Winter is coming for Douglas County’s builders with county commissioners proposing a moratorium on issuing building permits until comprehensive water and traffic studies.
Commissioner Walt Nowosad suggested a moratorium at Monday’s meeting.
Both newly-selected Commission Chairman John Engels and Mark Gardner echoed concerns about water and traffic.
Gardner said the Gardnerville Ranchos is experiencing water quality issues.
Gardner called for prevention of transferring development rights from one basin to another.
Engels said Minden is pumping 1 million gallons, or roughly 3 acre-feet, of water a day to Carson City.
We have no idea how these ideas a majority of commissioners shared on Monday will translate into reality.
But we anticipate The R-C’s development beat will shift from commissioners to the courts.
On Dec. 30, Foothill resident Jim Slade repeated a question that’s been asked over the past few months.
“Why the rush?” to hear a variety of projects on the part of commissioners.
Monday’s meeting should be sufficient to explain the rush by anyone planning to build to lock down whatever approvals were required from commissioners during 2020.
We’ve heard representatives for projects say they wanted to make sure there wasn’t anything that would require them to go back to the well.
Then again, private enterprise has a way of finding the cracks in government. It will be interesting to see how the most adaptable economic system ever invented adapts to the changes 2021 must surely bring.
