Board members Nick Zufelt, Ed Goodrich, Steve Grosz and Greg Prough voted against the project while board members Max Bartmess and Darcy Smernis supported it. Board chairman Vaughn Hartung did not vote to oppose the bar and grill but said that he did not support the project as it was proposed.
The project’s applicant, Dennis Banks Construction Co., was represented at the CAB meeting by Derek Wilson of Rubicon Design Group, LLC.
Wilson said the company is asking for a variance to build the restaurant because the property on which the bar and grill would be built is designated for general commercial use. The proposal for the La Posada Bar and Grill would add the restaurant to the corner of Pyramid Highway and La Posada.
The La Posada Bar and Grill would be more than 3,300 square feet and is proposed to be a 24-hour establishment.
Wilson said a variance is required because the parcel of land at 8895 La Posada Drive, which is the current location of the Terrible’s gas station, is about 1.2 acres and Washoe County code requires 80-foot setbacks in land designated as general commercial.
A setback is the amount of feet that property must be located off the street. The current setbacks on the property are about 20 feet.
“In my opinion, we have a civil project with quiet a bit of complicated code,” Wilson said.
Wilson said that by adding the bar and grill to the site, it makes the parcel a commercial center, a classification typically used for developments on parcels of more than 5 acres.
“This parcel does not meet the 5-acre and 80-foot setback standard of the commercial center,” Wilson said.
Hartung said he was concerned that the property would not be able to handle the traffic the bar and grill would add to the already complicated parking lot, but Wilson said he did not agree.
“I feel that functionally, meaning handling the traffic and space, this site can handle the two properties,” Wilson said. “I don’t think that county code is made to limit what property owners can do with their property.”
Washoe County Senior Planner Roger Pelham attended the meeting and tried to help the board and neighbors attending the meeting better understand county code and what the variance was requesting.
Pelham said the original building, which is now boarded up and fenced off, meets the commercial setbacks of the original code but that the code currently in use was established in 1993.
At a flustered loss for words, Hartung opened the meeting to public comment about the La Posada Bar and Grill. Spanish Springs residents who attended the meeting spoke in opposition to the project.
One resident said she lives directly behind the Bully’s located on the corner of Pyramid Highway and Eagle Canyon Road. She said she is vehemently opposed to the project because there are already two bars in the Spanish Springs neighborhood. She added that county code prohibits bars from being built within 500 feet of a neighborhood but that Bully’s was able to bypass that code because it is also a restaurant.
Other residents commented that three bars in such a small area was too many and asked if the applicant had done research to show that there would be clientele for a 24-hour bar.
Sparks resident John Bradbury said he was against the project because of the safety issues it could bring to the area.
Roger White, owner of the Lake restaurant and Buckhorn bar in the SaveMart shopping center, also said he opposed the project.
“We oppose all the variances because we had to adhere to all the codes in the Albertson’s shopping center,” White said. “It is not fair to ask for special treatment.”
Asking for special treatment was something that hit a nerve with Hartung, who said he did not appreciate that the property owners bought and built on their property with the intention of adding the bar and grill later and now are asking to be accommodated in that decision.
“I am not opposed to the business; I am opposed to how it is being squeezed in,” Hartung said. “It is disingenuous to come to us and cry foul.”
“We always try to avoid variances because, like someone said earlier, it is like getting special treatment and we don’t want that,” Wilson said.
“Of course, we’re going to have to give you special privileges,” Hartung said in response to Wilson’s comment. “And if Washoe County gives it to you as well, that just sets precedence.”
“I’m kind of tired of sitting on this board and watching things be built and then people come back asking for a change,” Zufelt said in agreement with Hartung. “You can tell they wanted this all along.”
Although the board was put off with being asked for a variance, Vaughn said he is not concerned about adding competition to the existing business market in Spanish Springs but that he is concerned with the safety side of the issue.
“I’m concerned with putting more people on the highway who have been drinking,” Hartung said.
In addition to safety concerns, the board suggested that the layout of the properties be reconsidered in order to make parking and traffic flow easier. The members also wanted the developer to address the water drainage issue in the Terrible’s gas station parking lot.
Wilson said he would be more than happy to take the suggestions given by the board back to the developer and readdress the project.
“The business doesn’t bother me,” Grosz said. “It is just the layout of the property. If you’d planned ahead, you could have better use of that property.”
Prough agreed that the plan was not well thought-out and suggested that the applicant return to the drawing board.
“I’m just not comfortable with what you’re doing here,” Prough said. “I would like you to come back with a modification to your proposal and let us look at it again.”
Wilson said he would take all the input back to the applicant and readdress the board at a later date.
The next CAB meeting will be June 10 at 7 p.m. in the community center at the Lazy 5 Regional Park. The regional park is at 7100 Pyramid Highway.
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