Newly built homes in the Valley Knolls development in northern Douglas County. The 178-unit project was approved in 2018.
It’s going to be a busy 2025 for Douglas County planning commissioners.
This year marks five years since the last update of the county’s 1996 master plan.
It took nearly four years to approve the 20-year update of the master plan last time, but five-year updates tend to be less involved.
One project planning commissioners will working on this year is updating the growth management ordinance.
Over the 17 years the ordinance has been in effect, it hasn’t prevented a single home from being built, Community Development Director Tom Dallaire told planning commissioners at their December meeting.
Implemented in 2007, the ordinance caps building allocations in East Fork Township at a compounded rate of 2 percent, a level that has only been reached once in 2021, Dallaire said. There were plenty of allocations in the hopper to cover that year and more.
While there are houses being built in places across Carson Valley, planning commissioner Maureen Casey said she felt it was time to address the 2,077 building allocations that have added up over the years.
She proposed that the Planning Commission agendize and discuss modifying the ordinance, which would require a vote of the people.
“We should put an advisory question on the ballot to remove the rollover,” Casey said. “It would help out staff if they don’t have to track it, reduce the number of permits and allocations that would be issued. Considering all the obstacles coming before the county it’s our responsibility to have this discussion.”
The ordinance is based on the Sustainable Growth Initiative approved by voters in 2002.
Under the agreement that implemented the initiative into ordinance five years after the Supreme Court ruled it was legal the 2-percent growth cap would be compounded, with unused allocations rolling over into the next year.
The Planning Commission is advisory to Douglas County commissioners, who would have to agree to put the item on the ballot.
“Any modification to the total number or the growth rate must be put on the ballot,” Deputy District Attorney AJ Hames said.
Commissioner Mark Gardner has expressed concern with the number of allocations available in a pool.
Planning Commission Chairman Kirk Walder pointed out that looking at the actual number of allocations indicated the county’s growth rate over the past years has been closer to 1 percent, and sometimes less than that.
While projects approved since 2007 require an allocation, those projects approved the ordinance don’t.
Walder and a majority of the planning commissioners agreed that was something the advisory panel should tackle.
