In its first meeting since appointing new chairman Steve Grosz, the Spanish Springs Citizen Advisory Board on Wednesdday listened to land owners, a project manager and a few unhappy neighbors talk about a proposed land use amendment to the Spanish Springs Area Plan.

The proposed Village at the Peak project is slated for the corner of Calle De La Plata and Pyramid Highway. The commercial center, Village Green, has already been approved by the Washoe County Planning Commission and will be built directly on the corner of the busy highway and the only arterial roadway for residents.

The three landowners of the Village at the Peak project were in attendance at Wednesday’s meeting, along with Melissa Lindell from the engineering and design firm Wood Rodgers. Also, Loren Chilson with traffic consulting firm Fehr & Peers attended the meeting.

Lindell explained how the landowners would like to divide and use the land. She said that of the 110-acre parcel, about 39 acres would be used for commercial, 40 for industrial and 25 acres would be used for medium-density suburban housing, leaving about 5 acres to accommodate the county’s requirement for a 50-foot buffer from the road.

“What we are doing is trying to plan ahead,” Lindell said. “We believe this project is consistent with the Spanish Springs Area Plan and the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan.”

However, Lindell argued that the land cap that Spanish Springs has is ridiculous and defeats the area plan’s purpose of providing a reverse commute for the community. She said the owners are looking for the plan amendment to change the land’s designation from general rural and low-density suburban to accommodate the project.

Landowner Don Reese said the cap on commercial and industrial use lands in the area has made it difficult to move forward with the project.

“We have done five years of planning and three master plan changes with this project,” Reese said. “We have taken out the multi-family residence. The neighbors said they didn’t want to see apartments and we got rid of them.”

Although Reese was hoping to resolve and move his project forward peacefully, he underestimated the residents who own property close the proposed construction site.

“We’ve lived in Nevada since January 1960,” said Spanish Springs resident Ralph Theiss. “We didn’t move out here from downtown Reno to have warehouses and industrial around us.

“We sent out a petition a while ago,” Ralph added. “We got 138 signatures from people in the neighborhood that are against this.”

Other residents wanted to make sure apartments would not be built on the land. Lindell said all plans for apartment buildings had been scrapped.

Ralph’s son, Ken Theiss, was unhappy about the lack of notification about the project.

“I have the property right against all this and I have to tell you, it sucks,” Ken said. “I don’t have a problem with the corner commercial, I have a problem with the notification.”

Washoe County asks that residents within 750 feet of a new project be notified about meetings taking place to discuss the project. However, residents near the Village at the Peak project measure more than 750 feet from the site because of their properties’ large acreage.

“Noticing?” Spanish Springs resident Dan Herman said sternly. “I didn’t get notice, did anyone in here get a notice?”

The answer was a chorus of “no’s.”

Read more about the m eeting at www.dailysparkstribune.com.

New CAB member Richard Johnstone asked Lindell how residents were made aware of the project. Lindell said they were willing to meet with residents and discuss the project at any time.

“Even though you meet the letter of the law, it might not be enough,” Johnstone said.

In addition to land use concerns, residents were concerned about traffic the new project will add to the already dangerous corner of Calle de la Plata and Pyramid Highway. To make the right turn onto Calle de la Plata from northbound Pyramid Highway, residents said they must pull into the dirt to avoid getting in an accident.

Chilson said there is a possibility of having two access points for the Village at the Peak. Chilson also said that when he reviewed the Regional Transportation Commission’s plans for road work in the area up to the year 2030, many of the problems being addressed at the meeting would be resolved.

“So, you’re saying the residents and industrial trucks only have to deal with pulling out onto the Pryamid Highway for another 21 years before the highway is going to change?” board member Darcy Smernis asked.

Chilson said it would not take 21 years to see change, but the signal requirements for that intersection were not being met, which caused residents to react in outrage.

“Kiley Ranch paid millions to fix that intersection,” Ralph said pointing to Pyramid Highway and Sparks Boulevard. “There isn’t even a stick of wood out there yet.”

Chilson said putting in a traffic signal would take time and explained that land owners would help pay for it out of impact fees paid as the project is built, but added that the Nevada Department of Transportation ultimately makes decisions regarding that stretch of road.

Board member Ed Goodrich said residents can either join in to help guide growth in the area or be run over by it.

“You can either say not in my backyard until you’re blue in the face,” Goodrich said, “or you can help guide it or they’re going to build it anyway.”

“The traffic on Pyramid is only going to get worse,” CAB member Max Bartmess said. “We need a traffic light. Maybe the developer can submit some segmented plans to show when the traffic light might go in.”

Bartmess along with Lindell and Chilson said they don’t believe construction would even break ground within the next 10 to 20 years.

Board members listened patiently to both sides of the argument and will give recommendations to the project at its Nov. 10 meeting at 7 p.m. in the community center at Lazy 5 Regional Park. Lazy 5 is located at 7100 Pyramid Highway.