Gardnerville OKs change for commercial project

A proposed commercial development along Highway 395 in south Gardnerville, between Service Drive and the Carson Valley Medical Center, won the approval of the Gardnerville Town Board on Tuesday night.

Town board members voted unanimously to change 24.84 acres of agricultural land within the Virginia Ranch Specific Plan into general commercial with a planned-development overlay.

In a statement of justification, project representative Keith Ruben, of R.O. Anderson Engineering, said the property lies within a proposed receiving area, as designated by the county master plan.

"This receiving area was planned for commercial land use with the approved Virginia Ranch Specific Plan (2004)," Ruben said in his statement. "In order to zone these receiving areas to commercial, a planned development must be approved and 10 TDRs (transferable development rights) per acre must be relinquished. Within the limits of the proposed planned development, 22.14 acres are designated as receiving area. Therefore, 220 TDRs will need be relinquished."

Ruben said the TDRs applied to the property will preserve 330 acres of irrigated ranch land elsewhere in the Valley.

He also said the zone change is compatible with adjacent land uses.

"The surrounding area is dominated by commercial land uses and zoning," he said.

What type of commercial development will be built on the property has yet to be specified, but Ruben said it will most likely be a large box store on the rear portion of the site. He said infrastructure will be completed concurrently with the anchor tenant.

"A traffic impact analysis was prepared for the Virginia Ranch Specific Plan," he said. "This study assumed that the commercial area would be developed with 200,000 square feet of shopping center land use."

At build-out, developers anticipate Muller Parkway, which lies behind the property, will be completed. They also anticipate the completion of Grant Avenue, which will run between Muller and Highway 395. Part of their proposal is that Grant Avenue eventually be dedicated to the Town of Gardnerville for maintenance, as well as a new retention pond to be relocated from nearby Jewel Commercial Park.

"Instead of two draining facilities, we'll be down to one," said Town Manager Jim Park.

Plans also call for the town's abandonment of a portion of Larson Way, which runs perpendicular to the site's southern boundary.

Although town board members voted only on the zoning change, Vice Chairman Tom Cook urged developers to produce a quality product.

"These things get started, then zoom by, and everything's done, and there's a building out there that nobody anticipated," he said. "No junk. I don't want a fight to come up in two years when I'm getting ready to leave the board and I have a bellyache about it."