Get ready for the storm

As University of Nevada, Reno officials headed to the Reno City Planning Commission to present their vision for the heart of Reno, several things became almost immediately apparent.

While the plan is indeed ambitious, radical even—for example, it eliminates new gaming licenses in the university district annex—it seems to lack some crucial housekeeping details, like how the university proposes to remove ongoing business concerns. There are pawn shops, T-shirt shops and tattoo parlors that exist in the space where the university wants to install more Norman Rockwell-friendly businesses. (It also hopes to exclude a medical marijuana dispensary that has already applied for use on the outskirts of the district.) The ability of government and quasi-government to remove going businesses is often limited to methods the public dislikes, like eminent domain.

Another proposal that seems almost certain to raise eyebrows is that the university is asking permission in advance to close streets: “9th street and public streets, alleys and easements between 9th and 8th streets bounded by North Virginia Street and Evans Avenue may be abandoned and/or closed to public vehicular traffic to facilitate the objectives of the [University of Nevada Regional Center Plan].”

There's quite a lot in this document to be wondered at: http://tinyurl.com/n7rlj9g.