supervisors and the Planning Commission get their first report today on "Envision Carson City," the city's 18-month, master-planning process.

Lee Plemel, lead planner for the project, said the afternoon session at the community center is designed to give planners and supervisors the chance to offer city staff and consultants some direction.

"Up to this point it's been very much an information gathering process," he said.

He said supervisors will get a synopsis of issues raised by residents during a series of neighborhood meetings in October on every subject from community character to growth management, public facilities, services and economic development.

"The themes here are what people came up with at those meetings, the things people told us to look into including how big will we grow and what kind of development," said Community Development Director Walt Sullivan.

Plemel said there have already been four public meetings and that there will be more chances for members of the public to make their wishes known throughout the planning process. He and Sullivan said what they need from planners and the supervisors today is feedback to "fine tune" the direction they take from this point.

Plemel said in addition, they will present the development capacity analysis which assesses Carson City's ability to accommodate development.

Sullivan said this is the first stage of the planning process - "to find out where we are at." He said the second phase, this spring and summer, will be developing alternatives and the final phase, selecting one of those alternatives and "fine tuning it into our course of action." He said the plan should be finished by December.

"Looking forward from this point, given this background information, we raise the question how do we want to grow," said Plemel.

He said the purpose is to develop a plan that says how Carson City wants to shape itself for the 20 or more years to come.

Contact reporter Geoff Dornan at nevadaappeal@sbcglobal.net or 687-8750.

development capacity

Carson City's ability to accommodate development is spelled out in the city's development capacity analysis. According to that analysis:

• Carson City contains 93,354 acres, of which 7,944 are currently developed or in active use for public purposes such as parks and schools.

• It estimates there is another 7,956 acres of developable land in Carson City - 2,343 acres of which is already designated open space/rural residential/recreational.

• Most of Carson City - about 75,000 acres - is BLM controlled and a large share of that is rugged hillside or inaccessible.

IF YOU GO

What: Carson City Board of Supervisors meeting

When: 8:30 a.m. today, master plan discussion is at 1:30 p.m.

Where: Sierra Room, Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.