The new Sparks land is located about 10 miles east of Sparks’ city limits and sits along the north side of Interstate 80, west of the USA Parkway interchange.
The new city land did not come into Sparks without some labor pains. The annexation request appeared on various city agendas for more than five months. City planning staff also had some concerns over bringing the land into the city limits.
In reports prepared for the Monday council meeting, staff suggested that the request be denied. The reports pointed to the lack of an area land use plan, inadequate infrastructure and an increased burden on the police and fire departments.
“(A) land use plan needs to be adopted and … we need to put facilities out there,” said Neil Krutz, city community development director. “This annexation application is premature because we don’t have the facilities.”
The city and Tahoe Reno developer Rick Wrobleski had their own back-and-forth banter, as well.
According to Krutz’s comments to the council, the city first approached Wrobleski earlier this year, asking for the annexation of his land. The request was made as the 2009 Legislature discussed making discontiguous annexation illegal. If the Legislature had done so, the discontiguous 30 acres could not have been annexed. However, the discussion never made its way into any Legislative committee in the form of a bill and died as nothing more than a rumor.
“We were asked to set an anchor,” Krutz said. “So we could have a piece of property there as an anchor to annex off of. We had another applicant come in first and place that anchor first. Then the Legislature didn’t act.”
The anchor that Krutz was referring to was a 375-acre parcel in a nearby east Sparks area. Its annexation was approved in May.
Some City Council members felt that denying the annexation request would be unfair to Wrobleski, who spent several thousand in order to submit the annexation request. Submitting a request for annexation costs the developer $3,500, according to city planners.
“I am looking at a developer who has done everything to move a project forward,” Councilman Ron Schmitt said. “There have been hundreds of thousands invested to move this thing forward. To me this is an ethical issue. If we ask a developer to do something, we should be strong enough to see that through to the end. We need to honor our commitments.”
Ratti, who voted no to the annexation in line with city staff’s recommendation, felt otherwise.
“Our role as the City Council is greater than to one individual,” she said. “Our ethical responsibility is to do responsible land use planning. (Planning that is) fiscally responsible for the community in the long haul.”
Sparks city attorney Chet Adams also went on record at the meeting as saying he opposed the annexation.
The land is now zoned for industrial development, however Wrobleski did not state what his development plans were for his land, only that he also planned to ask the city to annex his remaining properties in the area. According to city code, an annexation approval does not simultaneously approve development and building plans on the land in question.
According to Sparks senior city planner Jim Rundle, the city is meeting with Wrobleski and the handful of other land owners in the East Truckee River Canyon area to develop a land use plan that all parties can agree on. However, that process is slow going.
“Last Monday several of the larger land owners met with the planners to move forward with the land use plan,” Wrobleski said.
The plan will outline what types of buildings can be built where.
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