Carson City leaders approve master plan concept

With a warning not to make plans too rigid, Carson City leaders approved the concept of the city's new master plan, a kind of road map they say will help steer future growth.

"We have to be flexible enough to take opportunity when it comes and not get all mixed up with the minutia because it doesn't fit in with the master plan," Mayor Marv Teixeira told the city planning staff.

The plans, proposed to a joint meeting of Carson City supervisors and planning commissioners Thursday, detail what kind of development should be encouraged in eight separate portions of the city.

There were three basic planning strategies: Condensed downtown development, activity centers in several strategic spots throughout Carson City, and a sprawl type of expansion. Of the three, Carson City commissions, committees and boards, along with the bulk of residents who filled out surveys, agreed the activity center concept was the most popular.

City planners' recommendations included more housing options for downtown and more condensed use of what properties are vacant or underused there.

The plan also encourages maintaining the existing one-acre neighborhoods in South Carson City, where many horse owners live, and promoting an activity center on South Carson Street. Activity centers would also be encouraged near the new freeway, on Highway 50 East and on North Carson Street - an area a new hospital is expected to reinvigorate.

With the approval of supervisors and planning commissioners, city staffers will now take the concepts and come up with a more specific plan that indicates what type of use should be encouraged, parcel by parcel, said Carson City Principal Planner Lee Plemel.

The more specific plan will go back before various public bodies within a couple months, Plemel said.

n Contact reporter Cory McConnell at cmcconnell@nevadaappeal.com or 881-1217.