Letters for October 10, 2013

Livable community?

It appears that some city employees are working with a company based in Incline Village to ram a noxious project down the throats of the good people of our city!

Earlier this year, C4 Equity LLC (a.k.a. FW Carson Company) proposed to build a truck terminal and a concrete/asphalt crushing and composting facility at 700 Gaslight Lane, adjacent to University Ridge homes. Our community was caught off guard, as the public notice did not reveal the full extent of the planned operation. Surprisingly, the Planning Commission approved the application on Feb. 6. Many citizens and the University Ridge Homeowners Association appealed. The City Council unanimously voted to revoke the permit on March 13. In addition to creating noise, dust and stench for neighbors, the project would have been a hazard to public health because of truck traffic at the intersection of Socrates Drive and Gaslight Lane. This intersection is on a downhill curve and adjacent to the Union Pacific Railroad grade crossing. UP sent the City a letter opposing the project for this reason.

Prior to the hearing before the City Council, C4 Equity threatened that if the appellants would not compromise, it would subdivide the property so it could do anything it wanted to do on parcels not adjacent to homes. The principals of C4 Equity followed through with their threat and their application for subdivision was considered at a public hearing before the Planning Commission on July 9. As at the City Council meeting, at least 100 concerned citizens appeared at the hearing and many voiced their objections. Thankfully, the Planning Commission turned down C4 Equity’s application this time around.

We were shocked to learn, a few days later, that city employees in the Community Development department decided to rule the Planning Commission’s decision null and void! They claimed that the city’s requirement for a Special Use Permit Application for subdivision of land with residential adjacency conflicted with state law, but they did not explain why. If you read the state law they cited, you will be as baffled as I am at this apparently arbitrary decision. Moreover, we do not believe that city officials have the legal authority for this action. Changing city code requires proposing a text amendment, which is reviewed by the Planning Commission with a public hearing. By de facto changing city code, these officials have violated due process and stripped Reno citizens of their rights!

It appears that to some city employees “Community Development” means company development, and let the community be damned! We deplore this outrageous action and we will fight to protect citizens’ rights.

Thomas W. Bell

University Ridge Homeowners Association

Livable community?

I just do not understand how the city is planning our community. We live in the northwest area. We lived here before the houses became shabby with dirt yards, junk cars and tagging everywhere, but I digress. Most people are happy when stores, restaurants and other amenities move closer to their homes. This [usually] means less driving and more time with our families, but not so much in the northwest area. Let me explain: For years, there was only Safeway and Albertsons. Then, of course, here comes Walmart. When the Hollywood Video store closed near what is now Save Mart, we hoped for a new place to eat or shop for clothes, but instead [we got]another auto parts store. Why? There is already an auto parts store right across the street.

Well, we saw another small building was being built in the parking lot area of Walmart, a phone store. We already have a Verizon, but no [we got] another phone store along with a doughnut shop because we cannot get doughnuts at Safeway, Save Mart or Walmart. We can, but those are not $10 a dozen. OK, so nothing comes along for a while, then we see new ground being broken—please how about an Olive Garden or maybe an Outback, Applebees, anything. We finally learn it is tire shop. Why? We have Big O tires just across the street, and yes, even frigging Walmart has a tire department. I guess from now on when we see some thing being built in our neighborhood, we will just look across the street to see what we don’t already have two or more of. Thanks, city planners.

Cecelia Soper

Reno

Sometimes it’s not

Re “Is hunting moral?” (Editorial, Sept. 26):

I grew up hunting, not as a trophy hobby, but meat for the table. My father hunted with bow and with rifle. Today, hunters are cruel amateurs. They wound animals; they kill each other; they start fires. (Rim Fire to name one of three recent serious, hunter-started fires in California.) People who don’t depend on wild animals for their food should not subject wild animals to being hunted down and killed. In states where game animals are overcrowding their territory and need thinning because they have no predators like wolves, they should be thinned by “professional hunters” who know what they are doing. The meat used to feed inmates. What grieves me most is hunting camps in the East and South. Hunters buy corn and set up a feeder station to draw the deer to their blind. Then they get to hunting season, they wait and slaughter them. Some half drunken “hunter” misses or wounds animals even then. “It’s a sport!” Hah, some sport. Trapping with leg irons should be against the law. Like Indians, we should be respectful and protective of wildlife for the benefit and balance of this clod of soil called Earth.

Mary Matzek

Henderson

Caramel apples, yum

Re “Applecart tipping?” (News, Sept. 19):

I have a tendency to fall victim to skillful advertising and public relations campaigns. When I see “Apple,” I think innovation, green and good (with the possible exception of using laborers who are slightly underage in China). I forget that they are a money grubbing, tax avoiding, socially irresponsible corporation as are most others. Nice job of casting a little sunshine on Apple’s corporate policies and for jerking me back to a healthy state of cynicism. Apple and other corporations care nothing about you unless you happen to be a stockholder.

Larry L. Wissbeck

Paonia, Colo.

No enforcement

I was crossing a crosswalk at Virginia and Thoma streets today and was nearly hit by a car that blew right by me. I was already in the middle of the crosswalk. Normally, this wouldn’t be very shocking, as this crosswalk as well as all the Virginia street crosswalks seem to constantly have problems with people yielding to pedestrians at crosswalks (unless they’re the mayor). This time though, there was a Reno police officer directly behind the vehicle. Did she hit her lights? Hell no, she just kept on cruising. Jesus, how can we expect people to stop getting run over in crosswalks when the police are too lazy to pull people over when they’re directly behind them?

Justin Dunaway

Reno