The Douglas County Community Development director will soon decide the fate of a design review application for an approximately 152,495-square-foot Walmart Supercenter proposed within the Virginia Ranch area.
According to the Virginia Ranch Specific Plan, "The focus and emphasis driving the development plan for the Virginia Ranch was architectural motif and integration with the town. These elements form the backbone of a distinct community, which creates a distinct 'sense of place.'" There is nothing "distinct" about Walmart.
According to the Walmart Web site, there are 8,000 retail units worldwide. When you enter Gardnerville in the store finder, there are two stores within 20 miles and seven stores within 45 miles. The services offered by Walmart are not "distinct" either. Armed with the list of services at the Topsy Lane supercenter, I drove the 15 miles between Les Schwab and Walmart north. Along the way, I counted many vacant buildings, as well as the following competing businesses: four garden centers, six grocery stores, 15 fast food restaurants, five pharmacies, seven tire and lube businesses, and two vision centers.
What will happen to all these local businesses when another Walmart opens in Douglas County? We only have to look to Southern Nevada to see the possible impacts. According to the Nov. 23, 2003, Los Angeles Times, after Walmart expanded into the supermarket business in Las Vegas, Raley's closed all 18 of its stores in the area, laying off 1,400 workers.
"The principal land use within the Virginia Ranch is residential." (VRSP) With the settlement of the lawsuit, Sierra Nevada SW Enterprises, Ltd. was granted an increase of commercially zoned property from 22 acres to 100 acres (10 percent of land use to 44 percent of land use.) In addition, the VRSP "anticipated, although (did) not require, that the phasing will follow the numbered sequence of the planning areas." Instead, SNSW has chosen to jump to Phase 6, the commercial site. These two events have ignored the principal residential land use vision of the VRSP. Therefore, any commercial development should be held strictly in compliance with the details of the VRSP. Specifically, this would include the Commercial Design Guideline goals of "a village main street theme," and "parking within the retail/restaurant village should be minimized if not eliminated entirely and located as to not disrupt the streetscape." Instead, we'll have a very large Walmart parking lot, which will allow RV overnight parking, and as recently demonstrated at the north store, may be used for storage of disabled vehicles. In the design guidelines of the VRSP, the category of undesirable elements to avoid or minimize include "square, boxlike buildings" and "large blank, unarticulated wall surfaces." A Walmart conflicts with all of these design guidelines.
In the Introduction to the VRSP, under Purpose and Intent, it states: "That the development will not be detrimental to the public health, safety or welfare of persons residing or working in or adjacent to such a development; and will not be detrimental to the properties or improvements in the vicinity or to the general welfare of the county."
Not only will a Walmart force other local businesses to close and layoff employees as mentioned above, but we can also expect an increase in crime. According to the Douglas County Sheriff's Office, in the time period between May 2007 and September 2009, there were 336 calls for service to the Topsy Lane Walmart. In comparison, there were 119 calls to Target and 74 calls to Best Buy. For this same time frame, the Carson City Sheriff's Office reported 593 calls to the Market Street Walmart, compared to 106 calls to Costco. Increased crime is definitely detrimental to the general welfare of the county.
Sierra Nevada SW Enterprises, Ltd. must adhere to the Virginia Ranch Specific Plan, both in vision and substance. Mr. Mark Fosberg, representing SNSW stated at the 9/1/09 Gardnerville Town Board Meeting, "Specific plans tend not to be specific they are more concept. They are subject to being amended." If this is the case, maybe they should have called the document the Virginia Ranch Concept Plan. In the Executive Summary Overview "The Virginia Ranch Specific Plan represents a comprehensive planning effort to create a site specific framework to govern the long-term development of the area identified in the Virginia Ranch Specific Plan area." Mr. Fosberg is correct that the plan is subject to amendment. Per the plan, "If the amendment is deemed major by the director, it will be processed in the same manner as the original Specific Plan."
The proposed Walmart Supercenter can only be viewed as a major amendment to the plan. Therefore, it should be reviewed by the planning commission and county commissioners with a full public review and comment. This issue is too important to Douglas County to be left to the sole discretion of the community development director.
Linda Kleiner is a Gardnerville resident and businesswoman.
