On Nov. 6, you will be reconsidering the Park Cattle proposal to construct 4,500 homes in Douglas County.
The moving of the school site "over the line" will not adequately address the safety issue due to falling aircraft. Falling aircraft are not controlled by an arbitrary approach zone line drawn on a map. The paramount issue is the safety of the children who are required to attend the school. The school district, the county and the taxpayers simply cannot afford the liability should an incident occur. The parents of the children should not be put in a position of placing their children in harm's way.
The proposal of low cost or affordable or attainable housing is a myth. The cost of housing and its affordability is the monthly cost - lenders look at the monthly cost, not just the sales price.
The home can have a lower price, but when you add in the monthly payments for a homeowner's association, a master homeowner's association, improvement district(s), a flood control district, a special assessment district(s), a buffer maintenance district, a park maintenance district and any other costs the developer can dump onto the buyers, the home is, in fact, no longer affordable.
Approval of this massive project is going to raise taxes for the citizens of Douglas County. Park Cattle may be offering school and other sites, but who will pay for the infrastructure and the above mentioned special assessment districts? Who will pay to build the schools, etc.? There will no doubt be bond issues sought for the taxpayers to pay for these costs. This will be in addition to the current push to support the current bond continuation. Who will pay to build the fire house(s)? The additional fire trucks? Additional sheriff vehicles? Ambulances? The buildings to house the increased staff to support the additional population and the services they demand? The Highway 395 improvements necessary to handle the increased traffic? Heybourne Road up to Stephanie Way? And the many other costs which I have not listed?
The allegation that denial of the project and adherence to the 19 acre lots will restrict access to the Carson River is a distortion of the facts. The truth is the layout of the lots determines whether or not there will river be access. Besides, the current zoning regulations permit clustering, not simply 19 acre lots.
Should you approve this project and create a list of development agreement and tentative map conditions for approval, who is going to monitor and enforce them? The Douglas County staff, the board of commissioners and the grand jury have proven to me that they are unwilling and/or incapable of enforcing adopted conditions of approval - and even enforcing the adopted building code.
When the Park family purchased this property, they knew the current zoning and its provisions. They did not offer to purchase it conditioned on the approval of a master plan amendment. They are now telling the sellers that we paid you based upon current zoning and we are now going to change the zoning and not let you participate in any additional profit on that which you sold so cheaply. That additional profit will be tens of millions of dollars.
Douglas County has a master plan - a well thought out document which was put together by its citizens seeking to establish what they want their county to look like in the future. A single entity " Park Cattle " is now trying to massively undo that which the citizens worked so long and hard to put together. That plan has provisions for some 4,500 buildable sites. To double that would put a significant and serious strain on the already stressed Douglas County infrastructure whose upgrading would cost the already over taxed taxpayers a huge sums.
During the current economic conditions, many developers have not paid the real estate taxes on their properties. This causes a cash flow problem for the county who must now, in this tight market, try to borrow the monies to cover its costs. That affects the county's bond rating and adds unnecessary work and costs. The taxpayers of Douglas County cannot afford developers who don't pay their taxes expecting the county to float them a loan.
Park Cattle has not proven the need for this gigantic project. That is reason enough to deny this project. That lack of need is emphasized and validated by the projections of the Nevada State Demographer Jeff Hardcastle in his recent report. That report states that the Douglas County population growth will continue to decelerate over the next 20 years. All those who currently own buildable properties will have their property devalued which will reduce the property tax revenue.
For the above reasons I urge you, on behalf of all the citizens of Douglas County, to disapprove the Park Cattle requested master plan amendment and its specific plan amendment.
n Stuart L. Posselt is a Minden resident and former candidate for Douglas County commission.
