Gardnerville denies Park Master Plan

Gardnerville Town Board members said they liked Park Cattle Co.'s plan for property adjacent to the town Tuesday night.

Then they voted to recommend that county commissioners deny the proposal.

"If it's a good plan today, then it will be a good plan a year from now, or 18 months from now," said Gardnerville Town Manager Jim Park in recommending that the board deny the project.

Park Cattle Co. is requesting a master plan amendment that would convert 797 acres north of Minden and Gardnerville and 69.3 acres at Highway 395 and Muller Lane into a receiving area. The company is also seeking approval of a specific plan that would seek to build a total of 5,105 units under the county's land use plan. Of those 1,745 dwelling units would be in Gardnerville, with an estimated population increase of 4,363 people.

Project Engineer Rob Anderson told town board members they had a rare opportunity to plan this large a project at one time.

He pointed out that when Robert Helms, who owned 9,900 acres of former Dangberg Ranch land, went bankrupt in the early '90s, the county passed up an opportunity to plan the entire property.

"Your fortunate that it is only in two large land holdings today," he said.

He said that in exchange for the increased density, 3,214 acres west of highways 395 and 88 would essentially remain ranchland with 80-100 homes and a 150-room hotel.

Anderson pointed out that the project would essentially be 4.58 units per acre on the eastern parcel.

Park expressed concern that the project was premature, saying that there were still a large number of unused receiving areas. Under the findings for a master plan, he said, there should be a demonstrated need for additional land that cannot be accommodated within the current boundaries. In the 2006 annual master plan report, 4,653 subdivision lots existed in Douglas County.

Anderson argued that amounted to only 11 years worth of inventory.

Public comment was divided among the audience.

Carson River Bank President Dan Dykes urged board members to seriously consider the plan.

"To dismiss it summarily would be a mistake," he said.

Former Town Board chairman and longtime resident Vic Bergstrom said there shouldn't be any change to the master plan until after the election.

"No change is needed," he said. "What are we going to do with all these houses. The market's flooded. I'd like to be able to sell my house."

Fish Springs resident Bill Merrill supported the project, both a s a member of the Sierra Nevada Land Trust and resident.

"I like the long-term plan," he said. "As a resident, it scares me that I don't know what will happen to the property.

Walt Kesteloot said he supported the project.

"You have an opportunity that comes along once in a generation to take one big chunk of property and plan it," he said. "I support it."

Gardnerville resident William Lewis warned town board members that they can't know what the future will bring.

"Science can't predict the future," the retired microbiologist said. "I was attending a meeting of the county commission seven or eight years ago where a developer was making promises about a project. Jacques Etchegoyhen laughed and said 'I've never seen a project that was built as proposed.'"

Smart Growth Coalition President Rudy McTee told board members he supported the project.

"This is a long-term project," he said. "If you turn this down now when does it come back? It could be a lot of land with a lot of nothing on it."

Board member Tom Cook almost sounded like he was going to vote for the project.

"I'm not afraid of the numbers," he said. "It took 10 years to build Chichester Estates. People think they're going to bring in 5,000 helicopters that will drop 5,000 homes and then a big plane will come with the people to live in them."

Cook said he believed the growth was in the right place, but he was concerned about where the flood waters would go.

Smith said he felt it was a good project whose time had not yet come, then made a motion to deny it.