thank you and we will move into roll call thank you Madame vice mayor we're calling R for Wednesday February 26th 2025 Reno city council meeting vice mayor Taylor here D here Martinez here eert absent at this time Rees absent at this time Anderson here shivi absent at this time Madam vice mayor you do have a quorum of the Reno city council thank you madam clerk um we'll go into public comment but we have two proclamations first and I believe um council member Anderson is going to help us with what works Ci's Proclamation I am thank you so this morning I'm going to tell you a little bit more about what the what work City certification is about results for America has awarded 21 cities with the Bloomberg philanthropies what work City certification for exceptional use of data the certification recognizes cities who have established except exceptional data capabilities to improve people's lives this is a really great award because data data informed decisions are really important to me so I'm really proud of the City of Reno for receiving this award among the 21 cities being recognized was the City of Reno since the program was launched in 2016 over 700 cities have submitted assessments but only 104 have achieved certification highlighting Reno's commitment to datadriven decision-making Reno joins the esteemed rank of international cities including Calgary Edmonton Boston Chicago Dallas Washington DC Guatemala City Bogata and more some examples of the city's key achievements to receive this designation include we identified and adapted the hxgn cad platform as a high-quality evidence-based program to improve services for residents and make data driven decisions for Public Safety we use data de data and evidence in monthly um downtown updates and presentations to city council to publicly communicate the work and impact of government on the downtown core we use qualitative and quantitative data through Community Services or surveys and input to make policy decisions around micr Mobility downtown placemaking and redistricting so this morning I am presenting a proclamation to recognize the certification and this afternoon our team will be sending a press release and posting the official announcement on social media with that I'd like to invite all of the staff in the room who worked on this project to join me at the podium for the reading of the proclamation I reset it oh you just one meeting what's that Madame vice mayor some in the back do do they want to come to the front or okay this is really cool to hold that up it's probably really heavy oh my God is one of my favorite Awards I've ever seen okay our Proclamation whereas a growing movement of cities and city leaders are using data and evidence to more equitably deliver services and solve problems invest public dollars in programs at work increase transparency and improve the lives of residents and whereas Bloomberg philanthropy what work City certification is an international initiative launched in 2017 by Bloomberg philanthropies and led by results for America that helps cities adopt foundational data practices develop data skills throughout City staff and put in place critical data infrastructure and whereas in 2024 the City of Reno completed the what works City's certification assessment to Benchmark its data practices and to develop a road map for building the infrastructure skills and culture needed to effectively use data and evidence to deliver better service delivery and outcomes for its citizens and whereas the City of Reno has made measurable progress in its foundational data practices including committing to strong leadership that consistently communicates and upholds a culture of datadriven decision-making and designing a framework for future strategic goals that incorporate aligned and diverse performance measures and whereas what works City's certification evaluates recognizes and celebrates cities for their exceptional use of data to inform policy decisions allocate funding improve Services evaluate program Effectiveness and engage their residents there thereby connecting data directly to quality of life now therefore I Brandy Anderson on behalf of Mayor Hillary shebi do here boy proudly announced that Reno has met the whatw works cert City certification standard of Excellence for datadriven local government and achiev 2024 whatw Works City's silver certification congratulations on all of this work [Applause] okay com okay and our next Proclamation is Frontline homeless server service workers day recognition I believe Grant Denton is going to help us with this one welcome welcome all of you thank you thank you the office of the mayor the city Areno in Nevada is doing this Proclamation for the Frontline homeless service workers whereas Community well-being is shared responsibly and we're all proud to support a network of essential services that provide care support and Pathways to stability for those experiencing homelessness and whereas the case managers Outreach workers shelter staff social workers all the boots in the ground that you see here raise your hand if you're a front [Applause] worker in this vital field dedicated to themselves daily to add dedicating themselves daily to addressing the complex often urgent needs with compassion skill and resilience and these dedicated professionals offer a practical assistance and a sense of hope and dignity to some of the most vulnerable members of our community striving to ensure that no one is Left Behind and that each person has the access to the resources needed to rebuild their lives and on a daily basis they go above and beyond working long hours navigating difficult circumstances and enduring personal and professional sacrifices I'm going to read that again personal and professional sacrifices um to ensure that those they serve receive care attention and deserve without recognition without recognition or public prise the work of the homeless service Frontline workers is essential not only to individuals they directly assist but to the whole Community for the overall health safety and dignity of our entire Community now therefore Hillary shivi mayor of the city Reno of Nevada do hereby declare February 26 2025 Frontline homeless workers service day [Applause] and we and this isn't just Karma box it's not just vaa it's not just rise it's the uh it's the clean and safe team that drives and directs a lot of our Outreach it's uh it's the Sheltering folks it's um it's the guys at the um at restart the ladies at restart Miss Jackie Brown and her Squad and uh so uh thank you for allowing us to do this and and also if I just have one second I just want to want to point out that a lot of these folks these boots on the ground folks if you want to be really good at this job you you have to love people that's it you have to see something in people that you know you can grow this human we're not in the Sheltering business we're not in the Outreach business we're in the human growing business and it's really important and we we know that a lot of these folks we don't you don't get to not take your job home sometimes we take it home and it sits in us that we're working with these folks and so it's important that we acknowledge these people for all the hard work that they do in um making our community a better place so Volunteers of America thank you grant rise thank you and Karma box can we have a second of course come on brother good morning city council members and audience and colleagues from the community as a representative for vaa as well as my peers we want to say thank you for this and extending beyond what Grant said in just one second we knew it was like 10 seconds um our appreciation also extends to Reno PD uh our remza crews that are constantly supporting us outside of the shelter in our program area uh their dedication and their professionalism can't go un notice so thank you everyone thank you so much for everything that everybody does in this community very much appreciated did you want a picture yeah yeah okay let's come get a picture why don't we get all of do you mind s rise sorry sorry oh no worries um so good morning council members um I just want to say to kind of piggy back off what Grant already said um the work that we do is you know I mean it's beyond just the community you know I mean like we need our Community Partners um this is goes beyond just our just you can't just you can't just have anybody just do this like it takes a very unique human being you know I mean as the hands that were raised behind me that state that you know lived experience you know what I mean because once upon a time people used to look at lived experience being like Oh well like maybe that's the substance no there's me untreated mental health there's people that are struggling with trauma there's people that are struggling with domestic violence and all of these Natures of Life they Circle and they arrive at the front doorsteps of our shelters you know what I mean our Frontline staff deal with them on a daily basis and show them how to walk through that our Outreach teams you know um they all engage with these people and reminding them that they are they are noticed because they're just as human as you and me you know um somebody once asked me how do you not get nervous speaking in front of people I said because I don't look at people as somebody be nervous to speaking in front of um sometimes the only real difference is what I take home for a payroll and what you might you know I mean but other than that like we're all same human beings we're all just one mistake away from ending up at a doorstep and the best thing we can do is just be there and represent in the best way we can as possible and that goes to all of the teams you see here today thank you thank you bring for you know who you are thank you down too hi thank you so yeah is there still a lot of people outside May we're heading into public comment Adam clerk thank you madam vice mayor we're now going to move into opening public comment I didn't okay members of the public may hear observe and provide public comment virtually by registering through the following link which can be found on reno.gov meetings https colli i n KS period re n o period goov SLC u n c l02 hyen 26 it should be noted for those in attendance that comments are to be addressed to the mayor and Council as a whole comments heard under this item will be limited to 3 minutes per person and may pertain to matters both on and off the council's agenda Council may not take action upon any matter not agendized on today's agenda when you're called on for public comment please state your name for the record and begin speaking the timer will begin when you've stated your name and you will be afforded 3 minutes for those participating in Chambers in accordance with Council rules 6.3.1 one while in this room please be respectful disruptive behavior from audience members like clapping yelling whistling Etc which impede the meeting May result in a warning issued by the presiding officer if this Behavior continues you may be removed from chambers if you're an attendee in the zoom meeting and would like to make public comment please raise your hand at this time our first public commenter today is leam Moser followed by Terry Brooks followed by Frankie Sue delpa well I know this young lady I've known you for probably 30 years yeah it's so nice to see you go ahead Leah take it away my name is Leah Moser for the record I'm here representing the progressive leadership Alliance of Nevada as well as speaking on behalf of myself as a private citizen of Reno I am here to express my support in favor of the moratorium of data centers as proposed in agenda item D2 from a pragmatic perspective data centers are illogical specifically for the Reno metro area firstly the number of jobs that will will be be created by the project is poultry less than 10 employees will be permanently hired and NRS only requires 50% of those to be from Nevada this is hard to reconcile when one considers the amount of water our regularly drought stricken State and region will have to provide to maintain the data center secondly we have a limited amount of developable land in the waso county remaining this Council should be focused on using that land that is limited to provide a solution to our affordable housing issues or to a local business that can offer a much higher number of jobs than the data data center proposed this is not nimbyism this is simply thoughtful consideration of where certain industries best serve our community can we not look to other counties such as Story County to house these data centers saving the metro area for those to live in lastly when we consider that our city is in budget deficit we should consider looking for ways to fill that deficit by improving projects that give nevadans what they need employment opportunities to sustain a life in the Reno area 5 to 10 permanent jobs will not be enough for the Reno Community to thrive off of and given that these data centers will be given a 75% tax abatement as in law the city will further not be able to fill the budget deficit it is not easily Lucid as to why there is support for these data centers as to what um when considering how few benefits they off offer other than housing unlimited data consumption if we do not take time to think through the impacts of the unintended consequences of our mismanaged planning we will be in a larger hole in the future if we have learned anything in the recent past as a board it is that large tax abatements do not help sustain a vibrant city as we had hoped for considering the budget deficit the limited amount of jobs as well as the impact on our resources I encourage the board to find different routes to assisting data centers to exist in the Northern Nevada region the City of Reno metro area is just not the right fit thank you all right future Senator nice job Terry Brooks followed by Frankie Sue Del Papa followed by Trey abne good morning it's me Terry Brooks again and today I'd like to share with you some of my thoughts on employment and pay and what seniors have to go through when seniors get a job they usually stayed there for a long time while younger people usually don't stay there for such a long time and when seniors stay there longer they wind up getting paid more because their employers want them to stay there and accomplish more and the longer seniors stay with the same occupation then the better their chances are of getting a promotion and the more they learn about each level of a job then they more likely know about everyone else's job and when their knowledge helps to improve a business's profits then all employees there will gain from those profits seniors tend to work with others as birds of a feather and they help all employees to try to work together the older people are the long longer they have worked and they know what it's like for others who have worked so the older people are the more they know about others and the more they know about how to help others older people seem to be more caring and more wise so when they get promoted it is no surprise and the older a person gets the more they get set in their way which makes them more dependable and results in even more pay and the more an employee winds up getting paid then the longer that employee will probably have stayed when seniors stay at jobs more problems seem to be solved that's how seniors have successfully involved I would like to thank you all for listening to me today I did not come here to ask for a promotion or for a raise in pay Terry great job okay where are we at oh this is only chapter two chapter two okay so I got almost two more years to go right and for anyone that doesn't know you can um get one of Terry's published books here um at the city great job Frankie Frankie sud Del Papa followed by Trey abne followed by Henry Dalton well what a nice surprise thank you good morning uh Frankie sudel papa for the record I have lived at the same house in Reno for 45 years I think and I'm a newcomer to the neighborhood but I think that qualifies me as a dinosaur I am uh here today as a longterm resident and respectfully ask for the moratorium the Tactical pause on the data centers and related projects it's my understanding that Tuma is reviewing water use possibly establishing new criteria it has been long documented that the water demands of data centers and related projects is reason enough for the pause to explore all ramifications and plan accordingly as one as a former 49e football player who worked for me said once failure to plan is a plan to fail it is my understanding as well that the Nevada legislature is examining the issue in bills such as sb69 uh in in and of itself concerning because the way the state may be defining data centers would include crypto mining it is documented that crypto mining particularly Bitcoin mining requires a significant amount of water some some suggest as much as uh one mine would one mining episode would take would fill a bath fill a swimming pool in a backyard um some of you are too young to remember that there was a major 7-year drought during the 80s I remember it because I was trying to learn how to ski and I was called a geek because I was trying to learn how to ski on a carpet but the impacts of that drought were severe and concerning I do subscribe to the thought that when you're through changing your through that said I think a pause to examine and plan in our community is in the best interest of all of our citizens residents everyone who comes here it is time to look forward as to where we want to go and grow and how to best get there thank you for your service thank you for your time all right thank you Frankie Sue Trey Abney followed by Henry Dalton good morning uh Madame mayor uh members of the council Madame manager good to see you for the record uh Trey Abney here today representing naop Northern Nevada the largest Commercial Real Estate Association in the region I'm going to go ahead and speak on item D2 because unfortunately I have to head to Carson City uh after this so um your staff and Community stakeholders such as naop spent the last two years combing through your development code standards the council just recently voted to approve an updated and simplified code that included new language governing data centers thank ink is not even dry on that code and we believe that you should allow that to work as of right now every data center must go through a cup process and through the Planning Commission and through this body and we appreciate everyone's hard work certainly uh your staff Angela fous and others uh two years worth of attention and collaborative effort data centers are included as a newly defined use they're allowed in a broad spectrum of of zoning districts because they have far less intense impacts on surrounding properties than more traditional and Commercial uses data centers are are a foundational part of any modern economic system critical for businesses and residents alike if you are going to yet again make an update to Data Center requirements then you should go back out to the community and create a clear path forward that governs power water size locations Etc uh Angela staff report uh that you you see in your in your agenda outline has an outline from UL the Urban Land Institute that could help you with this conversation we do not need to reinvent the will here there are plenty of model jurisdictions and model codes to examine if the preference of this council is to open the code once again to work on data centers if that's the direction today we should focus on the known impacts of data center not Statewide energy policy or other policies that put the city at a competitive disadvantage due to nonuniform regulation in the region we also need to ensure that the code provides enough flexibility for the ever changing speed of technology and we would we would urge that the cup process no longer be used for these projects if you're to move forward and that it be developed according to the adopted standards by right IDE ideally any update to the area of code would prescribe operational standards that can be uniformly applied to the development of data centers in a predictable manner so each Data Center built here in the biggest little city gets to play by the same rules done well this could eliminate the need for a conditional use permit as I mentioned and ensure consistency and Development Across the city as for energy use the state legislature has already taken steps to ensure that Nevada is powered by renewable energy we have a pu for a reason power production in Nevada needs to be uniformly regulated imagine if each individual jurisdiction uh regulated our power supply Not only would that be a mess it's illegal data centers are the future they can fulfill a vital need as office and residential projects are slowing they bring in a lot of tax revenue and add very little traffic and add nothing to City service needs naop is a resource and partner for you and we will work with you if Council moves forward on further regulations thank you Madame mayor it's good to see you thanks appreciate you Henry Dalton followed by Beth McMillan followed by Beverly Harry uh good morning uh my name is Henry Dalton for the record I'm speaking today in favor of the agenda item D2 I believe that a moratorium on data centers is important and necessary at this time Reno is the fastest warming city in America and the environmental impacts that agenda item D2 would have are incred negative um this is as per every year since I've been alive the warmest winter on record I'll be graduating from the University of Nevada with a Bachelor of Science in computer science and engineering so I do have a a pretty good understanding of data centers the resource needs and the usage of them um they use a monstrous amount of water to cool their systems and they pull a huge amount of energy from the Grid in a city which has already had energy blackouts last winter um which I personally was affected by the needs of data centers in terms of environmental and economic resources is not Equitable with the value that they will provide the community um to the gentleman's Point earlier they are absolutely necessary for business needs but they need to be uh further looked at and a moratorium on this would be important to put better regulations in place in regards to them uh if a 75% tax cut is necessary uh in quotes for these data centers when we are already in a budget deficit um I don't understand how they would provide any value or benefit to citizens of Reno like myself I'm in support of this moratorium for these reasons and would be in support of one until such time as the turum Met Authority and uh NV Energy can put better restrictions and regulations in place around the usage of data centers um in both regards to the water usage as well as the economic impacts um which from my uh Outlook at this point would be very negative to the citizens and residents of Reno thank you thank you nice job Beth McMillan followed by Beverly Harry follow followed by Tyler Colton good morning I have to bring somebody to help me this is Tessa everybody she works with me she's smarter than me good morning for the record my name is Beth McMillan with arttown 30 years ago arttown was launched by the City of Reno arts and culture commission originally a Grassroots initiative it has evolved into a 31-day summer arts festival that attracts hundreds and thousands of residents and tourists to explore downtown Reno's vibrant art scene downtown Reno is undeniably Art Town's home the city of Reno and arttown share a common goal to bring people downtown over the past 30 years this area has transformed into a magnet for urban lifestyle with people appreciating restaurants the trucky River professional baseball games public art and the history of our region what was once a quiet summer month squeeze between a rodeo and a car show when many would leave for vacation has now become a beloved time when Community morale is elevated through the Arts research has shown that many people have reach located to Reno because of arttown let's explore the city's commitment to arttown public art projects and their impact on our community in 2002 arttown launched the counting sheep project showcasing 25 artistic artistically designed big horn sheep throughout the region other artists created the successful Black Sheep Project igniting the NADA daada Movement by 2015 arttown partnered with the Midtown Merchants to decorate 50 statues for the arttown people project contributing to midtown's vibrant atmosphere filled with murals restaurants at a growing real estate market for its 15th anniversary arttown organized the repano project following uh allowing artists to embellish 15 pianos this initiative led to the creation of the generator a creative workspace as well as the development of Dickerson Road as we celebrate our 30th Anniversary we are planning the enormously transformative alabas project 8822 ft High Spirit animals that illuminate at night the art town is being created in Mexico City and will begin its tour in San Francisco followed by Reno for the entirety of arttown before continuing to San Jose New York and other worldclass cities where they will be remembered forever we're grateful for the funds we have secured and if the city agrees to donate $5,000 today we will need an additional $52,000 to make this exhibit a reality this plan includes 2,000 small spirit animals that will be given to and painted by children in our community please help us make this Vision a reality and I have a few seconds to show this PowerPoint that is the size and scope that you're seeing of these The Artisan is on your left um go to the others and there's another one keep going there's another one these are what they're all going to look like these are them what they're going to look like completed illuminated at night keep going there's another one that one and his tails are going to go up like a peacock and this one is not completed um but that's the basic design of what it's going to look like so that's what it's going to look like and that's what we want to bring to downtown Reno for our town thank you thank you Beverly Harry followed by Tyler Colton followed by jeeve Iverson good morning uh for the record my name is uh Beverly Harry um my daughter and I are the founders of river Justice and have worked throughout the raring Corridor for uh 35 years at least I have so I approach the council with respect uh to um mayor shivi and Naomi derer and hope that they can help bring a more inclusive public process that allows the city council to listen to the members of the community my late husband is Norm Harry or was Norm Harry he was a water protector and a wisdom keeper who spent his life providing his teachings to Native people and and non-native people he brought them to understand the deeper meeting of work in the environmental and traditional sphere he often was drawn to the question of what is our purpose here on Earth years ago when the internet was created for our use we did not know there would be discussions about the megawatts of power and the mass amounts of water required to cool down data centers currently there are possible proposed projects of many data centers that seem pretty harmless yet they can abruptly change once companies get their foot in the door and demand to expand to larger companies or larger data centers years ago I worked as a water quality uh worked on the water quality standard for the lower trucky River I had the opportunity to learn about the total maximum daily loads and on the river with issues with oxygen total dissolved solids which are the salt species and nitrogen and phosphorus the Chucky River has been on the TMD DL list since the 1990s and has yet to be a priority for ripar and Health Restoration or a priority for keystone species like the Lan cro trout and the coui the environmental impact assessment of any proposed data center should include a hydrologic hydrologic analysis of source and potential impacts with respect to water quantity and quality a hydrologic study of groundwater and surface water could take more than one year to achieve where's the water coming from that would be used for the data centers and where will it be discharge is there any net consumption loss of water if so who is the owner of these water rights as the trucky River Basin is fully appropriated what will the water quality impacts be on the groundwater will any heat be produced by the data centers that leads to elevated water temperatures ultimately that would flow to the river thank you for for your time I appreciate um your service thank you so much Tyler Colton followed by jeeve Iverson followed by marabel Garcia hello hello hi everyone I'm here to be a really good person today usually you're not a good person is that what you're saying usually you're not well you know I'm the worst um uh so I'm here a couple things one Western Lights that was amazing congratulations what a great event and to Rachel McIntyre for putting that on uh two to Mayor shie and city manager Jackie Bryant for arranging the town hall for residents and Other Bar and restaurant owners in Midtown regarding entertainment zones and really trying to create a Level Playing Field and we look forward to that coming to council uh when that topic starts coming up but what I'm here to talk about first is um back in the 1980s I came out as a gay man here in Reno at a bar in Midtown called the shoot that was my first gay bar that's where I came out the second bar I went to was a 1099 club right across the street which now is Chapel bar back then there was a vibrant City there's a big gay community within Reno but since Co and as the times have passed all those bars have closed currently we have one gay owned gay bar in all of Reno that's all that exists for our community I didn't realize coming back to Reno that on my bingo card it would be that I was going to open up another bar or any bar in Reno but here I am before you my privilege license is coming before you for my new bar called the Seldon s lde n the Seldon is going to be the first gay owned by a Mexican queer bar for lgbtq AI people in this city that I will be opening this summer so before you is that privilege license and I wanted to come before you to document this moment in time what is happening with the Trump Administration that they're trying to take away gay rights our rights trans rights and I want to tell you that we are opening up queer spaces we are taking up space and we are going to continue to fight for our rights in the 1980s I fought for my rights when the administrations were taking my friends lives but by not helping and we're going to stand up and we're going to fight and then I hope this Council I hope that our governor and then I hope that our Senators will stand up and fight when the time comes and as we all know that time is coming and so before you will be my privilege license today that I'm very excited to say I'm able to commit to and be part of this beautiful vibrant City and um I hope you will approve it and thank you so much all right congratulations love it jeeve Iverson followed by Marbel Garcia followed by Lisa Hill good morning mayor she and council members my name is G Iverson and I want to start by saying thank you in advance for your approval of the Seldon um midtown's newest lgbtq bar um it's just not any bar though um it is lgbtq meaning it's a sanctuary for the lgbtq community a place to celebrate connect and feel safe as a DJ I've had the privilege of creating spaces where community can come Together dance and express themselves and in I work doing nonprofit Healthcare marketing and Communications for Northern Nevada hopes just a shout out to them because I love them um an organization that started as an HIV Clinic I've seen firsthand how vital safe spaces are I work with members of the lgbtq plus Community every day and I can tell you that right now people are scared with lgbtq rights under attack especially for our trans siblings right now places like this bar are not just wanted they're needed but this just isn't a safe place it's a space for expression queer art drag music and culture are being attacked across this country this bar will be a home for creativity for Joy for resistance because the real 1% that needs to be looked at under a microscope isn't the trans Community it's the billionaires this isn't just a business for me it's personal I'm also the proud partner of the bars owner Tyler Colton and I know the heart and passion going into the space it will be a home for those who might not have one a beacon of resilience in a time of insert uh in a time of uncertainty our passion is building communities so again thank you for supporting us thank you for recognizing that Reno thrives when all of its people have a place to belong nice to nice to see you we haven't usually met but I've heard a lot of nice things about you thank you I've heard a lot of about you that's not what my email says okay marabel Garcia followed by Lisa Hill followed by Kathy Fulkerson good morning and city council uh my name is Marbel Garcia and I am here today to express my full support for the Seldon a new lgbtqia bar as many of us know Reno has long been a place SP that values diversity inclusivity and Community but while we made progress safe and welcoming spaces for the lgbtq plus Community remain limited the opening of the Seldon is not just about adding another nlife venue it's about representation visibility and creating a true safe haven for people to gather celebrate and be themselves without fear or judgment or discrimination lgbtq plus spaces are more than just bars there are cultural hubs places where friendships are formed support systems are built and community members can feel seen and accepted as our city continues to grow and evolve it's critical that we support businesses that reflect the diversity of the people who live here we look forward to your approval of approval of the Seldon and recognize the importance of having a dedicated lgbtq plus space in Reno representation matters safety matters and fostering inclusivity in our city matters uh this is incredibly personal to me growing up in a space that I was not able to be openly gay uh when I hear of things like this in a space that is about to be open it's so important that we support these businesses because it does matter it makes a huge difference and we appreciate your approval and we continue we look forward to continuing to be part of this community so thank you for your time good job Lisa Hill followed by Kathy Fulkerson followed by B Fulkerson do you want me to keep her here her away um good morning I wanted to my name is Lisa Hill for the record I live in W five and I am in support of the council providing further guidance to the Planning Commission as requested by their leadership on the city's administrative interpretation of Title 18 that's D item t uh D D2 um I'm not anti- dat Center I'm not anti-development I am in favor of the city setting power limits as well as noise limits those were not included in the list and if data centers cannot meet the Power limits I am in favor of the council uh requesting that they bring their own sustainable power so as not to overburden the rate payers and to not contribute to climate change further um state level barriers have been cited by several people on the biases as an impediment for bringing your own sustainable energy just on a curs search of the Nevada ride statutes has Exempted data centers from these um from this use and so I would like to see further public investigation on this um I would I to also point out that during this interpretation process over the last couple of years you will hear the staff say that they obtained wide public comment and I want to tell you in Ward five there were six meetings in 2024 and nowhere on those agendas was there any mention of data center or the interpretation of this Title 18 there was not an opportunity for us to comment on this and in 2025 there have been no NAB meetings for us to comment on any of this the first I learned about data center approvals was at the Planning Commission meeting and through Publications like the barber brief and this is Reno there was not WID spread public ability to comment on this and so I think we need to look to you to provide further go guidance on these power limits and noise limits I would have said so if I had had the opportunity but I did not have that opportunity and in my public uh I did submit some writing and I did refer to a number of Nevada revised statutes that I would like to have um looked into and further discussed I would like to also thank Jennifer Alvarez if she's in the room for answering some questions for me and all of the development staffs I emailed them with several questions after this uh these uh Planning Commission meetings and they very graciously answered my questions I want to be a part of the solution but we as community members have not been been given an opportunity to participate in this discussion and what it means to us so thank you for hearing my comments today all right thank you so much that's not Kathy Fulkerson followed by B Fulkerson good morning mayor and council members I'm Kathy Fulkerson facilitator of third act Nevada which is a National Organization empowering seniors to protect the planet I'm here to support the Reno Planning Commission resolution that recommends adopting a temporary pause in permitting data centers data centers are already here in Reno and Across the Nation the use of data centers and AI is becoming more and more integrated into our daily lives and fundamental to our day-to-day operations data centers typically demand huge amounts of energy to operate and require either additional energy or large quantities of water for cooling systems and have been described as thermal dissipation centers the infrastructur costs to generate and deliver energy are currently born by Nevada rate payers a recently approved Data Center and Reno will demand an energy load of 30 megaw this is comparable to the total output of the steamboat geothermal power station Nevada rate payers will pay for the design construction oper ation and delivery of something equivalent to Steamboat in order to generate enough energy to meet the demand for a single data center low-income nevadans already carry severe energy burdens where more than 10% of household income goes to cover energy costs the Urban Land Land Institute report indicates that new large load energy customers such as data center operators can actually catalyze a green energy transition but only if driven by their own climate goals or I might add they're incentivized to do so fun fact in Nevada data centers are an exception to Nevada Energy's limitation on the amount of so solar energy that entities can produce the report goes on to quote the US Department of energy quote near-term data Center driven electricity demand growth is an opportunity to accelerate the buildout of Clean Energy Solutions end quote it also goes on to say quote thus the collaboration between data center operators and local governments such as you is pivotal in driving the clean energy transition and ensuring grid modernization the City of Reno has an opportunity to take the time to investigate the right way to permit large load data centers I urge you to consider pausing the development of data centers until a comprehensive permitting approach is developed thank you B Fulkerson followed by Paul Lenard followed by Bill Miller good morning uh be Fulkerson 64 year resident of Reno and Lead National organizer for third act I'm here today to voice my support for a moratorium on data centers and I also want to thank uh commissioner Basera and the Planning Commission for bringing it forward and I'm glad that uh uh we have members of the Planning Commission who aren't there just to do what they're told but who actually take a real strong stand in the Affairs of our community um you know there's no clear process for you right now to evaluate data centers based on energy based on water based on the taxes that that they pay versus the services they consume and other issues yet we're facing a huge influx of these proposals as well as expansion of existing facilities like apple uh when it comes to weighing the risks due to the potential impacts on land use infrastructure water energy environment and tax revenues basically we're all shooting in the dark it turns out geers like me have some memory and some history around this uh I know that data centers have been taking our town and our state to the cleaners since 2012 when Apple got the largest tax subsidy in State history at that time since then Apple Nova and other data centers have been able to take advantage of Nevada's corporate subsidy gravy train and amass hundreds of millions of dollars in state and local tax breaks I can also remember when Apple asked the City of Reno for even more tax breaks in 2017 as now they had clever lobbyists and they played an inside game with the City of Reno apple and its lobbyists then devised a scheme to stop paying sales tax paid by every other business to the city and they snookered this Council into including apple as part of a tourism improvement district so this lowered their sales tax rate by 94% that in the city so just to bring it from 2017 to 2025 a houseless woman who is now subject to arrest for sitting on a bench at Wingfield park has a higher tax rate than the Apple corporation which is worth $3.65 trillion data centers don't pay their way because they enjoy a 75% reduction on property sales use taxes and others uh and seniors on fixed income and the rest of us pay far more pay more for our energy than they do um so by enacting this moratorium you can help end the Free Ride for data centers and put our people first thank you Paul lart followed by Bill Miller followed by Dr Carol Peterson my name is Paul Leonard I live in uh the newly formed w six element Department complex so much has been said so eloquently by plan and by members of the Fulkerson County Fulkerson family that I really don't have that much to add to it in terms of data I rise in support of a moratorium I would prefer a permanent moratorium on the data center the Fulkerson have already pointed out many of the front loaded costs and externalities of the data center I would want to add to that one additional one backloaded which is that insiders will have the opportunity to do Bitcoin mining as insiders with prior knowledge as large investors who can use small investors as Stepping Stones it's just one more boond dle to transfer wealth from those of us who actually created through our work I was a respiratory therapist for 30 years keeping people alive and I have nothing against against technology I used it widely I am against the monopolization of the benefits of increasing production by one class of people who are a small minority of the population at the expense of all of the rest of us I thank you for your attention mayor shivi I'm sorry I don't have any more poetry these are not poetic times these are not poetic times Bill Miller followed by Dr Carol Peterson followed by Janet Nelson thanks good morning mayor shivi council members staff fellow citizens I'm Bill Miller Reena resident profoundly concerned local climate Advocate as always I open my comments with an affirmation for all this Council has done to mitigate the crisis this crisis locally planting trees installing solar generally reducing the amount of carbon the city emits hats off and yet in the blank of an eye that is actively being undercut by you by approving data centers that will force our utility to build gasf fired power plants that will Ex exponentially increase our Greenhouse emissions fact a typical 50 megawatt data center consumes as much power as 40,000 houses fact NB Energy's CEO recently predicted Northern Nevada's energy grid could quadruple in the foreseeable future to power new data centers where is that power coming from based on Nevada Energy's Byzantine business model it will come from building more methane burning power plants spewing more greenhouse gases and erasing all your gains in sustainability data centers are coming and I'm personally not opposed in fact all of the numbers I site today came from chat TPT so the real question is where do these data centers go and how do they not destroy our future first off they don't belong in Reno fact since 2010 our population has increased by 23.5% to over 238,000 fact since 2015 the median cost of housing has increased by 106% it's doubled in just 10 years fact since 2010 Washo County's job growth has been a whopping 6.6% almost twice the national average we don't need another handful of maintenance jobs first obvious inclusion instead of a gluttonous status Center Reno needs a new housing Vision that consumes fewer resources while building a vibrant new business Community to serve it only this action will support our growing population while Bringing Down the cost of housing so where do data centers belong the Tahoe Reno industrial centers or Victory Logistics come to mind with common sense requirements one data centers Supply their own green power from dead dedicated solar Farms are untapped geothermal hotspots which Nevada has in abundance two they do not overtax or pollute our scarce Water Resources second obvious conclusion data centers need Nevada more than Nevada needs them these reasonable requirements will not turn data centers away but will make them good citizens and good stewards of our fragile ecosystems one more paragraph So for the business at hand please enact the plan commission's modest request for a six-month moratorium on approving data centers and then please use that time to remember the actual needs of Reno which are people families livable communities and the creation of a thriving sustainable future not more empty soulless data centers thank you for your time Dr Carol Peterson followed by Janet Nelson hi I'm Dr Carol Peterson at w six and I'm a former chemical technology manager for Exxon Mobile for 29 years and my responsibilities included analysis of emerging Technologies and Advising The Chemical Company vice president and president of Technology options I'm not a data center expert um but I believe this rapidly changing technology deserves further study and I support the pause on data centers within read Reno's City Limits I retired here because Reno has done a good job managing the open for business and uh preserving its natural beauty and I believe that can continue even in the really challenging um case of data centers there's no question Urban data centers are now and will continue to be a part of urban landscapes in many places including densely populated countries like Germany and France they already are tremend challenges uh you you're aware uh data centers bring tremendous challenges in energy land and water and especially especially waste heat management and uh the uh the pace of Technology change with new technologies coming out in data centers um every two years on average is also a challenge but in the challenge There's an opportunity with high efficiency director ship and verion cooling higher quality waste heat uh streams are generated and they're much easier to manage in urban planning uh in some cases producing hot water for entire commercial buildings and neighborhoods so just the what if what if Peppermill were being uh built today from uh blank sheet of paper uh instead of drilling for geothermal would they simply have added uh several floors of data centers into their building designed to provide the hot water Reno's Reno citizens deserve the best possible solutions to its Urban data centers let's put the moratorium in place and consider all the options thank you Janet Nelson followed by Isa fredenthal followed by Seth McCoy [Applause] good morning um my name is Janet Nelson and I'm here to ask the Reno city council to put the horse before the cart and not the other way around by placing a temporary moratorium on allowing data centers to be built in Reno until we get more information about the impact that they would have on our community before handing out permits a specific ordinance needs to be created based on information gathered through an investigation of how they da these data centers work how much electricity and water would a proposed data center demand how big is a proposed data center size determines the impact on our community I think that data Cent should be made to generate green energy to offset their energy use and have a means to recycle water for cooling their equipment these companies need to create and maintain energy and water efficiency please allow time necessary to prepare a suitable ordinance before allowing any more data centers to be built in Reno thank you Ida Isa fredenthal followed by Seth McCoy followed by Shannon parado good morning Isa hi nice to see you thank you nice to see you thank you for having me or allowing me to speak if I set this here are you guys able to see see it uh there we go that's terrible we'll focus it give us just a second okay thank you IA fredenthal with Nevada women's fund with only 10 days left until International women's day I wanted to share some updates with you what began is a simple idea to turn the city purple hence my crazy wardrobe Choice today and encourage businesses and organizations to recognize and celebrate the contributions of women has evolved into a dayong CommunityWide movement this incredible momentum has been driven by the support of over 100 businesses government agencies and organizations all uniting to support a day that will inspire and Empower in response to our call to turn the city purple nearly every Cino in Reno and Sparks will be illuminated along with the believe and love signs the aces homes sign the airport and Marquees CommunityWide employees businesses and students thank you waso County School District are proudly wearing purple and that's just the beginning once again I'm reminded of why we are all so proud to call Nevada home this event is something we should all be proud to be a part of on behalf of Nevada women's fund our board of directors and the women we serve I want to extend our thanks to the City of Reno for your support Nevada women's fund has invested significant time and resources into this event because we believe in the women who make up Northern Nevada and we believe our city should be recognized for this incredible showing of solidarity finally I personally invite you to join us from 5:00 to 7:00 p.m. in downtown Reno where we will illuminate the iconic Reno arch in purple by participating in the iwd lightup initiative where landmarks were worldwide will be lit in purple on International women's day we aim to elevate our local efforts and the biggest little city to a global stage I want to quickly share that the cost for this event for us to light the arch um is exceeding about $22,000 we were very intentional in not making this a fundraiser not creating sponsorships around it we wanted this to be a collaborative inclusive event that everybody could be a part of with that being said if our city can support us we would be grateful for that thank you again for your support and I can't wait to celebrate International women's day with each of you thank you so much how I'm just curious how did you get all those businesses to agree to that it it's because it's amazing they care and I think it says so much about this community and it says so much about the message that we're sending which is let's just recognize and celebrate the contributions women bring and everybody wants to be a part of it oh Isa great job thank you okay we're excited March 8th 5 to7 Seth mcoy followed by Shannon parado followed by Scott Murray uh good morning my name is Seth McCoy I'm a graduate student here at UNR studying environmental engineering I'm also a representative of the uh Rena Sunrise movement and I'm here to speak in support of the proposed data center Mortor I understand that the Reno master plan aims to develop the tech sector within the city however allowing development of data centers without fully understanding their implications is unwise in my opinion in order to protect our people and our limited natural resources and in the best interest of rate payers several aspects of data centers such as power supply and cooling methods need to be regulated by the city additionally it seems doubtful to me that allowing data centers from out of state tech companies to move in and use our resources will really benefit our city economically under current regulation it should be noted that when the applicant for one of the recently approved data centers was asked why they chose Reno as a location for installation their response was that they had already exhausted their lotted resources from California that doesn't sound like an answer from a company that actually cares about the cities that they develop in if we truly want to develop Reno as a tech Hub then our Focus needs to be on local business and guaranteeing that revenue from new data centers isn't being taken to another state where it doesn't serve our economy this moratorium will give us the time to ensure that any incoming data centers will serve our City's people its economy and most importantly protect our natural resources thank you for your time all right good job thanks Shannon parado followed by Scott Murray followed by Haller ferini good morning my name is Shannon pra um and I'm here with my husband Tim and we live near South MCC in Plum Avenue and I'm here um to voice concern about the dangerous speeding traffic on McCarron I'm hopeful that working together RPD nhp and OT we can mitigate further fatalities and accidents and decrease noise pollution I've personally been witnessed to the aftermath of a m multiple fatal accidents near this intersection and seeing that is horrifying and will stay with me forever this is a popular area for bikers and Walkers and is just as dangerous for them as other drivers I observe daily driver traffic consistently cruising 65 mph plus if not more possibly the bigger issue being the modified vehicle racing drag racing s shows and many motorcycle groups that race and cruise McCarron for fun all night long noise from these recreational Racers and drivers has gotten so horrible that we've actually considered moving however feel like this is the better alternative to fight for our neighborhood we are unable to have our windows open in the summer get a good night's sleep due to the noise much less walk safely to the yogurt shop on a Saturday night um I hope that Patrol can be increased especially Thursday to Sunday evenings between 7:30 and 1:00 a.m. but I'm also hope to see installation of cameras noise cameras digital speed indicators flashing yellow lights I love Reno in my neighborhood and hope to see this issue resolved in the coming years so thank you thank you great job thank you Scott Murray followed by Haller ferini followed by Barry levenson Madame mayor distinguished city council who knew the data center stuff was so big I had no idea as a recovering software engineer I support data centers but this is really enlightening but I'm going to shift gears and talk about McCarron here uh my name is Scott mury and I'm appearing to you today to encourage you to address the safety issues on McCarron near Plum Lane as Shannon spoke about this issue extends all the way up to Colin Parkway up through Mayberry up the Fourth Street that Corridor is quite dangerous so let me Begin by giving kudos to the indot representatives who's here somewhere I met them in the elevator great can you imagine what Reena would be like if we didn't have McCaron Loop imagine what I80 and 395 would be like if we didn't have the McCaron loop it's actually a fantastic thoroughfare that allows traffic to flow nice and evenly the problem is we've become a victim of our own success the traffic is crazy on McCarron um along with thousands of law biing drivers commuting taking their kids to and from school heading to the grocery stores we're also beset with a tremendous amount of speeding tailgating and running of red lights that's really a bad problem around here this section McCaron is conducive to high-speed reckless driving street racing and more as Shannon pointed out and one of my neighbors Shannon witnessed firsthand the Collision on the corner of plumb and McCarron that resulted in the fatality so she was the first one there and imagine being there and seeing the fatality and seeing the person dead on the side of the road that's what she endured so not only have there been several fatalities on the stretch of highway but also numerous vehicle accidents there are Memorials of McCaron for you can go see those honored who have been killed and just around the corner on Mayberry is Roy Gom elementary school and I seriously cringe every time I drive through Mayberry on McCarron and I see children there yeah so I come you today not pointing fingers not laying blame and not ranting you need to do something so no we have many people in the audience here today today we want to contribute to find a solution here to the problems to improve the safety on this road it's for our families for our friends and for this great community that we love so we collectively need to put our heads together and find a way to stop the reckless driving that I fear someday the next Memorial be a child or someone we love [Music] mhm sorry or yourself right or myself it's very serious I care about the kids that go to school crossing McCarron it's scary okay thank you Scott thank you so much for being here today I'm um I hope I hope that you are staying for end Do's presentation I don't know if you are but I'll make sure that you get a copy if you don't because it's really okay good thanks so much okay Madam clerk Haller farini followed by Barry levenson followed by paxley Robinson good morning Madame mayor and council members my name is Haler finini and I'm here to talk about action item D2 I'm speaking on behalf of make the road Nevada we are a nonprofit Le organization led by working families and representing over 39,000 members across Nevada we're we're here today we're here today because because we care deeply about our communities and our future and we need your leadership to make sure data centers don't come at the expense of Reno families that's why we need strong rules set in place before any more permits are approved data centers should be required to provide their own clear energy not relying on Working Families to foot the bill we're asking you to support the text amendment that sets clear standards for data senders development to consider renewable energy we ask for you to put a pause on new permits and until those protections are in place this is about our fairness this is about making sure that families that we know's future is shaped by the needs of its people not just corporate profits we urge you to do the right thing for our families our communities and our climate thank you right good job Barry levenson followed by Pax Lee Robinson followed by C momes good morning uh mayor cie and Reno City Council Members my name is Barry levenson and I'm speaking today in strong support of item D2 the moratorium on data centers the writing is on the wall as we all know data centers are coming and we really can't stop them uh whether we want to or not I recognize this truth however we can put in place reasonable criteria and guidelines for allowing them into our community to protect the public and the environment from their effects firstly data centers consume a huge amount of energy as we all know the web data center that was just approved is a 30 megawatt facility which is enough electricity to supply about 20,000 homes who should rightly pay for the infrastructure needed to generate this electricity I believe it was simply not fair to ask the population to cover these costs Reno rate payers should not be on the hook to pay for data center electricity demand then there's the effect on Greenhouse gas emissions our state is far from our goal at 45% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 adding data centers powered by fossil fuel gas generation is going to blow a hole in the city county and state goals I believe that these data centers should be required to supply a large portion if not all of their own renewable energy including um solar with battery storage or geothermal energy we also need guard rails on water usage some data centers use a lot of of water whereas other uh there are other much more water conserving technologies that are available this issue should be studied thoroughly and our city should Define limits on the amount of water usage finally the economic benefits to our community are far from Clear especially given the large tax abatements afforded to Data Centers according to the goed website data centers may be afforded a 75% personal or no personal property tax abatement and pay a minimal sales tax of 2% for purchase of equipment this will greatly reduce the financial benefits to Reno and after construction is completed long-term employment at data centers is minuscule at about 10 employees per data center it is assumed that data centers will attract new businesses we need to verify and quantify that effect we need a clear accounting of the true economic and employment benefits that data centers provide to Reno so in summary the City of Reno should have a pause on approval of any new data centers until we fully appreciate the impacts of data centers on our electricity Supply on any projected electricity rate increases on water supply on projected greenhouse gas emissions and to fully understand the economic impacts I urge you to enact a pause in order to research and develop a more fully informed ordinance governing data centers thank you thank you so much Pax Lee Robinson followed by C mccum followed by Kelsey Owens hi good morning um I'm a resident of Ward 2 I just moved there this weekend um thank you uh I've been in Reno over seven years and I want to start um I'm in support of the data center moratorium and I want to start with a quote from someone who lives in Niagara Falls which is also a data center hub my no my home was invaded by noise it has changed my life it is constant 24 hours a day I'm here for myself and my mental health Brian Max Niagara Falls um I'm in favor of a considered and thoughtful approach to Data Center planning I am particularly concerned with the noise pollution these data centers are well known to cause they operate 24 hours 24/7 and admit low decibel noise that is similar to leaf blowers or vacuum cleaners imagine sleeping next to a vacuum cleaner or a leaf blower every night these centers can be stressful and unhealthy for residents and Wildlife um that being said there are many ways that noise levels can be mitigated including the set back setting back the data Center's location architectural design and acoustical measures um I think data centers are kind of inevitable and I think um we could plan to make them more Humane I feel like the environmental costs have been talked about a lot but I'm really concerned with data centers close to residential areas where they're going to make really unhealthy noise um I would really like the city to consider strict noise limitations and uh acoustical cons Consulting uh to make sure that these Data Centers do not harm residents thank you C mums followed by Kelsey Owens followed by Chris Bell on behalf of the Sierra Club hello for the record my name is uh C mcoles uh I'm a resident of ward 3 um I uh am writing in support or I'm actually here today in support uh of the adoption of a moratorium on data centers in uh agenda item 2 um due to the lack of established policy and long-term foresight regarding data centers each data center proposition Spurs uh discussion and Concession on individual project basis a moratorium would allow for a more thought out long-term policy uh that could include sustainable both economically and environmentally uh Environmental Policy relevant stakeholders like myself residents environmental groups and the golden calf of uh this Council business owners have yet to be engaged in the public process on policy specific to Data Centers current code is halfhazard and based on the idea that data centers are comparable to warehouses despite clear differences right no clear road map map exists for evaluating their impact on land use infrastructure water energy and tax revenues and this is troubling um now I need to discuss specifically why uh rejecting this moratorium is a terrible idea I want to ask you seriously um how is this going to help Reno's economy um I hate warehouses personally uh but at least warehouses provide large scale employment and as you know you're giving them a 75% tax abatement so they're not providing tax revenue they're going to use power the power of low estimates assume 22,000 homes worth of power and that was for the web Center alone and we will absorb the cost uh increased energy rates the Electric Power Research Institute projects that at this current rate data centers will consume nearly 20% of all electricity consumed in Nevada this is particularly concerning given that Reno was designated as the fastest warming City in the nation right moreover a lot of these data centers they from Silicon Valley they're from San Francisco and that sounds like you're allowing people from outside of Nevada to come in and extract resources from our community for draining our limited power capacity and increased LV energy rates apparently um however didn't they get kicked out of Santa Clarita the web Center for using an unacceptable amount of energy and that was water cooled web is air cooled and does not provide its own energy right I feel that this is another example of people outside Nevada conceptualizing it as a wasteland our beautiful biodiverse deserts are often concept ual as a Dumping Ground for nuclear waste and apparently expensive Hot and Loud storage we need to follow the lead of our native friends like ottom and Beverly Harry of the of the uh Northern pyute um and to uh consider is this policy good for the fish because if it's not then we're not going to have a city to stand on so I think it's something really important to consider thank you so much for your time Kelsey Owens followed by Chris Bell hi for the record my name is Kel Owens and I am here in Support also of the moratorium on the data centers item D2 I have to admit I was extremely skeptical about coming back up here to talk to you after my experience last time um hundreds of community members came to speak out against the further criminalization of our houseless neighbors but this Council chose to sit stubbornly in the pockets of a handful of businesses instead of our community I told you my story you stared at your phones or at me with dead eyes or didn't even show so yeah it's hard to come back to have any hope in this city council but I have a great deal of Hope left in this city and in this community so here I am there is so much that we still don't know about the way these data centers could potentially benefit our economy at all the more I hear the less I believe there will be any local benefit whatsoever ever so it makes me wonder whose Pockets y'all are stuck in this time so ready to make decisions not based on any proof for local Healthy Growth for Reno I ask you what's the rush why so inclined to Barrel into a future that has not been proven safe or sustainable for any of us I want to take the rest of my time to State My Endless gratitude and solidarity with the wasun numu and Neway the true locals of these lands who have Tau us so much and show us that we must treat the land as kin they know as we all I'm sorry they healed the river and brought the lontan Cutthroat tra trout back from local Extinction they have robust plans to plant trees along the riverbed and cool the river their work truly benefits us all and these Dan Setters would do nothing but Rob us of all of that progress they will rob us of our life-giving water once again I stand with the indigenous women who have taught me that water is life thank you Chris Bell followed by Rose chosa followed by Alex batter uh good morning council members and may shevy my name is Chris Bell for the record um I'm a resident of Reno and chair of the conservation chair of conservation with the Sierra club's Great Basin group I'm here to comment on item D2 of the agenda data centers are not the enemy we fully recognize their value to society their arrival with us is really a way of highlighting our expectations for the consumptive profile of a new Community member I employ for you to set parameters for developers of any new project to keep their water and power consumption sustainable our river is a precious Lifeline our grid was on track to supply more and more Renewables but the load growth of the data industry will set this back how easy and reasonable it would be to require big electricity consumers to supply their own clean power please be bold in your leadership and draft a new ordinance with some resource guard rails for new developments thank you for this opportunity to speak and thank you for all your diligent work Rose chasa followed by Alex batter followed by Robin Palmer hello my name is Rose chasa uh city council I'm here in favor of a moratorium on agenda item D2 for data centers though in act actuality I support a permanent pause to Data Center contracts in our area because they are not inevitable they're a choice I've spent my entire life in our state I was born and raised in Fallon and a resident of Reno Sparks for over 15 years I believe this has made me painfully aware of water use water access and Water waste in our state I'm also aware even as recently as our current winter that we have received such little rain and snow that it is affecting agriculture tourism and even private Urban farming citizens like myself so in our world's current climate crisis how can Reno possibly balance the needs of its people and these departments if data centers consume on average 5 million gallons of water daily how can Reno balance stewardship of our natural resources and environment if it builds devices that consume up to 50 megawatt numbers I researched without needing AI by the way of power a day which is the equivalent to the electric needs of 800 homes for a year how can we trust Reno city council with our lives if you quickly jump on fad technological advances that are already infringing on indigenous rights and affecting citizens Health Across the Nation within Reno there are also concerns for wildlife and Native plant species since I'll point out one of your proposed data center sites south of Interstate 80 is less than a mile from the much beloved Oxo nature preserve the amount of noise pollution and disruption from just the massive building project alone could be devastating for this delicate area please remember that technology might be constantly trying to briefly Dazzle us but water is life thank you Alex batter followed by Robin Palmer followed by Jame Matthews via Zoom good morning City Council Members my name is Alex batter and I'm a resident of Ward 5 as well as a representative from the Reno Sunrise movement I want to start by stating how profoundly disappointed I am in the council's decision to criminalize homelessness at the last city council meeting as one of your constituents I can't tell you how much you've let down most vulnerable people that being said I'm here to support item D2 regarding a temporary moratorium on data centers with a sincere wish that this time you listen to your constituents let me preface my comment by saying that I am not anti- dat Center I am anti- uncontrol development that offers little Economic Opportunity and brings undue stress on our area's resources a temporary moratorium on data centers will allow uh developers and City officials a chance to actually research data centers before allowing an Flux Of out ofate tech companies and land developers to continue their business ventures on the backs of Nevada taxpayers we have a serious problem here in Rena with dubious out of-state developers like Jacobs entertainment consistently gaining approval only to develop vacant Lots this is the same Jacobs entertainment who I might add still owes us a neon line District uh data centers if left unchecked may be another Avenue through which these developers might exploit our city and its snowcapped corporate tax breaks the Urban Land Institute cites Lowden County Virginia's data center alley as the source of approximately 58.5% of the County's tax revenue the irony that we offer a 75% tax abatement on data centers who employ a whopping 10 people in the first 5 years should not be lost on any of us if developers are coming to Reno because they see a potential tax break then their interests are with their company's bottom line not with boosting the Reno economy additionally a temporary moratorium on data centers will allow for further research on the environmental impacts of certain data centers not all data centers are created equal and a moratorium would allow the council time to evaluate the priorities of our shared resources to find the most environmentally sustainable option possible we are ultimately a desert climate with limited access to water so our usage of this precious resource specifically should be the utmost importance to us all to reiterate few of us are actually anti- dat Center we just want a clear and well-developed plan moving forward forward to safeguard our resources and prevent out ofate land developers from exploiting us and our city we ask with this moratorium that city council put forth set regulations and protections on land use sustainability ethical development and other issues uh Reno is a city of the future but we need to ensure that our city is developed sustainably by entities that have our best interest in mind not large corporations that see us as a fallback when they've uh overused California's resources thank you for your time Robin Palmer followed by Jame Matthews via Zoom followed by Rosie Walter beak good morning Robin Palmer climate and Community Advocate I support a text Amendment for data centers and moratorium on data centers until a text amendment is adopted data centers are typically resource intensive and can have detrimental impacts on a community and its residents a planning commissioner for Santa Clara California has likened data centers to tape worms and that they continue to quote they continue to grow they continue to feed they continue to consume resources and they provide almost nothing to the city staff eroded public trust by incorporating new language defining data centers and the requirements thereof into City of Reno code by means of administra ative interpretation bypassing the codified process for adding code text and avoiding a public review process focused on data centers thereafter a new the new data center code language was presented under the guise of code cleanup on page 205 of a 582 page document and presented to the nabs as simply added data center as new use title 18.03 20105 allows an administrative interpretation when an application is received for use not addressed by code the administrator is to consider several facets of the impact of the pro proposed use and establish standards to decrease potential impacts to the surrounding Properties or the community the full impact of data centers on our community has not been considered planning commissioner Basera provided lengthy written comment to your December 11th Reno city council meeting specifying concerns about data centers and recommending next steps other planning Commissioners have publicly stated that they provided feedback on data centers to the city that was largely disrup regarded the Reno master plan page 27 States sustainable development practices will be incouraged the trucky Meadows Regional plan is applicable regionally including to the City of Reno page 103 of the trucky Meadows Regional plan States the plan encourages a regional approach to to sustainability with sustainable development on page 109 practices that promote promote energy efficent efficient Building Technology and the use of development of alternative and renewable energy sources please hit the pause button and consider the full impact of data centers on our community thank you Jame Matthews via Zoom followed by Rosie Walter beak followed by Sandy Roth hello can you hear me we can state your name for the record and begin speaking uh yes James Matthews and I'm here because I well the last meeting that I came to it was very like a very serious situation and I spoke with the city manager um assistant and then they said that they were going to help help me with the issue well I get home and the same officers that were committing the crimes against me are the ones who called me so I don't understand what kind of help was that I I'm don't know what you guys don't understand that there is racist they are these cops this it's a division of racist cops that want black people out of here I live at 2450 limberry Street and I'm the only black person in the building and they they do horrible acts to get me out of there and then the police department I'm did 15 police reports they didn't broken my house vandalized my car they have me isolated they hacked my phone it's some so many things that have been done and I I've showed time and time again and nobody helps me at all the last person that got uh stalked by the police were ended up dead so I'm trying to get help and nobody want give me no help like why would not anybody look into it that's for a citizen is what I'm trying to understand so and then for the city manager to have their tell that they're get on top of it and then next thing you know the same officer that is doing is call me back like like do you guys know what's going on and you're going to act like you're going to help me or are you going to help me cuz this is really racism the uh Sheriff used to have these uh things implemented to run black people out and it's still going on that's what I need people to understand city manager do you hear me oh that's right you can speak so yes yes yes if you can give me a call or let me know something I would really appreciate it but this is going on right now and I have no other source in I am trapped okay thank you very much thank you very much what else say Rosie Walter beak followed by Sandy Roth followed by dorly Martinez via Zoom good morning my name is Rosie Walter uh thank you elected officials and mayor shivi for being here today and for the opportunity to speak I'm a 22 year Reno resident and a 35e resident of the Reno Tahoe region I do wholeheartedly support the item brought forward by commissioner berera and the support from the Planning Commission last month um to bring this forward to you today uh item D2 so I went ahead from going to some of those meetings and I pulled down your reimagine and wonderful report I did read it and I am going to be referencing that today because I do see a lot of parallelisms of what is the words in your report and what the data centers are actually and I feel is doing opposite so now that the door has been cracked in the City of Reno and there have been approvals as you well know the do has been cracked open and they're in the city limits but they're in they're an exact opposite of what I'm finding in your report you're encouraging growth that supports quality of life the residents desire again the folks that spoke before me the folks that aren't here I'm really hearing Echo the same vision we have for Reno and why we chose to live work and recreate here for our resources that are very limited I do realize you're trying to be fiscally environmentally responsible per page 23 and that you were going to take a proactive role in monitoring the scope of influence for your land and aligning with your resources um on page 28 you talk about collaborating with regional entities you all have the power to reach out to your partners for data centers and looking at this a regional approach rather than in a silo which is what it feels like to us in the public um it couldn't be more perfect to look at these special use permits do some fact finding on your own like I did um promote the use of sustainable development like I heard earlier from the speaker two speakers before me um I'm not seeing a Leap Forward I am hearing an outcry from the public for months that this is what it feels like I too heard about a geothermal Steamboat Springs project that's going to take 30 kilowatts that is sucking away the energy so again as a private citizen I feel I'm recycling I'm removing trash from my property but we have a permit right next to the trucky river that could leech into our river system which is all of our water so again looking at putting in some strongholds where you can look at all these on the projects um for the battery storage and Disney diesel they need 247 yes we're open for business but what kind of business so I thank you um I found a a website called Datacenter map.com check it out do your own fact finding and um please give us the pause we're asking for and that you have the power to do for all of us here and the folks that aren't here thank you Sandy Roth followed by dorly Martinez via Zoom good morning my name is Sandy Roth and I'm here to speak in support of the pause on data centers and urge you to study the issue carefully data centers consume huge amounts of water and energy and are primarily serving companies outside of Reno one data center coming into Reno has described Reno as Silicon Valley adjacent that's ludicrous um if they really want to build the center that is adjacent to the Silicon Valley they should consider San Francisco or maybe Boren County but it is fair to ask Nevada to host data centers commensurate with our needs and burdens but we should not be the country's Dumping Ground for data centers that divert resources from Reno residents and from businesses that actually create jobs to serve Reno residents we need clear and responsible criteria for permitting centers in Reno it has been obvious to me that even the Planning Commission is confused right now there are not clear criteria and data centers are obviously not warehouses there should not be greenwashing which we have seen from these data center applicants one data center applicant was trying to portray themselves as being responsible with water because they would have a lowf flow toilet for their handful of employees but their data center would have consumed enormous amounts of water to cool another data center tried to portray themselves as being responsible with energy because they would have used NV Energy's existing renewable energy resources that just would have diverted the renewable energy resources from from Nevada residents and businesses and required more fossil fuel energy for those other people it would these data centers are going to create huge demands on our energy grid it is going to impose costs and increase rates and this is something that you all need to study and that takes time it takes effort so it also takes input from the public which really hasn't happened please take the time and effort to responsibly study the impact of these data centers on Reno on Reno businesses and on our resources and the environment that is responsible for you to do please take the Public's comment into account which hasn't been done so far thank you again I urge you to pause think study and draft responsible criteria thank you okay thank you so much um I did just want to bring up because I've heard it a couple times um if if you guys know ways that we can better alert you because we do have to public notice our agendas and um it's it's required by law to make sure that we do public noticing and Outreach before we post an agenda so anytime there's something that has been on the agenda that you um that the public knows about it and then there's a certain time frame I think Jackie like what is it 14 days we we tried to do it earlier because I want to make sure that everyone follows those agendas so that you have the opportunity any whether it's a housing issue or anything like that but if you have better ideas if there's places that you um are sort of using regularly whether you know some people use uh is it neighborly or you know things like that so if you have some ideas please let us know so we can make sure that we're getting you the information in time so you can come down and comment on some of the issues that you care about so we really do um try to get that information out there so please let us know what would be helpful to you okay Madam clerk go ahead dorly Martinez via Zoom followed by Nancy and leader and I just like to State for the record that council member eert has been present online since 11:39 hi councilwoman Ebert thanks for joining good morning could you guys hear me okay yes just a little low oh I'm Madam mayor good morning this is D Martinez um good morning to you and the council I Just Want to Thank You Madame mayor and all the council and all all the things that you guys are doing um I just I'm thankful that you guys did the homeless uh issue guess there's there's a place that they can go just an example we I on work five and we walk a lot me and my husband who is low vision and I have a service dog we were on McCarron going on Mayan and I I I'm totally blind Madame may as you know but I have excellent hearing and so I was walking by with my dog and the homeless people were then they goes watch this she's going to trip over those three piles of rocks that I that I put on the sidewalk my dog maneuvered around it and I turned around and told my husband and I told those people I said you know I'm blind but I have excellent hearing that you should not be doing that it's not safe and they laughed it off and just kind of you know went on their way so I appreciate what you guys are doing because sidewalk is for everyone I know there's good actors and Bad actors and we all try to do better and make our city um you know biggest little city and accessible City for everyone and I thank you so much for all that you do and and keep doing what you're doing you guys are the best and thank you madam clerk you rock byebye Dora thank you thank you so much I'm so sorry to hear that and thank you everything you're doing on access Advisory Board I'm hearing great things so thanks for being our champion oh thank you Madame mayor I'll be mute now Nancy and leader hello for the record I'm Nancy and leader I have lived in my house in North Reno since November 1965 wow so I'm here as a longtime resident I've been active in Community Affairs all that time I raised my three sons in that house they all three married local women I have 11 grandchildren who live in Reno and we all vote of course and I'm Not Afraid or reluctant forena to grow I've seen a lot of growth in that time growth has facilitated my family remaining in Reno and being able to work here however I'm here to ask each of you to vote for a maritor on data processing center permitting and to to direct the staff to research the needs of such centers the requirements for their work and to initiate necessary text amendments to our code rather than go through the list of things that you have heard this morning I'll just remind you of what you've heard about noise limits are necessary in order to not in order to protect Reno residents and people who need to come here because as we continue to grow we have more people coming as employees maybe not in data centers but in something else that we're facilitating so noise limits you heard about being necessary water use perhaps the use of recycled water perhaps um there are other systems where the data center doesn't need to use so much water power use and generation we heard a lot about that waste heat management and we're already hot in Reno the number of employees that are used whether they benefit Reno or not the taxes that come in or don't come in if it doesn't come in if taxes don't come in then the use of Reno facilities that are not paid for police and fire and environmental concerns so you've heard multiple suggestions for keeping Reno livable while allowing data centers please vote accordingly thank you thank you so much how come I sense you've been here since 65 but I I think I swear that I sense Bostonian accent because my folks came here before I did and I kept taking them back to Rhode Island in southern Mass oh so I kept the accent every two years I would take them back all right I was just thinking that's not aeno ACC set yeah and since they died and you didn't lose it since they died in ' 08 I've continued going back periodically good for you okay all right thank you thanks nanyan Madame mayor with that we have no additional public comment registered we did received nine comments which were General in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to yesterday February 25th at 4 p.m. these comments were written correspondents received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by emails to our office copies of these have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on reno.gov meetings two letters in favor one letter in opposition and six letters of concern with that we're moving on to item A4 approval of the agenda all right thank you at this time I'm actually going to send it to uh city manager Jackie Bryant do you have any updates that you would like to give us on this agenda uh thank you manag um mayor the only thing that we have is that we are supposed to go in order once we do consent poll we'll do items D5 D6 d8 then pulled consent items and we have a 230 times certain for the ballroom budget in CIP that proposal um if you accept is to get the certain guest that we have presenting out sooner rather than later okay great thank you so much uh go ahead Council andur yeah Madame man manager um I know you said uh Miss Ebert's online or I guess the clerk did um did did she talk to you at all about um time Center uh sorry time certain for D2 she had mentioned in passing that she was going to request that we don't have a time certain for D2 we do for D4 um D2 is scheduled later in the day and it just depends on how long this day is going to go so what is D4 time Ballroom budget and CIP and what time is it 2:30 p.m. 2:30 okay okay okay motion to approve all right thank you so much I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries okay uh Madame clerk approval of the minutes motion to approve I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay we're going to head into consent at this time I'm going to ask Madam clerk do you have any public comment for consent Madame mayor we do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence for our consent consent agenda okay uh then I'm going to ask council members if they have any items to pull I'm going to start with you councilwoman Anderson go ahead I do not okay councilman Martinez nothing for me Madam councilwoman Taylor no ma'am councilwoman um sorry derer yeah uh just a couple b11 and b12 which go together West wash Dam B13 which is the uh uh support for nominating Fourth Street on the national register the as a historic district and and then item B18 uh which is a donation to B City okay so B 11 12 and 13 11 12 13 and B 18 okay thank you so much Council nebert uh no not at this time thank you okay thanks so much okay with that being said I'm going to ask for a motion to approve all other items on the consent agenda so moved I have a motion from councilwoman D I have a second from councilwoman Taylor all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay we're going to head into item b11 all right def oh sorry Madame mayor we're actually going to move into item D5 David five do you want the staff the these are very quick yeah let's um I would like to get into consent really quickly okay they're very fast they're fast okay it's very fast all right let's do it all right so for item b11 and b12 the reason I pulled it off the consent agenda is this is a project that has been in the works for over 10 years um it has um periodically had funding no funding funding no funding and finally we are here for those um is there somebody to speak to this yes thank you m could you just tell us where it is so that people know because westw Dam that could be anywhere in Reno and uh what the plan is and this I believe is in Ward five I'm going to say at this time uh Madame mayor council members John Simpson um engineering manager and Utility Services um to answer your question West wash dam is located in northwest wind Reno um it's inside the McCarron Loop we have UNR McCaron and I80 it's just um to the west of uh Keystone Boulevard um excuse me I'm uh running down from my office oh take a breath you're fine you're doing good so the uh the the West wash Dam um originally started in 2019 where we looked at um updating the dam it's over 60 years old and um bringing it to current standard um initially we started on that project there was some delays and um since then we've moved forward with the environmental assessment yeah for the project um we're currently in the environmental assessment of that project right now um this item that we have before you today is to extend the work Associated to the um geotechnical and seismic stability of the dam as part of that assessment thank you so much and I just wanted to say why I've asked them to highlight this many people don't realize that right in our urban city we have something called a high Hazard Dam which is at risk of failing and the whole point of this I think is to shore up the dam rehabilitate it make sure it's safe and um also make sure so if we do have an earthquake which we do and we've had a whole swarm in Northwest Reno that um this Dam should there be water behind it which there's not always but should there be um we don't want that water pouring down on top of HMS and one of the things that was done and I don't know the year but I think it was in the 70 80 time frame houses were actually built in this drainage so houses are situated right below the dam so if something happens to the dam those houses could potentially be impacted in those homes and it's very difficult to evacuate I think there's only one maybe two ways out of that area um so it's a it's a high Hazard area it's right in urban Reno and we we often don't know that we have those areas so I want to celebrate the staff for for getting this on the agenda for getting the funds this is over on b11 over $3 million to take care of an issue we should not approve homes below dams this is a not this was years ago decades ago this is a non-standard approval process now even since I've been on Council we've approved homes Bel low dams that are also considered high Hazard dams and I just want us to all be aware of it I won't be on Council forever and I thank you for your time so don't know if there's any questions but I'd like to make a motion yeah I'd like to move to approve item B1 and b12 all right thank you so much I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously all right thank you good job okay heading into item what 14 B13 oh 13 sorry B13 um we are to award uh acceptance of a grant for $18,000 and I just wanted to identify that the it's the Nevada state historic preservation office that is giving this money to us to prepare a proposal uh a national proposal my understanding to designate East Fourth street so East Fourth street again right in the middle of Reno um as a very special historic district this is where we've um set up the Fourth Street Corridor and I guess would you like to address us miss uh sure Ashley Atty assistant city manager for the record uh Megan arts and culture manager was not able to join us so I thought I'd hop in uh this is actually for phase two of a grant that Council approved back in October as we know Fourth Street has a very rich Heritage and cultural history in our community um this is a state required match it is through shipo the state historic preservation office so we would be seeking approval to accept the grant uh it is a $122,000 cash match which has been budgeted for this fiscal year and the goal of this and identifying the East Fourth Street Corridor as a histor area will allow a lot of those businesses to be eligible for federal grants and funds that they would otherwise not be eligible for for a lot of their business Renovations so to restore their business facades the interior to preserve the buildings is to preserve mostly the exterior of the buildings but yes correct okay well I think it's terrific and I really think it will continue to help um develop the economic Vitality of four Street um it's become so becoming so well known as a district and I'm just glad that the city can support this Economic Development so I'd like to make a motion unless anyone has any please uh for B13 I'd like to motion to accept this $8,000 okay thank you so much I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay heading into uh B8 is it 18 yeah P B18 time has be so anyway um B18 I just wanted to thank council member ree for um offering $500 to be City this was an initiative that started about two years ago to recognize how important bees are to our community and um I just wanted to go on record that I plan to match uh council member ree's donation in a in a future agenda um I I find the work of the biggest little B City uh the Zer society and the B campus to be incredibly important to our future in Reno all right awesome don't you have a little bee farm in your I do your house just a note I had several hives unfortunately this last year we got a bear in our yard who thought this honey was phenomenal and decided to destroy the hives uh we moved the remaining beaves out of the area to for protection but they did not make it so we'll be starting fresh this year thank you thanks so much all right I have a motion from you correct yeah uh second from councilwoman Anderson all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries thank you okay I think that was five minutes okay thanks so much okay Madam clerk I'm sending it back to you thank you Madame mayor we're moving on to item D5 David five okay cool do we have any public comment on item D5 we do not have any public comment we did receive correspondence on item D5 5 which has been distributed to the council as one letter of support okay thank you so much all right Chief n the floor is yours take it away I'm excited to see what uh your presentation looks like thank you uh Chief n for the record and this is not just my presentation but this is multiple agencies uh State regional and local that play a part in maintaining uh McCarron throughout our region so it's important to acknowledge what everybody does in this group we all have our own individual and Collective roles we work very well together so with me today we have OT uh the state of Nevada through endot owns McCarron they're in charge of the Capital Improvements maintenance street sweeping striping snow removal traffic signage crosswalks and Street lighting so it's very important to have um them here to be a part of this conversation as some of the uh things that we're going to talk about do have to do with a lot of our different partners RTC is a metropolitan planning organization they oversee the planning of our transportation system and they've recently col collaborated with endot on a corridor study of McCarron Boulevard that you'll hear more about as this move on through the city AR Reno you're going to have your Public Works team they handle traffic signals through an interlocal and often plays as the connector so they share the local constituent concerns with our appropriate agencies for resolution and then on our enforcement side you're going to see Areno police department and Nevada Highway Patrol work together for enforcement um with RPD as a primary lead and handling traffic accidents and fatalities but you're going to hear about our partnership and what we do together and so today we're going to look at TR crash data Trends and efforts that are planned along the roadway uh should be important to note that the McCarron's not the only state route uh that are currently covered by the Reno Police Department we also have uh North Virginia Street and kitsy that are also part of that uh area we do a lot of work on those straight State routes we've issued over a thousand uh citations in that area and we have had uh 400 handled 479 crashes on all of our state routes so that's not just McCarron specific which we will get into I don't know where my clicker is thank you I'm glad you were over there for me um all right so we're going to start off by looking at crashes managed by Reno Police Department in 2024 along McCarron so this is within the Reno City Limits so there is a portion of McCarron that falls into Sparks so I'm not going to speak about that CU I don't uh have their information I'm going to talk about the stuff that's specific to Reno City Limits so in these we've had 247 crashes and or collisions we sometimes refer to collisions or crashes as accidents we do not like that term in law enforcement and through the safety mechanisms that we're working through because we do not know what caused that actual Collision until we were so we're going to call them crashes here as we're talking about it not accidents as you can see in that of those four were uh fatal injuries a majority of those are no injures IES or somebody claimed an injury so that's a minor injury where they were uh maybe you could even see a visible injury were not treated so it's kind of an interesting phenomenon how we look at that no reported injuries suspected minor injuries or serious injuries are the way that we uh brand these and look through them we have here highlighted our high crash collisions where it where are these collisions primarily occurring and you can see that both sides of 395 on mcaren of Virginia South Virginia and then the 3 95 on the North side and then McCarron and mayanne and that those heat Maps show that those are they're not exactly the specific intersections but they're a little bit on either side of those intersections that are our high fatality ACD or I'm sorry our high Collision locations not fatalities those are high Collision locations I'm going to move forward in just a second and I'm going to tell you right now off the bat that none of our collisions that have happened of none of our fatality collisions that happened in 2024 were in the same area is where we have the high frequency of Crash accidents they're not in the same space in 2025 we did have a fatality Collision in one of those but they're not primarily where we're going to see our fatality collisions and the reason is those are going to be where we see majority of accidents is are high uh traffic areas so places where you see more traffic is where you're going to see more collisions and like it looks on the map most of those are not injury collisions they're collisions where minor fender benders people uh rear end accidents Lane changing those types of things but there were you're going to see a concentration of more Vehicles you're going to see more accidents it's a pretty much a normal phenomenon that we see in our traffic control can you just it said suspected minor what it uh suspected minor would be if we saw that's a that's injury so not um person okay that's those are all injuries I'm like wow there's a lot of miners no driving not juveniles so we'll separate those into juveniles this has nothing to do with the age of the involved people this is the severity of the accident so what did the officers see when they get there as far as the ne the injuries or suspected injuries to the people that are involved oh yeah no I know I just thought you should clarify it not miners not not juveniles right not spelled so moving forward um we are going to look at where our fatality collisions occurred so looking at fatality collisions these are the four that happened um in 2024 so it should be it's important to know what what are these what happened during these collisions the one at Mayan was a pedestrian Collision The Pedestrian was walking in the travel Lane and was impaired by narcotics so The Pedestrian was found to be at fault speed was not a factor it was a person in the roadway on the The Plum location um actually I'm going to move to Lakeside first because that's the next one that happened uh that is speed and intoxicants that was a person that had a high blood alcohol level and caused that accident in the one um and that's a motorcycle and then at Plum we also had a in a speed and an intoxicant with the people that were involved in that those were Street Racers that were happening in that location so two vehicles were involved in street racing when that accident uh or crash occurred and the last one that we had was a driver that suffered a heart attack so they did not the Collision was nothing to do with the roadway nothing to do with their driving or a vehicle they had a medical emergency and then hit a tree so that in some standards wouldn't even be considered an A in a collision or fatality because it the cause of the accident was not what caused their death it was caused by a medical emergency but according to the NRS we have to keep those in there so it's important to note that these that the fatality collisions that we saw the only person that was the fatality was involved the person that was most at fault in these accidents also and speed is a factor in all but three of them or I'm sorry all but one of them three not one looking for enforcement activities what are we doing and McCarron what are we in uh Nevada Highway Patrol doing on on McCaron you can see our data here we have seen that the crash numbers on our in our portion of the McCarron Loop in the between 2023 and 2024 have actually decreased so we have less crashes La in 2024 than we did in 2023 so in the portion where the Nevada Highway Patrol took those so that would be in the Sparks area that's going to be an increase there so that includes that city of Sparks so what are we doing to prevent these types of incidents and and accidents happening we're really working on combined efforts so we have done joining forces where we've had multiple citations issued our 2024 joining forces uh operation has already yielded 170 uh citations in 2024 we are now we had 303 citations so there is a lot of um there is a lot of enforcement happening in these areas to try to prevent the collisions when we look back at the cause of most of our collisions and our big accidents speed is the factor in all of them it's people that are driving over the speed limit and we're not talking about people that are driving over the speed limit by five or 10 miles an hour we are talking double the speed limit 25 and 30 m an hour over upcoming you're going to see a lot of things that we're going to do together we're going to continue the joining forces operation in the month of March we have two dates specific where our motor officers and nhp motor officers are going to do collaborative efforts and enforcement together in these areas and we focus on the areas where the crashes are occurring that's what our number one priority is where crashes occurring how can we prevent those accidents and then moving into doing our specific uh enforcement in there one of the things I'm excited to announce we just got kind of uh approval today and we're going to move forward with it is use utilizing the use of Speed trailer or radar equipment that can identify who what vehicle this is and send a notice to the registered owner of that vehicle that they were speeding in that area so if they're doing we're going to set the bar more than 20 M hour over the uh the posted speed limit if we see that somebody is doing that the radar trailer picks it up that company will send a notice letting the registered owner of that vehicle know that their vehicle was seen going too fast on McCarron so it's it's an attempt to try and say maybe you aren't driving that vehicle but know we're watching you if you are but if you know who's driving your vehicle and going too fast maybe you have a child a teenager somebody else maybe you even sold your car your car is is creating a danger in that area so we're giving people that additional warning so that's going to be an exciting thing that you'll see coming up in the next few months so with that talking about moving into the next step we I am going to turn it over I don't remember who I turn it over to so I have to look cuz now I've forgotten and I move past my notes like I always do I just start talking and go past all of my notes it's all good you're ready I thought you were at the end so that's why I got confused I confused myself so turning it over to Lacy I'll move all my stuff right you and I will leave you the thank you apparently I can't get myself stuff settled all right I'm Lacy tler I'm the chief Traffic Safety engineer with the Nevada Department of Transportation and thank you for the opportunity to talk endot manages the Nevada Highway Safety Improvement program with the goal of reducing fatalities and serious injuries on all of Nevada's rways to do so and do is using the Safe Systems approach to Traffic Safety the Safe Systems approach builds upon the traditional ease of engineering education and enforcement and really sets the stage for collaborative efforts of endot local Road owners enforcement public health professionals and all safety Partners like the elected the community in this room the graphic on the screen describes the approach starting with the principles on the outside of the Ring deaths and serious injuries are unacceptable A Safe Systems approach prioritize the elimination of crashes that result in deaths and serious injuries humans make mistakes people will inevitably make mistakes in decisions that can lead to or contribute to crashes but the transportation system can be designed and operated to accommodate certain types of and levels of human mistakes and avoid deaths and serious injuries when crashes occur humans are vulnerable human bodies have physical limits for tolerating crash forces before death or Serious injury occurs therefore it is critical to design and operate a transportation system that is human cetric and accommodates physical human vulnerabilities respon responsibility is shared all stakeholders including government at all levels industry nonprofit advocacy researchers and the general public are vital in preventing fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways safety is proactive proactive tools should be used to identify and address safety issues in the transportation system rather than waiting for a crash to occur and reacting afterwards and last redundancy is crucial reducing risk that require all parts of the transportation system be strengthened so if one part fails the other parts are still protecting people the five elements are in the center of the graphic safer people so encouraging safe and responsible behavior by all people who use our roadways and con creating conditions that prioritize their ability to reach their destinations destination unharmed safer roads so designing roadway environments to mitigate human mistakes and account for injury tolerances encourage saer behaviors and to facilitate safe travel for the most vulnerable users safer Vehicles expand the availability of Vehicle Systems and features that help prevent crashes and minimize the impact of those crashes on both occupants and non- occupants safer speeds promoting safer speeds on all roadway environments through a combination of thoughtful context appropriate roadway design appropriate speed limit setting targeted education Outreach campaigns and enforcement and post crash care so enhancing the survivability of crashes through expedient access to Emergency Medical Care while creating a safe working environment for Vital First Responders and preventing secondary crashes through robust traffic incident management practices so while the safe system's approach does identify a number of things outside of the Dot's direct purview thoughtful Partnerships um all elements and principles can be influenced so now I'd like to highlight a few Safe Systems Partnerships and we're we'll start with the Regional Transportation Commission of wo County so the RTC serves as the Region's Metropolitan planning organization one of rtc's key responsibilities of the Regional Transportation Planning and public engagement in the area in early 2023 the dot and RTC completed a planning effort to develop recommendations for McCarron using data and Community imp put more information including the community input can be found on the RTC washa website since then 14 projects have been identified in the RTC washa's Regional Transportation plan upcoming projects include safety and operational improvements in Reno between Plum Lane and South Virginia Street and over in Sparks between El Rancho Drive and Rock Boulevard the do does look forward to partnering with RTC on these and future initiatives next is the Nevada advisory committee on traffic safety the committee it's often called nvx and so I'll use that acronym uh as a collaboration of effort of multiple Traffic Safety Partners member agencies include and it's a long list so I apologize but the Nevada Departments of Transportation public safety education Health and Human Services Motor Vehicles the Nevada Association of counties Nevada League of cities Nevada sheriffs and Chiefs Nevada State Assembly and Senate committees on growth and infrastructure administrated Office of the courts inner Tribal Council of Nevada Nevada system of higher education and all four Nevada metropolitan planning organizations including RTC was the committee was established at the 81st session of n legislature and is tasked with producing a report identifying multi-disciplinary Traffic Safety needs and opportun ities in statute the committee is managed by endot but the committee is leadership from all of these agencies and the committee's work can be found in detail on Zero fatalities envy.com Envy acts prepares an annual report for the governor and legislature this slide shows a summary of that report it's data driven and focused on best practices that reduce or prevent deaths and injury on Nevada's roadways here we see a summary of the nvx traffic safety priorities included in the 2024 annual report all priorities have data and practice to support their efficacy in reducing fatal and serious injury crashes last year last summer actually the nvx representative from the state senate committee on growth and infrastructure asked the committee to propose two Traffic Safety initiatives to the 83rd or current session the the committee selected two datab backed initiatives including impaired driving prevention and speed safety cameras the committee and other interested partners are tracking this and other potential legislation the Senate growth and infrastructure meeting on February 13th chair relle win agreed to hear both build draft requests proposed by nvx they're identified without language at this to date I checked right before this as 4342 1 and 43422 language is expected any day now and it will be based on the Safe Systems approach language understanding their impact on reducing fatal and serious injuries I do want to point out the last two on this slide um these do not require policy change because any agency and any road owner can undertake initiatives for improving intersections and appropriate speed limits um next steps a lot of this came from Chief n so I may call her up here if I get it wrong um but continued implementation is more target target enforcement distracted diving initiatives Public Safety campaigns really helping the public understand speed and speeding related issues and the impacts on their bodies uh also the predictive an analysis that as part of the realtime information center and I'm also proud to announce before this I had a conversation with major Muno to continue some of our collaboration efforts for better data with the state police and with that we welcome questions all right you made it yep all right okay who's next oh I was the last presenter okay well usually we run through the whole presentation then we we'll say no more presentation okay the last side of presentation okay good all right then I'm bring it back to the body right now uh Madam clerk any public comment no okay uh questions I'm going to start with to the left of me Council dur go ahead all right thank you so much um first of all big thank you to you Madame mayor I know it was several my constituents that reached out to you they they hadn't previously reached out to me but I really appreciate your request for this item um it's something I've wondered about myself and it's great to get an update on this very busy road I also want to thank our law enforcement um uh professionals and our road experts that are here with us today from all three agencies uh City RTC and endot um a big section of this road is in my ward so between Virginia Street starting in the South going all the way North up to about U Mayberry approximately um I have focused on Street safety in my previous area my ward is specifically street racing putting in pedestrian uh Crossing flashing lights with our public works department all over uh South Reno and Central Reno has been a big initiative of mine most recently working with RTC they're today continuing to build a sidewalk along plumis I mean it's amazing what is happening there uh they are fast at work it's awesome um this is part two something that um commissioner Alexis Hill and I uh co-sponsored and requested a grant through RTC to get done it is getting done it's another example of how we keep people safe to the point about Zero fatalities many of these have been pedestrian that the collisions or crashes not accidents have been pedestrian involved um not just vehicle on vehicle um it's also why when we get developments here that are situated along McCarron such as Lakeside which is currently being reviewed uh in the appeal we had a previous one for the lak Ridge golf course that was being reviewed that's no longer um being applied for and we've had others along McCarron and others along other busy streets I always ask our staff to take a really hard look at what is going on with traffic and most recently matter Academy where there was uh major roads coming together and No No Light No no way for pedestrians to cross including thousands of children so I wanted to next um I I think one of of the proposals that um our police chief made was very interesting so for those that were not aware we're not allowed to issue citations via camera it's illegal in Nevada but what I like is the twist to issue notices that you're speeding using these cameras I think that's a brilliant next step and I really think it'll help I don't know if you want to pick 20 miles over or something else but I really do think it'll help and I hope to find out during this presentation of the 380 citations I think that you did last year and Reno how many of those were over 20 M hour is that 10 50 you know I'm trying to get a sense of who would get these notices all right thank you all right thanks so much okay go ahead vice mayor thank you madam mayor thank you for the presentation um I just have a couple questions but first a comment when we build roadways or design roadways we're looking at um engineering behavioral and emergency response and from my previous life there were several different things that we had worked on the Strategic highway safety plan Zero fatalities Vision zero teen fatalities and now we have a safe systems approach which I think are all moving in the right direction I'm just wondering does the Safe Systems approach is that the umbrella now that everything is under or how do all of these things work together and they're all great efforts no that's a brilliant question and it's one I get all the time brilliant um so thank you for the setup the Safe Systems approach um was developed because we realized that we were missing all these little pieces and the community or electeds I'm sorry I'm using this example again often felt like they weren't part of the traffic safety world and your efforts hearing us today are as important is what we're doing as state agencies as enforcement Partners so it's really kind of that umbrella umbrella way to capture everything and realize that we all build up on each other to to make and then you mentioned traffic incident management too which is super important is that rolled up underneath that umbrella too and and when I was when I remember there were specific objectives and goals and things that you could actually measure to make sure that you were meeting what you were trying to achieve is that still part of what's going on so traffic incident management is part of post crash care and while we have a lot of measurable metrics as part of traffic incident management post postc crash care is all of that is a collaborative e effort so it may be harder to measure the exact postc crash care but we will continue to measure response times clearance times Etc moving forward okay thank you so much absolutely okay um I don't see any I can't I can't tell no yes please sorry you're yes I can't I can't tell if your light is on sorry Miguel no worries yeah move your um there you go perfect go ahead yeah thanks M here I just want to uh show my appreciation for the presentation for you all coming together um as sort of explaining uh what we are currently doing to improve safety obviously all of us have heard multiple times from our constituents about dangers and safety concerns along McCaren Corridor so I appreciate you all putting this presentation together I was curious about some of the uh collisions that you had reported on those just the 12 that were not reported curious how you if they weren't reported how do you all found out that there were 12 um are we back on I think it's like two this one here yeah that one so these are the severity of the collisions so these are these are like the injuries that are and I apologize it is um kind of conf confusing for us so a not reported be a not reported injury injury okay yeah I think it's similar to the minor situation that happened earlier okay and then the last thing was about the radar trailers that you were discussing are those uh within RPD or is that Highway Patrol and how are you planning to use those so it is a brand new uh it came to us because of the legislature that that's out there saying that we that they want to be able to start doing that enforcement with using cameras that that's that's going before the legislature so a company reached out to us and said we would like we know that's coming up but we would like to give you the opportunity to utilize this technology we only send warnings or notices but that way you can kind of see what this might look like so they're hoping I think that the legislature passes and we like this vendor but we're under no obligation to use them but they're allowing us the sample and to try it out so we think it will help for a while we can evaluate what the risk factors are if we use them at these high Collision locations and see what that does to change our collisions with the time that the uh trailers are out okay and we'll work with uh nhp to ensure that where we put them is appropriate for all of us involved as we're Partners in this awesome thank you that's all I had thank you Chief a couple other questions I'll stay um on these cameras I'm being a mom of two teenage boys are 18 and 20 now I am a proponent of public shaming as it relates to speeding so I'm wondering with these trailers do they take a picture and provide evidence that the the car went by and it was measured as speeding when it gets sent to this residence generally these do um they uh I worked traffic camera systems um when in California where we had them there and that's usually what happens they take a picture of the driver of the license plate and then you have to go back and identify who that driver is as we're only ISU a war morning our only real concern and how they it'll be set up will be discussed with the vendor and I again I said this is I found about this yesterday so that you are the first to hear about it outside of um the people that came to me with the idea so um I we'll be focused on the r the license plates and the vehicle and then sending that to the registered owner not so much on who was driving it so it might or might not help in those situations but I also agree that that um that that public the publicity of it it helps when we're out doing enforcement we notice that people do slow down it's important to note how this road is set up your line of sight is is not very long in most areas it's very windy you don't you can't see if something's happening above so if an officer is out there doing traffic enforcement and they pull over somebody and they usually turn onto a side street maybe they might not be right on McCarron that it's gone at that moment in time there's nobody there anymore so having somebody constantly present in each one of these places is virtually impossible given the nature of this street so we have to look at Alternatives and those traffic cameras are going to be great great um second question um on slide number seven I don't know who would be answering this but on slide number seven um is when we talked about the 14 projects that were identified in the 2050 Regional Transportation plan and then the interlocal Cooperative agreement on the plum to South Virginia Section um because I'm new would you mind telling me which um safety and operational improvements were identified and are being plann there sure so good afternoon Dale Keller Deputy executive director at the RTC um so councilwoman Anderson the answer question so back in 20123 we entered in a three-party agreement between the RTC was County as well as City of Reno to start looking into improvements in these two sections highlighted so when we completed the study we recognized these two areas needed the um highest attention and and prioritize that so what we are doing and I'm not directly answer your question because we're looking into this right now out of the limited funding that we have and it's identified here we're committing about $10 million to these two projects along the loop so we're in the preliminary engineering right now so as we look into the section between Plum to South Virginia Street we're working with City staff to understand what is a priority and then also working with the Department about what can we get funded for construction what makes sense that we actually go deliver those safety improvements okay all right um I think we have a couple people on the phone I um first first of all I want to say I I believe it was um Scott correct thank you so much for being here in Shannon I really really appreciate it this has been a concern um for me for a couple of years um particularly as Reno is growing um the landscape has changed dramatically on on our roads that's one huge shift that I see and so I'm also curious to know what traffic mitigation has been put in place since that road was constructed um because things change obviously and we have to change um with the times and to mitigate um sort of the issues that we're seeing particularly on McCarron I mean it's like a freeway it is just out insane especially in the summer it's really bad first of all I do want to say thank you to R RTC um OT uh for our regional Partners I really appreciate the collaboration it means a lot you guys have all been um tremendous but that's one thing that I think that we I feel like we have not kept up on is that mitigation um our mitigation efforts because we've grown so much um and I I I'm going to just be really honest I get really frustrated because um you know that is not our road and then it becomes a little bit more um challenging not just with traffic mitigation I've even seen it uh with maintenance in snow plows right because maybe endot doesn't have um enough workers at the time we just we had that terrible snow uh storm incident last year that what happened was because uh there wasn't enough um Services a lot of people on our freeways dumped down into the city so it put them onto our roads and so this is where I feel like we need to be better at collaboration um if we're really going to make an impact and so I'm I'm curious Dale I'm going to call you up and I'm going to ask you I want to know what you what you understand I want to know what you think what is the role of RTC what is the role of the City of Reno and what is the role of endot explain to me how you perceive it to be so Madame mayor D Keller RTC Deputy executive director for the record I'm going to answer your question U through the lens of transp ation so as mentioned in the presentation the RTC is the Metropolitan planning organization so what does that mean that means we're responsible for the longterm health and wellness of our transportation system overall and we're responsible working does that roads that is roads yep roads and we also you are responsible for the longterm plan plan okay is that maintenance so as we look into that we have these goals that we identified as as the RTC as a region so we look how do we keep our good roads good how do weord the different funding to help with all these different functions and maintenance is one of them and so we looking for payment preservation as an example how do we keep our good roads good so yes that is part of the equations we look for maintenance wise and how does the community as a whole from the locals up and from the state down and even from federal level down manage our transportation system and we're supposed to come together and see all those voices and opinions and come up with this long-term plan which is the regional transportation plan which was actually just uh adopted last Friday at the RTC board okay and what about mitigation traffic mitigation mitigation so as we look into I think the McCarron's a good example of of a state route that provides Regional connectivity within our our city with inside city of Sparks and for that we do a good job at addressing reoccurring congestion so we need roads wide in or Lanes reduction as you see on the exhibits there we identify those needs of that study well we're also looking to is a non- reoccurring congestion right so what do we have to with incidents or crashes on the roadway how do we address some of these other Solutions so we talking about mitigations there's two folds of that I think a lot of the crashes that we're seeing on the loop has to occur with things are maybe outside of the physical engineering world so how do we work together to address different solutions and speed right and I think Lacy did an excellent job addressing the Safe Systems approach what we can do now from the engineering side going back to the then the education and the enforcement side so uh mayor shivi I think as we look into that those are opportunities that we're addressing and you see on these two interlocal agreements were the highest priorities of this McCaron Loop and try to get some things on the ground and I am glad I I just want the residents to know that that was adopted at RTC that is in the plan thank goodness now tell me what is the responsibility Dale of the City of Reno so I think that as uh Chief n's outlined about what the specific roles and responsibilities are but also I think this is where we gather information from a regional bodywise what information do we get from ropd what is Staff saying or some of the needs in the region so our goal is to understand those and help deliver those on behalf of the city so the city staff has done a great job of identifying needs within the city limits not only in mccaran but also other hotpots and how do we implementing these maybe the hotspot projects improve safety and with uh reflecting the rectangular hybrid beacons or even the one that by Renown hospital with that pedestrian hybrid Beacon that helps improve safety so not only looking at as a loop but what are the priorities with inside the city limits to help deliver and I think we've done a good job to help identify those and put them in priority now do we have all the funding for them no okay so basically you're saying okay the city comes to you and we identify here's the problem correct that's what I just heard correct or we have a partnership right so RTC how can we partner together to find a focus issue for example like the central Sparks or excuse me Central Reno area we're looking to prove uh safety for both pedestrians and cycl so those how we collaborate and work together it's not just RTC saying City this is what you need this is also City saying what we need uh for help and support to deliver these projects I I guess I get worried about the disconnect whenever we have sort of you know fragmented outcomes whether it's you know snow removal or it's um um you know Traffic Safety I I want to see a really comprehensive plan of traffic safety um and measures from the Reno Police Department and and obviously from endot what that looks like because I have not seen one that has been submitted or if we do submit them because one is not talking to the other now yes you might come together for a couple of initiatives yay that's great but I want a comprehensive plan and chief Nance I would say I want you to bring something back that has a lot of meat on it particularly these motorcyclists that are speeding uh down Ken at outrageous speeds and then not only that they're doing it throughout the night cuz they know you guys are not you've got other things too um police I I would love to see some really strict measures what can we what kind of teeth can we put into that because a lot of that is speeding um and I and I want it to be very very painful because people are dying and I I can't even imagine your loved one doesn't come home at night because um some someone wanted to be careless and Reckless with your life by speeding down McCaron at 150 M an hour particularly on a motorcycle we're seeing that a lot and then also you see them in droves it's like I don't know maybe 50 to 100 this is very organized um it's probably actually done like we've seen you know with the the street racing where they organize online and then they sort of jump which makes it really difficult but I would love for you to think a broad plan of how we are going to send the message that we won't tolerate it and also maybe that's you're arrested speeding on McCaron for you know so many days um or you know confiscate those bikes whatever you have to do to keep other people safe um so I'm just I'm really serious about it I Know Chief Nance you'll come up with something really comprehensive because I know um you know Traffic Safety matters to you but I would like to see better coordination between um all of all of our partners um because it is not our road and it does sometimes um I also I've heard a lot of this um oh no that's an end. Road no that's an end. Road I see this all the time and you know where I see it the most Dale where I get super frustrated is on the funding side and so I think that needs to be taken care of of like whose responsibility is what and I am very grateful for how passionate you guys all are about Transportation um and so I I just know that um I don't mean to come down so hard but I do feel like there's a massive disconnect on communication here and it's affecting our roadways and the safety so thanks so much for listening um okay I'm going to send it to councilman Reese you are in the sky go ahead oh actually that was me because I'm at his computer so oh oh no no no no he's on oh okay is he on I think he's on unless I went and clicked mine so you knew it was me okay is that councilman Reese or is that not no okay councilwoman Ebert I don't think she's on either okay heading back to you Council woman dur go ahead right um I I wanted to reference this page seven of your presentation so I just want to be clear even though the green is what's showing up green is just showing us where there's three and four lanes uh where your focus is as I understand is the orange right is this to Dale maybe could you come up so the Orange is where you and the City of Reno I believe are collaborating on design projects so good afternoon once again Dale Keller so we are focusing on two areas so this what shown on the screen the yellow shows a need for a potential Lane addition and the red area shows red Dash as a potential Lane reduction so this is a it's a exhibit out of the McCaron Loop study yeah and this is just showing where it looks for Lane potential for operations it shows up on my screen as orange so just if you called it yellow but that's fine so I just want to be clear though there's four major projects two of them are in my ward okay the one um and maybe there's five because these red dots you're saying they're going to reduce Lanes so let's um just for clarification wise what's shown on the on the presentation here does not equate to the the projects I can provide you that uh the slides of what the limits are but there's another list about what those project well what I wanted to say is but it shows where the areas are where you're so I just wanted to U build on two things the mayor said one is collaboration so you've been collaborating with the city since 2003 now we're in 2025 I'm sorry 2023 2025 and it was me calling you to find out about this project at uh plumis Lakeside and McCaron and I was so grateful with the information you were able to provide I was a little disappointed that I didn't know it already that's because I think it was started two years ago and you're working on it you know the city's working on it but I don't know even though this has been my wward for 10 years so to the mayor's point about collaboration or communication I just think we need to work on that a little bit closer so that those of us who are not on RTC which includes me know what projects you're working on in our Ward so we can don't what's that you don't know so that we can all just be part of to to the point about this whole safety scheme we too can be part of the safety scheme okay so I was glad you were just right on the money you had the information you sent me drawings uh you know but to the mayor's second point you also pointed out that while you had money for design you did not have money to construct Improvement and you told me very clear clearly well that's going to be up to end dot I don't know where this is in their priorities um it's a it's a state road are they going to be able to widen this to three lanes this is one of your three areas on your previous map that showed crashes for 2024 I would love to see a 10year crash list not just the last two years including 2025 because I happen to know there's been more crashes right here in 2025 um maybe not fatalities so I just want to say two things include us as part of your Solutions as much as you can and number two uh engage Us in helping to find the funding if that's we got to go down and meet with endot to get funding we got to show up at the legislature I don't know what our job is to help you get the money for these projects so thank you madam mayor thank you so let's include that in a motion to figure out who's doing what who's paying for what so it's clear yeah because often times I feel like we have a huge delay in a lot of our projects because we're always told oh we don't have money for that so let's figure that out between RTC and the City of Reno and I think um then we'll have Clarity and then we know where we're supposed to go uh to our federal Partners to help with those okay um I'm saying put us to I want to remind everyone too CU I I wasn't aware that it was every Ward I thought I knew it was close but I want to remind everyone at this dis just so you know McCaron uh is in W 1 2 3 three four five and six so it affects all of us up here I'm going to send it to you go ahead vice mayor thank you Madame mayor I have um one or two questions first of all um I want to make sure that when we're planning for these projects that we heard what the public commenters said earlier and I think we did can we please pay attention to Mayberry and McCaron there's some serious challenges there according to what we heard so I want to make sure that that is is part of what you guys are hearing and planning for and then speed um I know these are things that you will look at anyway but I want to overemphasize it and then Dale I don't know if this is a new process but to what council member der just said is um in in recent I don't know being new I get a letter from RTC or even endot that says these projects are coming and what I have done is look at those projects and then I reach out to our engineering manager our city engineer and then I try and reach out to your staff um which you have been very accommodating and then have a conversation and a meeting with them asking what can we do to improve safety or operations or how can we work together so um maybe we have to be a little bit more involved in reaching out too but I do believe that I get some sort of correspondence from RTC on almost everything that you guys are doing um so I don't know if that's new but that's what I've encountered vice mayor Taylor um yes there's Communications that do so but um to the mayor's Point there's things that we can always do better improve the communication between um I think city council and RTC board and City staff so I heard you loud and clear helpy to take that back and work with our team to find ways where we can better that communication but not only what projects coming on but what's in the in the hopper and how do we address some of these safety issues that are are reoccurring uh concerns from the either from our residents and uh from the community so thank you thank you Madame mayor sure no problem okay go ahead councilman uh Anderson okay so I just wanted to talk about some opportunities for Behavior change because there's only so much that the City of Reno can do RTC OT can do we need to figure out a way to work collabora collaboratively in the community to change behavior and that's through communication campaigns um and some other items so I'm going to say I'm going to ask a couple questions that I don't know who they most appropriate for Carl Hall you might be the number one to advise me whether or not this is legal or not um are we allowed to have special speeding events where um a obviously we tell the community it's happening often times like we do with drunk driving um but can we scale the citations during those special events to some extreme reckless driving amount when appropriate during those events and see is it legal to publicly publish the people that received those citations during those events all of those are hypothetical obviously I will answer part one of your three-part question and then the attorneys can answer the rest because I don't want to over speak we absolutely do um targeted enforcement based on what the primary Collision factor of accidents is and that's what a lot of our traffic enforcement grants are based on so pedestrians safety uh speeding we look for those moving violations that are causing it and we go to the areas that have the highest collision factors um I will say when looking at the Collision data of the highest Collision uh locations in the city Areno only one correlated to the McCaron um Loop so the rest the other top four locations were outside of that so we do focus on that high Collision area and areas where we receive the most complaints to Target our enforcement and we do it specific to what the violations are that was the first part the rest of it goes to without those attorneys they can do it so if I understood your question it was whether or not we could scale speeding and increase the penalty if the if the um speed is higher is that the question well officers have discretion on what to site and you don't have to be exceeding the speed limit by 20 M hour for example for an officer toci side for reckless um the penalties for reckless driving are higher than simp L speeding so the officer has discretion to determine what the appropriate charge should be on the citation so depending upon the activity of the driver it's up to the discretion of the officer and what he observes to determine whether or not the the uh level of driving um gives rise for a reckless uh citation so can we do reckless driving stings in specific areas in Reno like this area on the McCaron Loop so the officers are very cognizant of what can make reckless driving what we can do and what will um be allowed to will be upheld in this in the citation process is two different things and so there while there's these rules that say you can site for reckless driving at these things I will guarantee you that my traffic officer has given the opportunity to uh person that meets that criteria are always going to decide on the reckless driving because in the state of Nevada um all traffic violations are um civil infractions so you cannot go to jail for a traffic violation and they know that and so they if they can make it something else we will take that opportunity to do it so they're all very trained in it and they will take that opportunity to do it but the laws in Nevada and the attorneys can speak to that better um do change how we can process traffic violations okay great and we do have another comment about the public campaigns if you don't mind perfect um okay just clarify Chief n you just said all traffic violations are they're not civil infractions I let the attorneys talk to what that exactly means but it it's something We've ran into and different but you can't arrest for it let the attorneys talk to that okay what can we do though I I want you to come back and think of what we can do to take the strictest measures possible in the City of Reno understood um that but I just everybody understand and I think the attorneys can talk to what traffic violations in the state of Nevada are yeah so again and also I just want to point out that that is done by law that is not done by ordinance at the C we can't change that that's at the City of Reno well that would be a good one for a legislator to go after all right thank you and in an effort to expand on the behavioral campaign one of our very active Partners however they're not in this room is the Department of Public safety's office of traffic safety uh they received funding from the national highway traffic safety Administration to help support behavioral campaigns a lot of grant funding is available to interested communities um who want to pursue those efforts uh we can get you more information that would be great we have a worldclass Communications Department here with the City of Reno so anything that we can do together to leverage those types of communication strategies and campaigns would be brilliant okay you know going back to communication I'm curious um so because it is not our road if we wanted to put signage let's just say along McCarron and it was educational whatever that looked like uh would we have to get permission from [Music] OT that would go through the OT district office over in Reno it would require a permit um the manager the district engineer is in this room so I'm sure when that permit is um submitted we will look at it and approve it yeah well that's exactly going to what my purpose is of sort of the delay and sort of you know it's a lot of people don't understand that that is not the city's Road um again right like so that's where I also want to come up with better solutions for communication so we can have better services from plowing to Traffic Safety to messaging I think that that's a problem the other thing is there are trees along mcaren that when people um are speeding it fast obviously you know really high speeds that if they hit a tree they will die and I have had residents bring that up over and over and over again and it's not until see I finally learned and it's taken me 10 years to do this but I have finally learned if I want to address something I have to get it on the agenda because otherwise they kick the can down the road they're like oh mayor we're sick of hearing your voice and it's kind of becomes the mom that's like la la la la so now everyone's like la la la anyway um so thank you so much but I those I I know Jackie just reminded me that this was only for discussion I want this back so that we can take some motions to make sure that um because there's a few benchmarks on here that I want to make sure um that I think this discussion has warranted and then last but not least Dale where I get super frustrated and I want everyone to sort of pay attention but when you see something in the media immediately that is something like we are always trying to monitor it 24/7 like immediately if it's in the media like we absolutely um you know are it's really important that we address it like right away because some of the stuff we don't know unless the media does alert us so we look at them also as communication partners and so um there have been times where I'm like uh yeah that's Seventh Street Seventh Street and everyone's like out of sight out of mind so I just want to make aware of that but where I get super frustrated is we get these contingency funds over RTC and I'm grateful for them but a lot of times I feel like I'm expected to take those tiny tiny tiny amounts of contingency funds and put them on a Band-Aid where um you know there is a really high priority issue uh with traffic and I'm going to you know maybe put a fence in when really we should be doing so much more more to mitigate those risks for people and that's where I get to like this level 10 where I'm super frustrated by I don't know if you feel the same way because I see you over here saying yes but that I know where you just spent next year's contingency funds on a small project for City Areno which is about Public Safety but not a specifically about a road problem it's it's about you know and it's tiny so I feel like very small amount of money I feel like it's a Band-Aid so this is a much broader conversation but I want us all to be aligned and mitigating traffic issues together and maintenance issues because I think collectively we can we can do it better all right go ahead councilwoman um Anderson the next I'm sorry just the next time that we come back here I'd like to understand a little bit better um about our ability to publish whether or not you've been cited for reckless driving and there are people in this community that get put in the papers for failing health inspections they get put in the papers for pick wants to do the public shaving I can tell we have to change Behavior there's only so much that we can do in any of these organizations in the community we have to change Behavior it's critical I um I think you're spot on yeah spot on right can we stop talking about it can we publish someone's name how does that work Carl I would assume that it's a public record and I would also indicate that I I recall that they used to publish people who were arrested or convicted of DUI in the paper they used to do that quite a bit so yeah so there's some way to do that okay I like it I like it okay all right go ahead oh we have someone um overhead I think I don't know who is it is it councilwoman e councilman Reese okay councilwoman eert go ahead um kind of understanding who's responsible for which area I know that um on the North End of um M North McCarron at Virginia there's been some kind of um bad accidents I've witnessed um recently uh is that is that more of an end do of or um Highway Patrol area to be um patrolled by that group or is that RPD or who who's responsible for kind of um patrolling that area because I know that um endot is responsible for North Virginia the the road from North McCarron to Panther but who's responsible for traffic enforcement speed enforcement along that area council member abert Chief Nance for the record it they make McCaron McCaron is a state highway that the Reno Police Department and Nevada Highway Patrol both conduct enforcement on based on where the location is we primarily are the renal Police Department primarily takes all collisions or crashes that occur on McCarron and but both parties conduct enforcement in the entire on the entire Loop okay so and forgive me if this is not the right place to ask but are we able to request um more Highway Patrol on McCaron um at all I'm goingon to turn that question over uh good afternoon Anthony mun for the record Nevada High Patrol Region 2 major uh thank you for that question ma'am um yes you will see a lot more Troopers working in unison with the Reno Police Department the reason we are here today is to stand in unison with them ma'am sir we hear you we see you and we share your passion Traffic Safety is what we do at the highway patrol and renal py is a very capable department and we are glad to assist them Madame mayor you hit it on the head where you said this can't just be a one-off I've been meeting regular with assistant Chiefs Jacobson and Miller this can't just be a one time we have two events and move on lives are at stake and this is a call to action the highway control is committed to working in unison with the renal Police Department to solve this issue so we're not in front of you in a couple months we're going to be in front of you with good news and positive results okay well you're amazing um do you need a job I'm very happily employed by the state of Nevada no no the city's way better than the state born but I am very honored to be here I recently moved here transferred from Las Vegas 6 months ago and it's an honor to work in such a close tight-knit Community oh yeah this way better than Vegas you're going to be so much happier here um you that real quick Chief n that we newly here major Munos has been an incredible help and really working on how we can better partner and collaborate um and coming to the table was not even a question for him to be a part of this group um and it's a collaboration we haven't seen since I've been here so I'm very excited about that so thank you I to publicly say that and don't steal in because then he won't be work there Highway Patrol though we won't have the partner anymore so we need yeah no I well I think you are incredible thank you man' thank you for addressing that you know to to the level that I think people take incredibly serious um well we look forward to working with you and if there's something we can do on our end that you're not getting from us please please let us know we are we want to be the best Partners uh possible thank you m but anyway well welcome to Reno so happy to be here okay good we're happy you're here okay anything else yep okay yep um thank you to okay go ahead oh go ahead uh Council woman Eber yeah sorry I did want to ask about that map again that kind of the heat map that showed where things were happening um that show that the most amount of incidents were happening in in the um McCaron North Virginia intersection did I see that correctly Chief Nance for the record the there's three of in the heat map three of the highest frequency locations are McCarron in South Virginia McCarron and uh Mayan and again it's not those intersection specific it's a a broad grouping and then McCaron and uh 395 okay all right so um kind of that North Area do you think that there's an impact like there's been an increase due to um the construction that's happening in that area I don't I can't answer that question I would have to look back prior to the construction starting to see if that would still be one of the hot spots um that we had then so it Construction does cause uh impacts on the roadways because two things happen either people are in that area and their their driving pattern is different or they take side streets to avert from them construction so it can create um additional collisions but I'm not sure if that actually is the reason for that or not okay and forgive me if I if I missed this part um it has that map generated additional um officer their presence in those areas yes so the Traffic Unit responds their primary focus is where uh is multifaceted but really where they go is where most collisions occur so they they focus their efforts on areas where there are high Collision locations and as I said before if we look at the top uh five locations in the City of Reno where the where crashes are happening one only one of those was on um McCarron the other four other locations so they do focus on areas where collisions are occurring then they focus also on where are um complaints being coming from who is complaining and Speeders and other issues and they'll go to those areas and then they focus on high priority locations for the city such as um sometimes we're downtown or fourth street or we were recently in the Yori Park area they will do additional enforcement there and then they go to places where they know they can write a lot of tickets because that's what the traffic officers like to do okay we got to let them do that every once in a while because they love it so much yeah okay um and just to remind everybody that um this is a behavior I'm also trying to change is to remind everybody to use Reno direct to report traffic um incidents EC speeding unsa driving because it it does help Chief Nance with that data to get um additional um officers in those areas so that's something I know I deal with in in my ward I'm not necessarily saying that happens in everyone's Ward but just want to say to the public please make sure that you um reach out to Reno direct when you see those unsafe um driving habits as well um so that you can get additional um enforcement in those areas so thank you very much for um the time okay any other questions go ahead yeah um I just want to I think um council member eert put her finger on something which she asked very specifically who patrols now I just want to get a Clarity you said Chief Nance that you respond to the crashes but who is patrolling McCarron is it just Nevada Hawai Highway Patrol uh no it's both of us we both dool you Patrol as well yes okay it wasn't clear because I thought you said you responded but they had the primary responsibility for McCarron anyway is that true no we um per our agreement the Reno police departments handles all crashes on McCarron crashes but patrolling as far as speed yes patrolling is both of us both but is it mostly on them I mean is this any part of our workload do you think relative to Nevada Highway Patrol I'm just trying to understand I will let um the major speak to what their workload is in the area but I know that I can just tell you that we uh going through there's a slide here which one is this one this is our McCaron enforcement so these are the citations warnings crashes that we've handled uh in 2024 compared to 2023 so that's not all traffic stop data that's just traffic stops that related in citations yeah and this is only for uh Reno city limit specific on McCarron the Nevada Highway Patrol informational let the major speak to that is um also includes a city of Sparks so when you come back it might be good to try if you can to break this down further and try to get to issue you have the citations but maybe there's been a lot of warnings that City of Reno has issued for example or is that considered a citation too uh no that would be the warning category only 12 okay so it looks like nhp is doing the bulk and I want to reiterate the comment to Major munus is um we need him where he is so that we can have a partnership I mean that's critical and I just want to make sure when we're stopping people how do we get the information back to the road designers so that's RTC that's City Reno um have we assessed what caused the crash we we had the medical emergency we have the DUI but are any things due to the design of the road and finally in terms of this coming back and there was a mention of a call to action thank you major um I'm going to be interested in what do we actually think we'd be bringing back to potentially consider if we've even thought that far so the question is how do we translate what's happening on the road to improvements you would like to recommend thank you for the question uh krie ksky your director of Public Works city engineer we work very closely our traffic engineering team works very closely with the police department we work with them we We Gather the data we um from the the crash data we utilize our own well actually we utilize OTS uh traffic count data um we combine those together and we've been recently because of all of you um supporting our new uh position we were able to be proactive and put this into a model so what we are doing is we are working with the police department we work with the OT um and nrtc and we use this information to make data driven decisions okay so like where to widen or something so those data driven decisions are like um what type of intersection improvements um would be needed uh for example do we need another left turn lane do we need um do we need there's all kinds of things that would come out of that but we have to have that data first to know where to concentrate on and I would like to say that this this is a city issue as well um these things that we're talking about today on McCarron are very important they are but to us at the city the whole city is important to us so um we appreciate your support and we will will be bringing more of these sort of these types of discussions back to you okay thank you Carrie um one of the things and you could go back to a public record into my email it's been a a few years that I've sort of harped on these trees that I'm seeing along yes McCarron and really it it went nowhere I mean it just like fell on deaf ears and why because everyone said oh that's an end do Road and we reached out to them and nothing happened so it really does concern me like I said it whether it's doing um traffic mitigation big you know flashing signage yes I mean if I had my way and I'm sure like thank God I am not a traffic engineer and I'm sure David would probably freak when I say this but there you know I would put speed bumps like you know so guess what you're not going to be speeding through there I'd be speed bumps every you know so many feet um and I'm a big fan of traffic lights because I know when I advocated for that at the Bonanza uh they had 12 traffic uh fatalities right there we got a a light right there to slow people down we have not had a fatality since and I had to fight like tooth and nail with endot to get that to happen that was brutal and so um what I do want to see I want to see this come back because I I didn't realize it's not for Action I think there needs to be action taken here so that we all are clear on what directives and initiatives we want to see the other thing I think to councilwoman Anderson's point and maybe this is endot um or RTC Dale I don't know but doing those types of campaigns take time and they take money so how what how does that what does that look like to tap into the the money from Vision zero and those resources because it's never really quite clear because a lot of times there are people that are holding on to it going okay mine and they have their own sort of idea what's happening so what what does that look like where is this money is that on RTC is that on endot Vision zero I know is a Statewide initiative but where where is the money that we can tap into to Brandy's point of messaging and going above and beyond when it comes to Traffic Safety I'll let Dale go ahead for the record Dale kellerer Madame mayor I think this is something we can bring back more details on uh Lacy did bring up the office of traffic safy and some of the funds we can look into more of the educational campaign of it but yes it takes all partners and all agencies from State Police from ropd all of us together and that Vision zero task force that we have and implemented and work together today on that's part of that where that initiative would come through said let's go ahead and do a campaign if you recall maybe a couple years ago it did lock I've save lives so those are types of initiates that RTC RTC has brought together previously what's next in Horizon we can come back report what we anticipate bringing up in the future okay that would would be great and texting is such an issue it is so bad such an issue um okay so I want to bring this back uh so that we can take action on it um I apologize uh but we will get it right uh the next time but I'm going to be looking for tree removal for safety reasons whose responsibility is it uh when it comes to improvements and paying for projects that still is never quite clear everyone does this um traffic video ation improvements and much stricter enforcement Chief Nance so I'd love for you to come back and give us um ways in which we can make it much more painful when you're speeding and then um Dale to your point some of the funding mechanisms that we have at at our discretion to really dig into Vision zero plans and I love your idea of public shaving is is a good thing sometimes whenever now listen I know we're human we all make mistakes and life happens but just the amount of recklessness on that street is just mindblowing mindblowing it's it's unbelievable so um I want to say thank you to Scott and Shannon and the rest of you that I have not met really really appreciate this and um I hope you'll come back for our next discussion and you probably learned a lot than a lot more than you thought like you said you had no idea data centers were a Hot Topic all right uh so we can't take any action today but I'm going to move on uh Matt and thank you everyone for your time thank you Dale for being here in Carrie always always always and Mr is it Munos Anthony yes ma'am well nice to meet you and um I would love for you to work for the City of Reno all right bye Chief n thanks so much okay bye guys all right moving on you we're moving one thing before we move on I have to say is she down here Rachel Rachel McIntyre where are you I can't see come over here come over here come over here I was going to do this at the beginning of public comment I didn't want to embarrass you too bad because it was a packed house but can I just say oh my God you deserve a standing ovation an incredible job incredible job incredible incredible job and I the reason why I want to praise you is because I have been a tyrant and many of you guys know it and what I said is I just want downtown to have an opportunity a chance to thrive I have been on everyone poor Jackie has had to put up with my cranky emails and Ashley had to put up with my cranky emails and she knows it and and I just said I know downtown can be a place where people want to come and have an experience you know in their city and come together and just feel a a connected space and you did that remarkably I want to say thank you you made it free you made it open to everyone it was very welcoming um I just I can't begin to tell you how impressed I am I know it's so hard to do because to collaborate with lots of artists but you know our businesses our sponsors our vendors um so you should be very very proud because you know my job is um very it's scrutinized a lot and whenever um just the last few days I've seen people they don't even know me and mayor shivi oh my gosh that was incredible thank you for providing something that's free in a time where people are having more challenges whenever it comes to you know Financial issues for their families and I just think you hit the nail on the head so I want to say thank you to Ashley and to Rachel for making it happen um because like said I've been I have not been great to work with and I have just pushed you guys and pushed you guys and said let's do something for our residents downtown let's Revitalize downtown and you guys made it happen and I feel like a proud mama and I couldn't be happier and people walking down the street or saying thank you instead of wanting to you know yell at me this is just the beginning so we have lots more for Virginia I don't know how you're going to do that cuz I was thinking everyone said bring it back bring it back next year and I thought to myself oh jeez you got a pretty high Benchmark indeed the smaller activations will be nice this activation we just got preliminary numbers from placer um so we had 53,000 unique visits downtown Thursday through Saturday within our Geo fence area for the event and a total of 61 60.5 th000 um which means about 7,000 people came back for a second day yeah I saw that I saw that and do you know how many people said I I saw a lot of um you know the social media comments because I get a thing that gives you all the data from the hits and all this stuff um but a lot of people said I absolutely want to come to Reno to visit I this is an event I would come for it was just phenomenal well we're waiting on our visitor rate numbers but we had a massive draw just preliminarily what we can see from placer huge draw from San Francisco Oakland and Sacramento which we did targeted advertising to those communities and so the great thing about it is like now we've we've had our first of the activation series um now is the time to announce the rest of the new activations that are launching downtown and get everyone really excited to kind of ride this momentum and ride the wave of folks who hadn't been downtown folks who live in Galina who live in Incline in truck in Tahoe and Reno who hadn't been downtown in a really really long time and they're excited to come downtown now and so I think I think you'll be happy and pleased andun will be happy pleased with what we have coming will it draw 53,000 people in 3 days I don't know um but we did you know our team did a tremendous amount of research on what types of events will make a significant economic impact and hands down these lighted art festivals around the world or what cities and municipalities are doing um and so we certainly didn't invent the Playbook we took a page from some other folks and it worked out great so yeah it was fantastic cuz we've been walking the street oh yeah for I don't know a good I don't know I feel like it's a couple years now and just really struggling to figure out how do we create an experience for people um that you know I also felt like it was really part of the heartbeat of our city because we do have Burning Man so close that in some ways I kept saying to people hey I know you'll never go out to burning man but go and do this because then you won't have any dust or dirt on you and it will be a lot um more affordable you won't have to buy a ticket exactly yeah we definitely the cool thing about those numbers too doesn't include children cuz children don't have iPhones Ander tracks iPhones it also doesn't include downtown residents yeah so the number is actually much larger and what was really exciting was hearing the buzz from folks all throughout the three days of like wow this must be what burning man's like I'm so happy they brought Burning Man to us and so you heard that sentiment shared over and over again because right out at Black Rock we build a city of 80,000 people um and you know we know that Reno has 450,000 people and how so how many of them aren't ever going to experience the magic of that art never ever ever that's what I loved I loved about especially for our elderly folks there were a lot of elderly folks that came down too which was really cool that always wanted to go to burning man but it's really hard um you know for some folks that might have disabilities or you know their age if they're you know just just so many different you know variables but I again I'm grateful because I know that we've really you know dug in hardcore and I just was like I just know downtown can Thrive but it will it goes to show everyone in this community that when you do something like this downtown can Thrive and people will come out for it and they will support it yeah and I do think it is the city's job to provide free events that brings connectiveness in a community it's good for your mental health it's it's just it's good and this was a really beautiful example of when our organizations we work together so this was you know this was first and foremost thank you to this body for believing and supporting in the vision and to our leadership um within City manager's office was also the support of DRP it was a support of Edon yeah um support of travel Nevada who this is their first urban sponsorship that they've done yes um I'm not I'm not happy with rscva that's on the a record right now but no but they should have been sponsored in it too and so but cross organizational I mean I think it's amazing yeah you had a lot of great Partners yeah so thank you did you have any private business we did we had Sun Belt um Sun Belt sponsored star Sound audio as our Premier sponsor um sany Hut sponsored Waste Management sponsored um we have three fiscal Partners so we worked with aha projects which is a new arts and culture nonprofit here in Reno we worked with the Reno generator and we also worked with sier Arts Foundation okay that's awes so this event also gave back fiscally to each of those organizations they each got a percentage of the funding um as a as a trade for being a fiscal partner so we gave back to the Arts community in a really profound way outside of this event that impact will riple on which is wonderful and I just really want to stress for next year that we do whatever we can to reach out to the artists because they were so hard hit in and they're still struggling artists are struggling artists it's just it's a tough environment for an artist always so any opportunity we can open up whether it's a mural or you know some something fantastic they're working on let's do whatever we can to Foster their creativity and their Art Space so good job good job good job mam May if I could go ahead um I had a chance to visit uh the second night it was incredible um even my husband who will not go to burning man I didn't know that I go on my own okay but he absolutely loved it uh fascinated by The Doors he opened them all for the kids but Universal PL praise and just one thing the mayor hasn't had a chance to mention is it had a significant impact on our downtown businesses those that decided to open I I went in a number of them and they reached out to me on Facebook and other social media telling me I can't think of anything the city's done to help me more so I heard from gift shops restaurants Etc where people stopped in if they couldn't you get to a food truck or whatever and it it just created a lot of vibrancy but it helped with economic development not just entertainment and that feeling of belonging that we all want but just Universal praise I I mean I've heard one out of maybe a thousand comments that said I got confused about where the free parking was so we'll work on that but you know but there was free parking yeah and I saw a lot of people pulling in the City Garage um you know a lot of people on bikes too which was really cool and lot of bikes I would I would REM Miss I missed um probably our largest private sponsor was Whitney Peak Hotel um and this is the first event that the Whitney Peak has come in with this type of sponsorship that's fantastic Goosebump I did not know that thank you thank you Whitney Peak thank you yeah they were awesome they got the pitch deck they got they were the one hotel that got on board and in downtown and they did so much and it was incredible to see their restaurant the restaurant's amazing and to see it so vibrant Sierra Tap House Old Town or Old Bridge Pub all the restaurants along the river the Eddie we had reached out to um Phil and Kurt and said hey you know we know you're normally closed we love for you to be open they're like let's see how this first year goes and Phil found me on Saturday and was like we will be open next year and we will be sponsoring this event next year this is incredible and so um I think we have an opportunity to expand this in a way where we can even add indoor activations and find ways to get the businesses involved year round in these types of events um to drive traffic so we're really excited good that's awesome if I could get a list of the people that supported you that would be greatly appreciated I want to make sure that they understand how grateful we are to make it happen you know it I just don't think there's anything better when you see those little kids and their faces just are so happy right like you can't pay for that that's priceless yes so good job good job good job Ashley I think she feels like a proud mom over there too um anyway a do you you want to add anything did you go Brandy yes I went Saturday night and I um I brought my husband and I brought my one of my sons and his girlfriend and I was most um impressed by their comments because they're kind of haters about everything anything that I'm you know excited about you like they hate yeah no thanks mom um they were very impressed and um the young lady that was with us she made the comment that she was really taken by the fact that when you don't have money at this event it doesn't matter yeah because events can be free but your um experience often times is affected by whether or not you can afford to get the additional you know the additional items that are um there to make the event better and that was not an element here and it was just it was just magic I'm very very impressed and grateful for your work thank you and um council member der the doors now live in Reno as a result of this event so yeah we had um the bulk of the art came from local artists um Megan burner and arts and culture commission did an incredible job with their local artist grant for this program um we then brought supplemented it with International and National artists so the doors are done by an artist from Canada um big art Canada his name is Paul and he had such a great response from other promoters who saw his doors we're like how do I get these he decided to rent space at arttech and he's storing the doors now in Reno so hopefully we'll see his doors at other events yeah that was awesome in the future yeah I also had a request to keep the firework lights so in case anybody's interested in sourcing funding for that the those were really really incredible AB would love that those um the PX what did he called the electric dandelion actually got their start and that artist Abram with liquid pixel got his start as an artist in Reno wow I love it wonderful I love it okay every weekend Rachel every weekend or at least once a month I don't know we'll do that once a month but we have lots of EV happening every weekend now we got to get the sidewalks all activated okay good job thank you excellent excellent excellent thank you they even called for one of my pictures to to publish yeah good I love that that wasun hello yeah Megan yeah yeah I is it too late no yeah I wanted to share too that I took my kids and went with my husband and my dad on the last night and I could not how crowded it was but everybody was having a great time it was like a happy happy Vibe everywhere we went which was awesome um the only downside and I'm not trying to be a bummer I'm just being a realist on this is it really um opened my eyes to how many businesses are closed downtown too um to be out and walking around and see so many shops that are closed up and it really just kind of reminded me how much we need to activate our downtown because there wasn't a whole lot of places for people to shop down there it was a great event there was people out in maths but there wasn't a whole lot for them to um you know do as far as like restaurants or shopping things like that the shops were open I'm sure did great and I'm thrilled for them I just hope we can get to a place to where we have more shops open down there it just really really was kind of um a highlight to to me of how many shops we have closed down there so I really really hope that we can move towards having an event like this probably not like this not this scale but if we could do some kind of downtown activation at least once a month like pick one Friday out of the month or one Saturday out of the month and do some big event maybe we have bands come and play and we have um you know food trucks and we shut down an area around the Bel sign or something every month um I think it would fantastic for our local businesses so just wanted to kind of echo what other council members have already said but um I think that really showed that we have the ability um to revitalize our downtown in smaller ways than you know huge huge big projects I think there's some relatively small things that we could do as a council to really um help our downtown so I just wanted to say that real quick again not trying to be bummer but just um really being an optimist about this that I think that this highlights um the fact that we have huge opportunities to um help our downtown businesses so thank you all right good thank you for those comments they are spot on and that's why it is so important to provide events and Activation so businesses can make it down there they haven't seen that in a very long time that's why businesses can't invest in there and they can't make it downtown unless we help them do so so I'm so glad that you brought that up um and I hope people see the same thing Madam mayor uh just for the record John shipment since we've opened up item H1 um could we I mean if there's other comments that the the council members have relative to H1 um let's we could maybe move to that it keep that item going and close out that item all right Jonathan I heard you loud and clear I got you okay uh thanks councilwoman okay moving on Madam clerk go ahead we're on item D6 which is the was County school district presentation well I am excited for this because this is very rare I'm trying to think how many times I have seen a Washo County School presentation in my my time um up here and it's been very far and few between um and I'm I'm excited to welcome you Mr Ernst we had a nice meeting in my office I was impressed um I know you have a really really really tough job we want to help be your partner we want to do whatever we possibly can to make sure that the City of Reno is um doing you know things for our children our community that that we can support you at at the school district so go ahead and take it away thank you very much I I very much appreciate the invitation uh Madame mayor city council members and Mrs Turner close okay yeah you got we know who you're talking about all right very good so again uh I I want to say thank you for the invitation to come and speak on behalf of was County School District I didn't come by myself I did bring three other superstars with me I have Deputy superintendent McMaster Chief Communications officer Anderson and uh chief Chief facilities officer Adam cersi uhoh Adam Adam's been here before but this young lady over here we're glad she's back you know she left came back left came back but we're glad she's back absolutely we feel the same way yeah and she looks 10 years younger too by the way well we love you Michelle okay good goad uh so and then before I get going I wanted to say thank you to all of you for your leadership for your public service um I'll go ahead and dive into the presentation just a little bit here uh so what I wanted to do today is just share a little bit I am uh I've worked in wasel County School District now over 25 years I've held just about every position from coach teacher principal area superintendent up up into this position now and uh that's been really helpful as we have embarked on our strategic plan and really we're we're looking at three critical areas and that's really our commitment to this community and that's why this presentation we feel is so beneficial achieving academic excellence and then doing so with integrity and transparency just wanted to give a highlevel overview of waso County School District you can see our demographics we serve approximately 60,000 students we have over we have approximately 97 different languages spoken by our families you can see that we have 114 schools 11 of them are district sponsor Charters and as many of you know it's a very large geographic region uh over just about 64,000 square miles larger than Connecticut and we're the 58th largest student population in the US and we're giving you a couple of fun facts for today you can see that we our buses drive over 20,000 mil each day so when you talk about our last presentation and the commitment to safety and keeping our our children safe we're very grateful to to listen to and be a part of that conversation and along those lines I wanted to also say thank you to Chief Nance uh she has been a great partner she has been very visible and helpful in us and trying to really make sure that we're slowing people down in those school zones so those uh speed bumps we probably can't have enough of those um we are the eighth largest employer in Nevada uh approximately 9600 staff uh you can see that we have about 3,400 teachers 99% of them are teaching in their area of license and you can see that 70% of our teachers have master's degree or higher so I think that that that's really a pretty telling something as far as the teachers that we have in front of our students and you can see we serve 44,000 meals each day priorities that we have in waso County School District are really about organizational culture we have done a lot of work in that area we have also worked to increase our engagement for students in a number of ways uh and we are really committed to raising academic achievement for every one of our students and this is all done through our strategic plan and one of the advantages I had as a as a person who's been in the the district for quite some time and with a strategic plan that was already adopted was able to move forward really productively in my first8 months in the position and a big part of our strategic plan is really about doing so in partnership with our community and so that's what a lot of this is about today but before I went on I wanted to say a couple of special thank yous as well we have been doing a lot around decreasing chronic absenteeism and and that's been in partnership with strength in our community we've worked closely with Mike kasmiri and his team we yesterday night had a presentation on Dual credits and concurrent credits and this has been a great collaboration with president sandville and President hilgerson we also do a lot of work with children's cabinet Mrs Kim Young and then a lot of work with the City of Reno in my previous position I had a chance to work with the Parks and Recreation team from all of the folks that you have that are helping keep our streets plowed and making sure we can get our kids to school if we have a delayed start or we have some inclement weather and so these are all you know I was just sitting in here today just enjoying uh to see our community and all the focus that is uh being put into our community and as the primary um educational provider that's what we wanted to come and just share with you today so uh there's been a lot of discussion around chronic absenteeism and some of the things that have happened over our past year is we've made really significant progress chronic absenteeism students that Miss over 10% of the school year 180 days 18 days or more that's with chronic absenteeism you can see that last year over 69 69% of our elementary schools made progress in reducing chronic absenteeism our teachers our Educators our princi principles will all tell you that when students are there we know that we can educate them Middle School which is an area of good concern 76% of them of our middle schools made progress and then high schools still an area that we're putting a lot of thought in about 50% of our high schools made reductions in chronic absenteeism and another thing I think is worth knowing as a community is around average daily attendance average daily attendance and chronic absenteeism are two different things and there's quite a distinction average daily attendance every day in our schools we have 92 to 94% of our students attending chronic absenteeism are the percentage of students that are missing over 10% so sometimes there has been I've been in different presentations with Edon and other Community Partners and it's really been wow I didn't quite realize that but we have 9 to 94% of our students in school every day and then we look at some of the academic progress that we are working for have made and want to continue to make we had uh seven additional five-star schools last year we had 15 of our schools earn four and five stars we saw excellent growth in math and in reading and then seven of our high schools are considered the top 25 best schools in Nevada and so there's a lot of good things happening in wasel County School District and being a person that's been in the district for many years I I'm keenly aware of that and I also think it's important to try to help others uh become uh as aware of some of the accomplishments not to say that we don't have plenty of work ahead and plenty of room for improvement you can see overall our graduation rates in really over 10 years time we increased graduation rates by 10% points 82% is pretty consistent with uh the national uh average and what I would say there is some of the work we have is around our vanished students vanished students are students that simply we no longer can find they are in our schools they might move they might move out of country they might move to another school district and those students have been become increasingly hard to find and because of our percentage of vanished students that significantly impacts our overall graduation rates because they do count on our overall cohort number so just trying to kind of round out some of that and then you look at Advanced credits uh 65% of our graduates my daughter she completes this year she's one of these 65% of our graduates completed Advanced courses and I will tell you having uh some some older children and having a chance to look at some of the coursework that they have uh it can be pretty rigorous and so this is this is really uh a great accomplishment one of the things that we have done and was a part of our presentation last night was around our commitment our Board of Trustees and as a school district to increasing access for our students to dual credit and concurrent credit um this has really been an emerging area in education over the last four to 5 years where our students are now at Reed High School and as attending UNR at the same time and this is really significant in so many ways one is we have paid for our students to be able to access uh these courses and what we've seen from that is real progress with disproportionality so students that maybe have not been able to previously attend a concurrent class or a dual credit class are now having opportunities that weren't previously there uh we had a wonderful presentation last night from one of our Superstar students over at Reed high school and she talked to us about how we've opened doors for her and her pathway forward it was really a rich experience um and so that's that's some of the work that we are doing in that area certainly as an educational system we're committed to Workforce Development and so when we're looking at Workforce Development there's a number of ways that we're doing it dual credit a lot of our some of our students are graduating from college maybe two years earlier and out in a job force that is always in need of additional employees you can see some really good progress in that area last year concurrent credits almost 2200 of our 9th through 12th grade students earned concurrent credits so they transfer to college those credits go with them and they start some of our students start with an associates degree when they begin their AC their their University experience District Partnerships this has been some of the real productive work this year uh we have been committed we're trying to find Pathways for every one of our students and so you have those that are very academically engaged and we have some dual credit options we also have internships and this has been a real commitment that we've made as a school district uh last year we had only 14 internships uh with uh various Community Partners thanks to our conversation and the work with city manager Bryant we're beginning internships here with the City of Reno uh and uh what's really nice is this year alone we've moved from 14 internship experiences to over 100 internship experiences so getting Stu students credits on the job giving them some of that real practical experience we think is is a great benefit uh to all of them and so oops that's something that we are continuing to push on is the internships and then here you can see some CTE Career and Technical education another great pathway for our students you're certainly uh you're probably familiar with many of the Partnerships we have with Tesla and various organizations but this year we've been able to expand Aviation uh technology at AAC we have our first food truck over at Reed High School kind of a a cool something that our students run and then you can see down in the corner fire science academy at a act and we've worked with um the National Forest Service really on an area that has become increasingly problematic and is another pathway for our students on something that fits their desires their skills their attributes you can see that we have a great deal of CTE programs and then as a part of this presentation this is where I kind of wanted to walk into some additional Partnerships and collaboration that we have but we're super excited that we opened Debbie Smith CTE Academy next year it is an absolute shining star if any of you want to come over for a tour we will make sure of that because it is a it is a beautiful facility we have refurbished the old hug high school and we already have close to 900 students enrolled at the Debbie Smith uh CTE Academy and it will open right in the heart of Reno to start next school year so we're really pleased with some of that now looking forward there are some areas that we are continuing to work on I mentioned some disproportionality this is Advanced course workor participation last year and you can see that we want to pay attention to all of our students you can see and this is uh education we get accused of all the uh acronyms that you can see up there what's frl what's GT gifted and talented free and reduced lunch children in transition you can see students with an IEP and what we're trying to do is be acutely aware of giving every one of our students the same opportunity to pursue Advanced coursework and as I mentioned and it's not included in this slide deck but the disproportionality progress that we've made with concurrent enrollment could not be more proud of what we've done this year as far as really making strong progress around uh reducing disproportionalities that takes us to our facilities modernization plan and I think this is where we get a chance to walk hand inand in our work going forward I think some of the most transformative work that I have uh certainly all of you have have seen much of that but as a just a citizen and an educator the facilities modernization plan I really think is one of the most transformative pieces I've been a part of in wasel County School District and I'll give uh Adam cersi a great deal of credit for his foresight and his leadership in this area what you may be aware of is that across the country we're getting school districts that are closing 25 schools at a time and they can't keep up with the declines in enrollment and what we have been able to do is develop a 15-year plan that we are doing with our communities with individual School communities where we have had the chance to open nine new schools again wc1 has been just an extraordinary blessing for our school district and you can see that we've invested over $1 billion locally and so I just think about that reciprocity education the City of Reno and and so you can see some of that and then as we are looking forward um there is still a great deal we are kind of what we're calling in Chapter 2 so we've been able to build some new schools now we start to look at various School consolidation and I'll I'll talk a little bit more about that as we're going forward but you can see that we are working to revitalize communities throughout the various Wards in Reno you have some up there that you can see Corbett lemelson loer Matthews Pine stad trainer vaugh these are all communities uh or all facilities that can now be repurposed in ways that have great benefit for our community and if you just look by ward in in Ward one you have the Debbie Smith you have Matthews you have trainer Duncan lemelson those are things that are in front of us in the next two three to four years as far as how we will continue to look at those facilities consolidate schools and and then repurpose facilities in ways that we think are beneficial for the community W two has Anderson Swope Ward three you can see right now anytime you drive by over on Vasser you can see vaugh and just an incredible uh commun uh school that we think is going to be a great revitalization to the community itself Ward four we're walking into stead elementary the oldstead elementary and what we want to do with that and then rebuilding a new stead elementary Ward five we're continuing to look at McQueen and Clayton and then Ward six we've had pakus and jaywood raw so you can see the amount of revitalization that's occurring and how important this is that we continue to do this work together I will go back here so one of the things I wanted to just point out I I always look at this picture and I look at the McKinley Arts Center and it always makes me think of our Mount Rose school at first glance because there's some similarities but when we talk about repurposing and revitalization we think of McKinley art c as a wonderful example of that work that's been done something that has become a community center you talked about some of the events that have been recently occurring and bringing people together and and so as we're looking forward with our repurposing facilities we we see that we have tremendous opportunity and um then the other thing you can see is our admin building so uh those that have been in was County School District for many years uh we've heard of this as the greenhouse and uh the greenhouse uh is is not always widely and largely recognized as one of the the the more Elite facilities in the area but um uh we're excited because we're now embarking upon that work and that work is going to be amazing work on what we want to do with our Administrative Building so we have schools we have Community hubs we have a facilities um an administrative facilities and these are really just opportunities that we think are for all of us to walk hand inand as we're kind of going forward and really that was some of the things I mean those that know me I could I could probably talk a lot longer but I'm trying to trying to be brief uh for the purposes of this discussion and then certainly welcoming any questions that you might have and really this is our commitment we feel like together we'll create a brighter future for every student and we really leave this at our core alone we can do so little we heard collaboration today and together we can do so much and so that's just a highlevel quick overview of waso County School District and again I just want to say uh thank you for giving me the opportunity to to share with you thank you again for that invitation and I would be happy to answer any questions that that that you might have all right well fantastic job um I can I just this is one of the reasons I wanted you to come so that people could also experience your passion for what you do and I believe you were at the school district already correct yes I've been in the school district over 25 years oh yeah so you have the experience I do I do but I love that CU you are so passionate about it and you know children are a you know I guess teachers are a lifeblood in a community because they are investing in our future you know every day but I was impressed did you guys get those numbers it was about the transportation um 20,000 miles every day and then all the meals that you serve I had no idea that is remarkable it really is it's a it's a very large organization and you know I talked about organizational culture we've been really pleased we've seen some substantive progress with our staff at all levels in terms of feeling strong about the direction of our school district and where we're going and so I think there's been some nice signals early on the work in front of us is immense it will be challenging uh but when we can do it together I feel like we can get a lot further down the road and so again I I thank you that's that's awesome and um probably for Randy and Miguel um during Co and we received some um I think there were what we called them at the time hopes act but it was it's still under arpa we donated 3 Mill so that we could get new laptops for kids so they could uh work remotely so that was a really nice and cool thing that we could do at the city because typically how we work together is obviously in land and those types of um you know issues but uh that was just a cool thing it was it was nice to see that we could do that so okay I'm G to ask um councilwoman Anderson any questions I just wanted to know um if you could share with the council at large about some of the broadly more unique and interesting special um programs are going to be offered at Debbie Smith Academy um there's a number of them one of the ones that we're looking at is um growing our own Educators so we're trying to strengthen the teacher pipeline as we know employee pipelines in every area have been impacted over time that's one of the areas and largely uh taking what we've had at a act and and building on that work over at Debbie Smith and so um there's a number of different areas that that we'll be looking at um Health Science Education Hospitality skilled and Technical Sciences uh some of I he there was an aviation program that will be over at a act okay got it and that's exciting new space for us and we're really fortunate to have received um a donation uh from a Gillam Mount Foundation to help um begin that work in in our community yeah all right councilman Martinez go ahead thanks much Madame May and thank you superintendent erns for being here and providing the update um I wanted to see for the benefit of war three residents you could talk about some of the consolidation modernization plans that are included in the fmnp I know echol loader there's a meeting tomorrow uh evening and so just if you could go into some of those specific details about what's happening around smithridge echol loader V Roger Corbett and wster high school as well fair enough I'll give it my best shot I know that our chief facilities officer he can give you each and every detail of that but what I will say is one we want to make sure that we're doing it with every school community so let's say Pine for example we have Pine Middle School next year will be the final year of Pine Middle School then we will be rebuilding in that area and we'll be pulling smithridge Elementary School across and it will now be a part of the Pine Middle School campus and then we look at other neighboring elementary schools and how we want to do that with SE Pine uh echol loader one of the things that's nice about the plan is it is dynamic and it is responsive to the various Community variables that we have population decline population increase we know we're dealing with a lot of factors in terms of um oh just larger aspects around affordable housing for our community and that that and so what we have developed uh at the high level is a responsive plan that we can now look at loader and and see what we want to do as far as that school and another school and what we and I'm going to let Adam come up cuz I think he can speak just a little bit better uh to this but but really it's about doing it with the schools together and then um being responsive to the variables that we have in front of us and what those are going to be for the next 5 to 10 years so if you don't mind I'm going to just turn over just a minute or two over to Mr cersi okay ad uh thanks uh good afternoon for the record Adam cersi Chief Operating Officer for the wash County School District really excited about the opportunities in front of us um in W 3 um superintendent Ur hit it quite accurately it really all starts at vaugh middle school hopefully you guys have had a chance to drive past vaugh on baster it's going to create tremendous New Opportunities uh that we really tried to signal in this presentation that we hope will Ripple through the fabric of that adjacent community so many um secondary and tertiary positive outcomes for the reev revitalization of those areas but um vaugh then creates opportunities on the pine campus where we've already the Board of Trustees has made uh taken action to uh begin progress towards reconstructing that into a new large modern Elementary School to serve that region um and then you mentioned loader tomorrow evening we're hosting a community meeting uh at loer to talk about the prospects of rebuilding a new Elementary School on that campus as well um to serve that Community I also wanted to I mean not to jump out of w 3 but really excited about our modernization plans at the Matthews Elementary School campus next to the park along AI Boulevard a number of important Community Partners surrounding that area an area with a lot of potential that we really hope that the the facility modernization at Matthews can really supercharge for great things in that future great thank you so much for those details um I think the last thing I'll just put on is saying between council member Rees and I we both sit on the capital funding protection committee we've heard a lot of these updates but just wanted to make sure that everybody uh kind of hears the great work that you all are doing what is happening for the school district and the benefit of our children so thanks again for being here thanks mayor tlor thank you madam mayor um I will start by saying thank you so much for being here and I have two children that have gone through the Washo County school district one is about to graduate from the University of Washington next month so I'm very excited so thank you for all of your team and what you have done um three quick questions the first one or maybe it's two um you mentioned that there were barriers to Chronic absenteeism and I'm wondering what those specific barriers might be and if there's anything that the City of Reno might be able to do to help I don't know if that's a space we normally get involved with with and then the second question or actually have two more questions probably for U Mr cersi would be about the review of our development projects if you guys are still looking at those and for the repurposing um in addition to the community meetings what of their efforts might we be able to get involved with with the projects in our board or around our city okay thank you very good I'll take the the stab at the first question and let Adam jump up for questions two and three um really chronic absenteeism um we look at Food security and basic living those are critical and when we talk about continued opportunities uh for collaboration we look at our Family Resource Centers this is an area that has routinely been tricky to fund and we know that we see really a great benefit from this being a wonderful space of support for our families who then can in turn support the students uh so Family Resource Centers is is one of the the big areas that that I think we may have some opportunity and you know other other areas that contribute is disenfranchisement I mean when we look at students who fall behind and then they're working and working to try to continually catch up and they're always in that space that challenge at some point becomes a little too daunting and difficult so we budget uh and and so um and so you've got that you know that kind of disenfranchisement that can occur over time with with falling behind and then certainly you have behaviors and then you know certainly there's there's impacts right now that we're seeing um uh with national implications that we're also trying to to make sure that we stay aware of and supportive for our families so those are some of the that contribute to the chronic absenteeism but it is about getting kids to be successful in school what we've also done is we've built out um 200 additional uh after school clubs and activities in high school based on students desires and so they have helped design those and so that's been a massive increase uh we only had aund 100 I think last year and this year we've already put 200 more in and so what we're trying to do is just increase overall engagement to pull our students in make them want to be there the more they're there the more successful they can be academically thank you um Mr s will welome back to you for my second round and move over to councilwoman dur thank you so much for being here and I like the mayor I've seen few presentations by the school district here I've seen a variety out elsewhere um just two things I wanted to comment on quickly since others have already commented on um some things I would have um I was very interested in your proposal to shift the um unneeded schools in the future to resources for our community and um we've heard it from almost every Ward that they don't have a community center in their Ward really about the only one is Evelyn Mount and McKinley I mean virtually none inward two none inward six uh none in w f uh four mhm um so probably none of w three uh I don't know where McKinley and I mean uh some of them fell out and are redistricting but the point is is uh a a lot of times in order to hold our neighborhood Advisory board meetings we have uh they have to travel here and the board has to sit up here and it's less informal it's more formal and it's more challenging for parking coming downtown all that they're not in their neighborhood anymore so as you're thinking about converting some of these schools I want you to think of the city um because what a great way to step into the um space with an already existing building that might need some rehabbing in various places also um the schools have done very little in terms of um utilizing their grounds for um uh really sports right I mean there aren't Fields there's not trees there it's just um it's off often just open field and um I would love to see those get redeveloped more you know for sports activities whatever those are I mean it wouldn't necessarily have to be the traditional ones it could be some untraditional ones so I just wanted to say I'm looking forward to that partnership so um you know we always say the most environmental building is the one that's already built where we can repurpose it so think of us and then I love the leveling of opportunity that you mentioned the um I saw those charts I looked at every kind of branch of that chart and who is getting resources or who are getting these Advan placement classes who are getting opportunities who are not and I'm so glad that you're focused on that I really appreciate it um a lot good has been said and to me finally you are somewhat of a breath of fresh air I loved your predecessor but I love you as well I mean you're very passionate very well spoken very in touch because I think of your long history um with the school district very in touch with what's happening on the ground it's not like you came in and had to spend your first year how do we spell wasow or say it and you know those kind of things um no you went right to work and so I really appreciate that um since Mr sear is sitting right there in my eye view um I also want to thank him for his partnership we just had a huge presentation on Public Safety on McCaron but there have been public safety issues all over and I think more and more um when we put in the new jwood raw school down in South Reno you guys stepped up and helped us make a safer environment and it sounds like that's sort of a change in Dynamic so thank you so much thank you very much I appreciate all those comments uh councilwoman Ebert yes thank you can hear me yeah yes great so um I did have some comments thanks for the presentation um council member D kind of touched on something that I was going to bring was the repurposing of facilities um I have had um a few meetings now with wer County School District representatives to see if we could potentially repurpose the stad elementary school into uh a community center um for a number of reasons one is you know we do not have a community center and um with the library funding Cuts we've kind of um been pushed out of places where we would normally have meetings and things like that so it would be very helpful for the community of Bo for to have a space to meet it would also be really helpful to have uh that facility for some um Early Childhood Childhood Development Centers um and also um a place for our senior community to maybe meet and use a facility during the day so I just wanted to kind of uming bring that up again I just want to continue to Advocate um for City of Reno to partner with waso County School District to repurpose that facility um and also I want to Echo council member Jer on you know using these flat fields that are already existing um to help increase the um flat fields we have available in the City of Reno we really behind on what we should have for the community and I think that would be um a great way to kind of bump our numbers up a little bit with areas that are already existing um but I also had some questions on um existing schools um what what kind of um programs are washer County School District working on to um maybe bring those um educational outcomes up for the schools that are maybe one and two star schools I have several of them inward for that need just some extra attention maybe it's through more funding resources maybe it's additional teachers um different types of teachers but it what what is the plan for waso County School District to help lift up those schools that need a little extra help thank you very much for the question city council member Ebert um so I'll speak to really one of the initiatives that we're very proud of with our one and two star schools and we call it the comprehensive schools collaborative again one of those acronyms CSC and and what that is is we have taken our lowest performing schools and we've banded them together and one of the things we've seen uh in the workforce over time when we're talking about teacher pipelines and administrator pipelines sometimes at our lower performing schools we may have a little bit of a less experienced ad administrator so one of the first efforts that we have taken over the past two years or approximately year and a half is we hired one of our highest performing principles uh to support and Mentor each of them and what we've really been looking at is making sure that these schools have fundamental systems and structures in place that's kind of step one step two is we've also given them an instructional code so certainly we know that um good teaching is going to lead to improved learning and so each of those schools has been provided with an instructional coach that goes around mentors works with teachers and not only does that but also works with some of the most in need students in the school for intensive remediation efforts another aspect that we have done within our um comprehensive schools collaborative is we have provided each of them a long-term sub for the entirety of the year and as an educator on the inside what can happen in buildings is sometimes a teacher might have a life circumstance and can't make it and sometimes those positions don't get filled and so what they've referred to it is is the Super Sub the person that can really kind of help create stability because one of the biggest aspects when we're looking for turning around school and and by the way I've I've had experience as a principal uh I used to be a principal over at Anderson Elementary and we we were a turn around school and and um and so you've got your systems and structures then you have to improve the overall teaching that is occurring and then you have to make sure that you're creating greater stability in the building on a day today basis so those are just a few of the areas then we tie that in with larger scale professional learning uh around what we call teacher Clarity uh that's a big uh effort that we have in our school district and then to land it in a really good place you you you may have heard of the Mississippi miracle and some of the incredible progress that has been made in the state of Mississippi uh a lower performing State academically over the past 3 to four years has really made some of the most substantive change across the country and a lot of that is related to the science of reading and so we have gone back to provide a comprehensive right now it's an optin training for our teachers because it is definitely after hours and it's six days for two years so 12 days of professional learning around really the fundamentals of reading and sometimes we think man didn't they get that in college or or didn't didn't they already have that but we can tell you that this is a critical aspect when we get those phonemics and the phonemic awareness uh and phonics in place then all things are possible going forward that earlier intervention and so that has been a big Focus that we have made in our school district particular to kinder and kindergarten through third grade again when we put these professional learning initiatives together we prioritize our collaborative schools when we have to fill Subs we try to prioritize and fill those schools first so we're really trying to um invest resources to schools that we've identified that really can can use some some improvement so I hope that that helps give just a a little bit of an overview thank you um Mr Cersei can I just have you answer that one question about development certainly uh Adam cersi again for the record um so be um sorry oh we um used to have waso County School District review all of the development projects or provide some sort of comments or review on all of our on all of the projects that you know were coming to us is that something that still happens and it seems like some of the questions we get we don't have the schools for this we don't have the teachers for this we don't have um for this development and your your division would review that make sure that there was adequate facilities available correct so you know pre wc1 really when we saw rampant overcrowding and even yearound schools out of necessity we that was uh an intentional commentary on every development application and really a a critical element of some of those projects that's really evolved right we've we've expanded our capacity through the construction of new schools we now see declining enrollment um we don't proactively provide that same commentary on every application however we absolutely review every development application that comes across um any agendas whether it's changes to the stonate potential master plan handbook um or a potential Starbucks across the street from Mareno High School we're tracking all of that and we're commenting um as appropriate um because we are very in touch with staff you know we're not monitoring this from a distance so um and mostly because we have the resources to respond to the needs appropriately I think that's really the Crux of the question often do we have the resources to provide the services that these developments will create when when it comes to school facilities the answers is yes today perfect thank you so much um council members do we have any other questions comments okay thank you so very much I have additional questions please okay council member you were you went about 4 minutes over so if you could oh I apologize I couldn't hear any um Bells well we wanted to let them finish so do you is there something you can follow up with um at a later dat or can you make it quick um yeah sure I'll try to make it quick okay can we please give her a couple minutes two minutes please I wanted to inquire further about the um uh the new um elementary school that's being built in Ward 4 um to replace existing stad Elementary School um I have been receiving um some questions and some concerns from constituents in the area regarding um the pickup and drop off situation that's going to occur there um I'm just curious um if there's been um a plan worked out with RTC or safe RS to school are what that's going to look like and if there's any plans for wasow County School District to come to uh W four uh for it now to um you know explain what that plan is to the constituents so they can um kind of have a better idea of what's expected for that area um for those that don't know the school's being built uh right in a neighborhood which I think is good um except for U the pickup and drop off um situation might be a little bit hectic um I'll give that one a stab again for the record Adam cersi uh so there's a brand new Elementary School of a similar model to politus and jwood raw that's being constructed in a a new DR Horton development kind of in between the freeway and the north Valley's Regional Park um just about 1,500 yards as the crow flies from the existing stad Elementary School um it was master planned into the overall development similar to as I said polus it's going to have uh designated pickup and drop off lanes for school buses separated from the parents separated from the staff that particular site has three Street frontages um one of which is actually a culdesac so we like putting our schools at least our elementary schools in particular away from the stead boulevards for example we think that will be an improvement um all of our elementary schools are served uh by uh gened Transportation with a on M walk zone so this is going to serve the same enrollment boundary as the existing stad elementary school so all the kids that um ride the yellow school buses to school to and from every day are going to save have the same opportunity to do so and you know um similar to that uh McCaron conversation sometimes getting into those neighborhoods it you know pick up and drop off around schools um is always very intense um but usually when you're on those residential streets folks are a little more comfortable going that 15 M an hour or even slower um as we approach opening this is 2026 27 school year so this is more than a year away once we get closer to opening that school we are going to have um Community engagement activities and things like that whether an opportunity presents itself at the NAB or just sort of through our school communities to make sure that we train we work with safe routs of school um and a variety of other partners to train behaviors um ahead of any changes around you know comings and goings around our schools thank you so much for being here really appreciate you thank you for everything that you do in the community and for our children okay um Madame manager we have a Time certain of 2:30 I don't think we can get through the downtown update in that in 7 minutes room folks in the room yes we do but can is it okay if we start a little early I think yes okay let's move on to item d8 Madam clerk do we have any public Comet the attorneys are shaking their head so I'm just confirming that they're I saw a yes at time sir so it's not a Time certain on the agenda so this is checking that's correct it is not so I think we're okay to move on thank you okay we're moving on to item D4 David 4 yes do we have any public comment we do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence hi good afternoon Vicky bamban Director of Finance for the record before you today is the annual uh presentation of the marketing plan the annual operating budget and the capital Improvement plan for the ballroom this is managed by the downtown management company which is Caesars and with me today is Brian corano representing Caesars and he can answer questions as far as marketing and such I'm going to run through quickly the uh here it is the number side of this I know it looks a little weird because it says through the year ending December 3125 because they're on a calendar year so you see this normally in February because they come once they close the books in December and then they bring you the marketing plan for this calendar year which ends at the end end of this year this aligns with your strategic plan through fiscal sustainability economic and Community Development and infrastructure as a background the council approved the amended and restated Ballroom agreement in 2011 that agreement is in effect until February of 2028 the agreement provides for the marketing plan the operating budget and the capital plan to be approved by Council each year and that's what this process is and they have prepared those documents for your review and they're attached to the staff report I just kind of compile them and bring them forward to you and reconcile to the capital account that the city actually maintains on our side in 20124 there was a net profit of almost $250,000 and there were not any Capital expenditures the management company is responsible through the agreement for all the maintenance and operating needs of that facility so we only the capital portion of it through the capital account that the city maintains the net profits that you see here they'll be shared 50/50 between the city and the management company and again that's per the agreement and any losses are covered by the management company and that has happened recently during the pandemic in 2025 the forecast so this calendar year I know we get off on fiscal year so it throws me a little bit too but in this calendar year they have a forecasted net income of almost $20,000 and proposed Capital expenditures of $100,000 one of the attachments shows the capital expenditures that they've had up to date for a few years and then outgoing what they anticipate in this 100,000 um 75,000 is anticipated I think for the roof and 25,000 for the heating and air conditioning and ventilation system pretty sure that was the split on that but it's between the roof and the Heat an AC system uh the account balance right now in the capital fund that the city maintains for this is $523,000 100,000 of the net profit is placed into that account to keep the Bal balance at least 500,000 sometimes it goes below depending on the capital expenditures and we build it back up until that point it hits the 500 Mark we had 500,000 in there at the end of last year so the additional 23,000 you see in there is interest over the year the gross revenues are insufficient to meet that 100,000 annual deposit if we needed it which we don't this year the management company does contribute that difference um that's the end of my part of the presentation and there's usually some questions for the management company um Brian corano if you guys have questions on marketing and such did you have a presentation or you just are you just wanting to answer questions just here to answer questions okay y we'll move to council members with questions um I I'll just say thanks for being here um you know love to see the improvements that happen in terms of the event scheduling uh lots of groups use the facility I think you know especially it seems like nonprofits um is that your experience as well yes um so it's a great venue for nonprofits it's a good size um parkings available always a good thing so just I appreciate you all being here today I know it's a requirement and I also appreciate you you know in these agreements um covering these shortfalls you know when they are there I mean we're having a very tight year I don't know what that bodess for the ballroom itself you said it right at the end I thought Vicki that we'll be okay or not okay they are proposing um that they have events planned and with their marketing plan they're proposing that they'll have a net profit next year of around 320,000 so even better than this year okay well thank you for being here course thank you other council members member Anderson hi Brian thanks for being here um I was wondering in the future 30 days or whatever it takes to compile it if you could give me just an overview of the type of events and usage from 2024 and then also what you have um forecasted for 2025 just looking at the um different types of organizations and the business that is coming in and out of thatall that would be great thanks council member Ebert do you have any questions yes I do um is was this project part of a Redevelopment project when this was built does anyone know yes I'm seeing our ACM attorney she's shaking her head yes okay so this was a project built with RDA funds and so you now continues to own it correct ACM attorney is coming up to answer your questions council member Ebert hello Council Brian mardle revitalization manager for the record um it may have been Redevelopment funds I don't have any data only because uh if funds were expended um there's no current debt from the Redevelopment agency nor does the agency own the the land or the property who does though uh the city owns it yeah so what I'm getting at is is this is this property property tax exempt yes it is uh because it is City of Reno owned property we don't pay property tax and so it does not contribute tax increment to the Redevelopment agency okay so we own it Caesars operates it and we split the profits correct correct okay but there is no property tax generated bment no and we don't do any of the scheduling of the events they're fully responsible for all of that correct okay all right um that's all I have for right now okay um I guess my question is maybe more of a comment first of all I'm I'm glad we're making money or in the we're in making profit I think that there is a great opportunity for this um event partnership uh in the future and I would love to work with you to see what what more we can do um one of the things I didn't see in the revenue side were ticket sales can you sort of explain that to me if that is part of the revenue or where does that go or there are ticket sales correct there's no ticket sales part of the revenue so we book the concert or whatever's coming in so we book the concert take the expense and the revenue so it's all all the food and beverage portion of it also the room rental and any AV cost that is charged back okay which leads to one other question when I look at the um expenses and the revenues the cost of the food um that is purchased through Caesar's entertainment correct and do we have an agreement the city has an agreement with the the marketing company where there's a maybe a little bit of markup or what does that look like yeah so we use our current prices and then for the cost of sales portion of it we set it to 52% for food and 35% for beverage which is part of the contract so we can keep it even um anything that goes above that if there's higher cost food or anything like that the property ourself will absorb that thank you very much appreciate that um council member eert did you have another question yeah so what what kind of um expenses does City of Reno have for this annually would Che me answer you can answer it if you want to this the city's part in this agreement is we have the we share the cost of the capital so we maintain this capital account and we ensure that it we build it back up to the 500,000 they submit the management company their uh proposal for the Capital Improvements each year which is what's before you today if those are approved by Council those would come back to us we would pay those through that Capital account and we would build that account back up to that $500,000 threshold okay so we're responsible for keeping at $500,000 yes okay does anybody have an idea of how much property tax revenue this would generate if it was not owned by city of Areno no we don't we don't have that information okay and um how much did we have to fund to keep the account at $500,000 last year uh last year well last year this last year which is really this year because we're reconciling for 240 because it was already at the 500,000 we did not spend any Capital expenditures last calendar year which we're talking about is 24 so it was it remained at the 500,000 so it's a little bit over it's 52 something, because it it accured interest during that time so it's actually north of the 500,000 right now and who gets the 20,000 over it remains in the account okay so did City of Reno have to pay anything towards the maintenance or operation of this facility at all last fiscal year or 2024 whatever it is no not that I'm aware of okay so we got $250,000 that we split or $250,000 total with no operating cost $250,000 that we split so the city's portion of it will be approximately $125,000 okay I think that's it for me thank you other council members okay I believe we need a motion I'll move to accept the marketing plan second we have a motion in a second do we have any other discussion all those in favor I'm sorry I didn't hear did we make a motion we did and a second okay uh motion or I uh I all those in favor I all those oppos motion carries unanimously thank you so much for being here sorry that's okay thank you thank you okay Madame Madame vice mayor we can go back to item d8 David 8 for the downtown update okay thank you do we have do we have any public comment on this item we do not have any public comment have not received any correspondence okay thank you good afternoon Madame vice mayor Brian Mardo revitalization manager I'm here to give the monthly update for both in downtown for both November and December we uh had skipped November in the January meeting so we're going to do a two months of catchup this time uh this downtown really affects all the Strategic priorities of the city public safety Economic Development um arts and historic resources the boundary is the bid boundary in the downtown area and we're focusing on three Focus areas which are strengthening the downtown economy improving the built environment and the natural environment things you can see feel in touch uh and then enhancing experiences when people go downtown and uh and experience the area so here's our monthly report for December but we also added um fiscal year to date so we starting from January to where we are now um two things we want to notice is you know there have been some business closures in the downtown area however there have also been a few openings um seven to be exact in the last 6 months uh a few of those of note um bores Nest Saloon is one that opened on Second Street we have Wolf Den Bar and Grill over on 6th but the most prominent one is the birdies uh mini golf on Sierra Street that was a multi-million dollar project um that went into the old antiques and treasures building I'll have photos of that in the next Slide the other one is we continue to meet with downtown Property Owners um it is safe to say that there it was mentioned earlier that there's a bit of a lack of pride in our downtown and our Virginia Street Corps from the business owners down there and property owners that is one of the reasons why restore was so impactful is that we try to incentivize those property owners and business owners to uh revisit and reinvest in their properties and try to improve it some way and get some business activity there um but we are meeting with other property owners of other sites uh predominantly we're meeting with the ones on compass point to discuss their development plans that is the site next to Reno Vulcanizing uh in between Virginia and University um Riverboat in we met with uh on there uh development plans and um the movie theater obviously the movie theater is is one that everyone keeps talking about uh there are a few interested properties many of them want to know how the parking Gallery will relate to the Future development of that site um it really depends on if that property will be continued continue to be used as a theater or not um the agreement was written to be used as a theater if it's no longer theat we'll have to revisit the parking agreement um so some of the interested parties wanted to discuss that first as part of um putting their proformas together so to get to some of the nice photos of birdies um this is over 30,000 square ft improved uh there's a above floor and a and a basement two bars on both levels there's three courses of miniature golf uh there is a dart room uh there's private spaces for events um it's a great space it's adding a ton of activation to the downtown area um they opened I believe the first week in December so moving on uh so mentioning restore project so we had a few projects finish in December uh mainly because we gave everyone sort of a year to complete their improvements um some have granted extensions due to just construction delays uh but they're in process I believe the Morris burner is putting their windows on right now on Fourth Street uh but the projects that did finish were birdies were one um if you didn't notice the Horseshoe sign downtown has all brand new paint and all brand new light in on the entire uh signage right there uh black rabbit and Lead dog resealed their entire parking lot uh did some new signage and sleeve brewing I'll bring in the next slide uh sleeve Brewing not only painted their building and replace some windows but also added uh some exter some outdoor seating which is one of the metrics we are tracking so they added a little outdoor patio there uh they actually did a mural on the west side of the building that looks really nice as well um coincidentally this is a property that the Redevelopment agency purchased back in 2006 I believe uh and resold it to a private developer who then turned it into uh Bagel Spot and um the Brewing Company but I believe it used to be a fire station a city Reno Fire Station um moving on to the downtown experience uh the DRP has continued to do cleanups throughout downtown uh per predominantly they have some hotspot areas they keep um addressing retrack or not retrack but the the corridor and record street is always a challenge but their numbers have been doing well um you know 8,000 business checks 2,000 Wellness checks uh and I love their shopping cart program they incentivize the removal of shop shopping carts throughout downtown and then moving on to the downtown experience um you know our event season sort of slows down in December but we still had four activation days in the area um homeless Services uh and Outreach activities continue uh Parks have been doing great they've uh gotten up to a 90% um when they Patrol them they report all clear so 94% of their uh Patrol reports and all clear in our parks and in December uh the biggest event we had was the holiday lights it feels very far ago to talk about December and Christmas tree lighting but Thanksgiving Day weekend was the Holiday Lights Festival uh we it was a great success um we had two attempts to turn on the the tree lighting but we finally got it there's that picture up on the upper right but a lot more vendors this year a lot more families came out we activated Virginia Street up up as you can see in the lower right um added more events and kids activities that was that was a good event and that is the report for November and December any questions questions council members yeah um I do um my vice May yes um so um the uh event that went on the night of the tree lighting with all the food trucks that looked like it was really um successful large turnout I personally thought it was hilarious when the um street light went on instead of the tree with the countdown um I thought maybe it was done on purpose actually but um you know we talked earlier about the um event last weekend with all the lights and sculpture and everything um is there any way that we could kind of use the model of what we did for the tree lighting ceremony and do something like that on a monthly basis yeah thank you for the question so we have um dedicated some budget uh through the economic development budget the room tax budget special events budget as well as art funding via the placemaking study and the river plan to come up with even more events um than we held last year so last year we started the pilot Plaza activation program that brought four new events that was flicks on the bricks that was off the rails concert series and those events were were planned to be monthly from May to October which is our predominant event season um we intentionally created this uh Western Lights event to be part of to be an event in our slowest event season in the year where we have no other events going on um tourism is low uh and so that was one of the intentions is to see what other cities are doing they're doing these uh exciting light festivals during the winter um we can always try to facilitate either through the city or through promoters bringing more events in those shoulder Seasons um it's just not easy to activate when you don't have a lot of uh natural tourism and traffic going on but obviously that's our intent to keep people coming downtown and keep them um you know engaged in you know visiting with activation events I thought we received a memo of all the stuff that was going to be going on every month since May what what was wasn't correct so we're adding three new events this year uh one of those is open air house party in Locomotion Plaza so Locomotion Plaza will be completed uh Memorial Day should be by Memorial Day weekend so we'll have this brand new Locomotion Plaza with uh sh maintainers outdoor uh furniture and so it'll be beats and bites is a new one um just kind of a food truck event open air house party uh and then the third one is an antique Fair that's coming to down to the downtown area so those will be weekly if not monthly uh throughout four or five months which is our which is our event season yeah thank you for that I was just asking specifically about the event um on the because it seemed like it would be um lower effort to organize it was mostly um food trucks in the area hold on council member Ebert you just you kind of went over your time so I want to make sure that okay sorry about that that's okay do we have other council members with questions no okay so go ahead sorry I'm muted um yeah I was just trying to think of things that have a big impact in lower cost and it seems like just having those food trucks there and just maybe having um I don't know maybe a couple vendors show up or something like that seemed like it would be um a lower cost thing to do um especially if we're kind of going into a time where we need to be really budget cons conscious so thank you sounds like uh ACM attorney has a response thank you and Ashley attorney is city manager for the record U one of the things that Brian McCardle and his group with Redevelopment has really focused on through the activation component uh we've tried the approach of local food trucks would you just like to come down and park in the plaza um if there's not other activation happening we don't have the foot traffic yet uh we need to have additional activation components and regular programming that brings that foot traffic in so that's been part of the shift that we've seen Rachel and the entire Rd team do by utilizing the RDA fund excuse me not RDA funds using the arpa monies um is to do regular programming so on top of the three new events that Brian mentioned that will be weekly or monthly We are continuing last year's events so there is something that will be happening downtown multiple days per week every week through our event season because of the dedicated funding that this body has approved so high effort regardless in order to get the folks down and ideally those events become very successful on on their own and then the promoters take those on because our support will be limited in the future years great thank you okay I believe we're looking for a motion to accept the report I a motion to accept the report have a second second we have a motion a second any discussion all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries thank you very much and now we are moving on to item D9 Madam clerk do we have any public comment for this item we do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence on item D9 thank you all right good afternoon again Brian Mard revitalization manager um we are here to discuss uh the potential proposal to dispose of City properties um as just some background uh you know given the fiscal situation of the city stat was asked to review All City properties to see if there were potential sites for Surplus sites for potential disposal and so staff went through uh and reviewed over 800 Parcels that the city currently owns just so you know many of those are either shrapnel Parcels uh considered RightWay some are streets that still have APN associated with them um but it really comes down to the bulk of those are either open space Parcels or Parks uh and so those are relatively ineligible for disposal uh and so we went through and identified 51 properties that could be considered Surplus properties that are not either um that are either underutilized or not dedicated for some specific municipal use these are sometimes vacant Lots um but many of those are retrack Parcels that we received in 2006 was part of the retrack project um and we have a couple vacant buildings that the city that the city owns um and so we went through all of them and what we're asking from this body is to rather than wait for some of these um either tenants of those spots to come in and do the letter of interest and then bring it to you and then go get an appraisal and each one of those things just get a broad um scope to allow us to go and dispose of these Parcels in chunks or possibly lease them so that we don't have to constantly bring these things back on a case-by casee basis reminder of how we got retrack is in 2006 uh they had to add an additional line so we got some access property on the North and South north and south side of retra uh these were conveyed both to the RDA and the City of Reno um I don't have an answer as to why that was done it was just jointly deeded to both entities uh there was some bonds associated with the retract properties but they've been um paid off and so these properties are no longer incumbered but I will mention that um there is ongoing retrack maintenance I believe the city does own the trench and so we have a maintenance obligation some of the leas payments of the retract properties are being used to maintain and repair the uh the train trench and so if we were to sell all those properties that we're currently getting lease revenue from we may have an unfunded liability on the retract maintenance and repair uh and it is estimated that there could be about six $7 million in repair about $500,000 a year um that is needed going forward so that's something just to keep in mind uh we have already started to sell off some of these retract Parcels this is the area east of west of Keystone uh there is one left uh we already took this uh property to council you gave us direction to sell off this property um it might turn out that this property owner or the business tenant isn't ready to purchase and so we have to decide if we want to put this property back on the market uh but that is one example we've we've sold off the rest of the uh Parcels in that area it's kind of a hard map to read but we've colorcoded all the parcels mostly they're in the urban core um sometimes the city people think the city has lots of extra property that they can uh give away or donate uh but really it comes down to these 51 Parcels inside the urban core the green ones have ident have been identified for potential disposition and sale most of them are the retrack properties mainly east of Sutro uh and there is one Keystone Property uh that is currently being used for forensics but they're moving uh it is on Keystone it faces Keystone uh that could be sold um we might not just go off for auction that we might do an RFP the yellow up there are properties that we think the that should be retained and the offer is that the RDA purchase those properties from the city in a transaction there's strategic value in keeping these properties so that they don't um uh possibly get sold to someone who will Who will speculate or or hold on those too long the ones in purple are properties that have already um been given direction from this body to be sold or under contract that's zero Riverside along the river we're waiting for a quiet title action to be able to officially sell that property the CAC properties have been sold those will be paid off of over 15 years as part of that $3.4 million sellers note and then huden TI is under contract right now we will likely bring that purchase and sale agreement back before this body next month and then the two properties for potential lease one of those is the parking lot of the Lear theater there's business owners around there who have expressed interest in just leasing parking and so rather than use it as a as a public parking no one knows it's there uh we could lease those parking spaces to the surrounding tenants and then the last one is the greenhouse property um we're not proposing touching the greenhouse at all but Grand Sierra Resort has expressed some interest in either using that for overflow parking or for a staging area once the arena gets built and so they would like to lease that property um for a certain amount of time currently that property isn't generating any lease revenue or property tax for the city of raino and the last ones in this salmon color are mostly properties that we we want to hold on to and I have different maps that will show each of these um some of them are bonded um like the bowling Stadium The Event Center the ballroom many of these are historic properties like the Lear theater like the amre uh station and then Lake Mansion is actually sitting on property that's the city owns and the city is under a lease to purchase agreement with the university for the Innovation Center on Ryland and the Southside Schoolhouse uh I think in three years they will officially own those properties and the last one is the property speced out for the future fire station so here are the parcels in numbers so the ones we're proposing uh the city dispose of there's 12 parcels if the city were to sell all these it could generate roughly and conservatively $8.8 million um I will mention that likely these sales could occur over the next three fiscal years it is not we're not likely to see this Revenue uh be immediately recouped um land sales transactions take some time you all sometimes you have to wait for the right buyer the right price or sometimes there's legal complications to disposing of these properties uh but over the next two to three fiscal years years we could dispose of these and it could generate $8.8 million the properties in yellow are the ones that Redevelopment agency staff considers to be of Strate strategic value and so we just don't want to go off and sell those we want to retain those uh for the future of of the brewery District in four Street and so there are 10 parcels and the proposal would be that we ask the RDA to purchase these Parcels from the city because this is an rda2 and rda2 has funds available uh we would be able to do this transaction next fiscal year so that is revenue that we would likely be able to see on the city Side um in fiscal year 2026 that's $4.5 million there is uh in 2020 the city agreed to uh dispose of a piece of property it's the um property north of the men's club in the retrack uh for expansion of the bus station so there's already a contract in place to sell that property to RC RTC that has been held up with some Court cas es uh were near the end of that but that property when it was appraised during that contract was $1.35 Million uh that could possibly hit in the next year or twoo the remaining Parcels for lease sorry this map is gray on Gray but it is the Le theater parking lot as well as the Greyhound bus or the uh greenhouse and then these are the properties that are already under contract um assuming these um assuming these Move Along we should see the the zero Riverside sale happen next fiscal year I certainly hope so and then Hooten tires could possibly hit this fiscal year but likely um after July so next fiscal year and then the CAC once built that'll be paid over the next 15 years and then these are the properties we're we're proposing holding just because they they either require further discussion um planning uh resources Etc so in bulk um this is the list 12 12 Parcels to sell 10 to possibly have the RDA purchase and then a few are already under contract so potentially this could create and I will again say conservatively we um took these on some low comps in the area but that could generally create 9.4 million um in Revenue over the next three fiscal years um if given Direction by this body to start that process so um just a reminder how City sells properties we have two options we can just go out to public auction entertain any and all uh proposals to purchase these or we can go through the economic development Redevelopment process where we can identify uh we can sell these properties without offering them to the general public and possibly for less than fair market value if we go through this process of obtaining appraisals having um having this body adopt a resolution that it's in the best interest to sell these and then as long as they're doing some sort of investment in the the property this could be a new roof this could be a potential housing complex as long as it's just not retain remained blighted um we can sell these through NRS 268 so that is the presentation happy to answer any questions or discuss specifics of some of these properties um and what we are looking for is direction to just go through the necessary steps to contact the business tenants to have the RDA start the discussion to purchase these and um go all the way through negotiations and appraisals and then bring back to this body the final sale agreements yeah okay thanks Brian um and just to clarify that was approximately you would have to get those appraised yes approximately and conservatively oh and conservatively okay good all right I'm going to start to my left councilor yeah thank you uh great presentation Brian and I like how creative I also sorry getting R but I also had my hand up okay okay okay great we'll we'll come back to you okay okay um maybe we could start the clock over I don't know but um thank you for doing this I like the focus in terms of being comprehensive and how you've assessed this um and I love the potential I I don't want to get too excited that this all going to happen in the next 12 months because it's not um we have sold a lot of property in the 10 years I've been here um and to your point it is often a laborious and to the fact fact that I think it's been two years since we um entered into a process with Riverside zero Riverside and they're still working on it and we were very thoughtful and proactive but they still haven't closed so I just I want to you know adjust expectations as to how quickly this can add to our bottom line um I only want to speak to one property at the moment which is the Le theater parking lot um I appreciate the in innovation of thinking well who could use this parking lot um because it should be put to use but I want to be cautious because there is a bill pending into the legislature to potentially I say potentially um make $12 million available which is about half the cost that it would take to renovate uh the Lear property and if we do get any funds even if it was 5 million that would allow us to get started and we would need to have those construction folks park somewhere every construction project they have to have an area where they put their equip and M and deob so before we would ever just start entering on to this one I want to be cognizant of what's happening at the legislature and what our plans are and um if we do lease these I want it to be such that it could be terminated with very little notice because we may have very little notice when we get money or a match to do the project and I guarantee we're going to need a place for um the construction companies to set up so just if you could bear that in mind maybe that should be in your hold for the next 6 months or something until we find out what's happening at the legislature so anyway good job I like the direction we've talked a lot about selling excess properties I guess I had one question for you the properties in yellow that you said you want to hold or or transfer from Reno to the Redevelopment agency what properties are those I I couldn't tell from your map um it is roughly to call out a few ones um the area behind Martin Ironworks um there are a couple vacant properties on moral and believe it's moral mhm and then are they along the railroad track what they're all along the railroad track okay they're not part of R track I'm sorry they're not part of ret track they were part of the retrack project but the city and RDA now jointly own them final thing you said the retract Bonds were paid off I I don't think I was aware of that the the there I believe two there were two segments of retrack bonds I think the retrack bonds will be paid off over the next 30 years probably years um I mean it was it was billions you said they were paid off and there was a separate Bond these properties were held as collateral as part of that bond that Bond was paid off two years ago that is how we were able to sell off those properties on so one of the bonds for reack okay I didn't want to leave everyone with the impression that we're done paying recheck because we are not okay thank you yeah okay I'm going to send it down to you councilwoman Anderson anything no okay councilman Martinez yeah thanks so much oh sorry go ahead coun okay I I trust me everyone will get him their time to speak and then I'll go councilwoman Eber thank you so much thanks so much Mr Mardo for the presentation I think I just want to build a little bit on some of the questioning that council member uh D was asking and I'm trying to understand the differences in your thought process from taking some of the parcels straight to like a private owner or to the market and having the RDA purchase these and do you feel like if the RDA were to make that purchase that it fulfills the mission and the role that the RDA was established to meet yeah thank you for the question so we see the future of for Street um we haven't gone as far as to sort of start the process of of doing a neighborhood plan or remaster plan of for street but we have high hopes of the future of for street especially with some of the things going on um we in the in the near future we could have a plan established we don't want to sell off some of the properties that could potentially be obstacles to helping facilitate that future plan and we don't want people coming in and doing any sort of land banking or or land holding or speculating in that area uh we see value from Evans to about Sutro and so those are the properties that we're we're asking um and it could be in the future Redevelopment agency sells off some of the those properties to property owners that have plans um I know RHP has said they want to build a new uh fabrication facility on one of those spots that's a significant investment so we may entertain that um but we want to be very strategic on how we sell those off into to who and make sure that their Vision aligns with the Redevelopment agency's Vision so it is in the purview of um of doing some uh land banking and acquisition of properties to achieve the Redevelopment vision right and is the process for selling city property the same if it's RDA owned or city Areno property um it is easier to sell if it's Redevelopment agency owned yeah the NRS uh is a little bit more lenient when the Redevelopment agency sells property versus the city and just in terms of the process I'm assume and it's expedited I think from understand a little bit more okay that's all the questions I have so far thank you so much all right go right ahead thank you I had a question on you mentioned some of the retract properties and I'm not sure if I understand the liability that might come with that the the 12 Parcels that we have that could be sold for 8.7 million are those the retrack properties that could potentially have a funding liability for us are those included in those Parcels I'm not sure I'm following the question I but let me let me explain um we have business owners and who have put improvements on a lot of these properties so they're operating the businesses they own the buildings but we own the underlying land uh and they pay they pay leases on that we've been putting the lease Revenue into a bucket that is paying for retrack maintenance okay if we sell those properties that cuts off the revenue stream of the we would still get the whole we would get the property yes sale now when you looked at the revenues the whatever 9 million or whatever did you include property tax in that or what property tax might look like if there was somebody else or was it just the actual sale of the property just the sale of the property okay um it is unknown if these are paying property tax or not there are certainly some of these have lease language that they pay property tax but sometimes they're paying property tax on their improvements and not on the land value um that is something we didn't go into but uh philosophically once these go back in full private insurance they would be paying the full property tax and if the RDA were to purchase or um the properties where I mean it's it's like the cities buying money or buying properties from the city but where would that money go what bucket does it go into if the RDA were to purchase those so it would be a it would be a transaction of funds from the RDA directly to the city um but those would be City assets those sorry those would be RDA assets once under the RDA so maintenance cost the proceeds would go into the general fund the proceeds would go into the general fund from the Redevelopment agency yes okay um great I think those are all my questions thank you all right Council Ebert go ahead hi sorry about that yeah so I'm sorry if this question's been asked I'm in a position where I can't hear everything very well um one of the things I wanted to find out about is properties that have been recommended to move into the RDA once those properties move into there um they are not subject to property tax is that correct like if we were to sell them where they are now we would get property tax but if we move them over there we do not get property tax or can you explain to me how that works and then also because I don't want to run out of time I don't understand why um we would be able to lease the parking lot of the leader theater when we had what was it the Stevenson street that came in um we asked about leasing it as an option I was told that legal said that City of Reno is not able to lease um public property like that I also had some areas in in Ward four that I had asked if we could do um leases for or parking passes permitted parking um and I was told no that's not possible because it's City Ral property um so I I'm not really understanding like where the distinction is like why it would be allowed here and not in other areas that I've inquired about um some areas around Courthouse as well so has that been looked into like is that something that legal could come back later and say no actually we can't leas the parking lot um and and if that's not the case how is that different uh councilwoman Eber Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record so the first question that you asked about property tax these Parcels that are currently listed in yellow are owned by the City of Reno today City of Reno does not pay any property tax on our properties so the sale from the City of Reno to the RDA would result in a no change to the property tax rule because it's no taxes to no taxes um I guess my question is if we turn them into a RDA Zone and then the City of Reno does an RDA project on it the the pro the property's been improved but we don't get property taxes on it but if we keep the property out of the RDA Zone and we sell it we would get property tax correct um yes however we're not proposing to do an RDA project on these Parcels we are proposing that the RDA purchases them and then holds them for a strategic use in the future and that would either be a P3 project and which we would talk about what the benefit would be to the city later or going out to sale for those properties to a private owner and then putting them back on the tax roll later okay or it could potentially end up being like another Ballroom if that was the policy direction of this body we would follow that direction but what's proposed today is just to transfer for the sale in order to have general fund monies available okay and to your second question regarding parking at the Lear uh the reason why that is different from Stevenson or areas out in your ward that we've discussed is that this is not a public area with public RightWay this is a private parcel it just happens to be owned by the city at this time but it is a it is a parking lot in between houses so it is a private parcel by Nature that's why it's different okay thank you all right Council no I I asked my questions thank you okay any further questions see it there none okay we just would like to accept uh the report no I do I do have other questions I just other people's time okay go ahead so um I don't I just wanted to express that I think that we should um go through the process of um selling the parcels individually not just kind of letting them um have like a blanket policy where Council that isn't informed on the projects um and I think that we should um settle them for market value um I know that we did that um uliss project that we chose that developer because of the affordable housing component but that was that project is um really contingent on some federal funding which I think might potentially might not happen now so um just in the in the hopes of of us actually being able to complete projects or get um you know the most money for these Pro properties I think that we should um sell them at market value so I just wanted to give my opinion on that piece um so yeah thank you okay thanks so much all right go ahead Council dur yeah um I'd like to approve Mo move to approve staff recommendation uh with one or two caveats one I don't want to put the parking lot to lease for the Leer until we get some feedback from the legislature I don't want to be preemptive and number two I don't know if I don't I can't tell from the motion if you are to bring back the disposition or would that proceed without our knowledge my recommendation is to please bring it back so each property will need to have formal Direction on Final disposition the motion that's in front of you today is direction for staff to go out start obtaining appraisals make contact with the current tenants nearby property owners and start the process okay um so if if the you'll see it again before it happens however you would see it after we've done the work okay in other words we want say okay go do the XYZ partiel you would go do it you'd bring it back correct so current process right now just for clarification um you mentioned yourself selling property is very laborious normally and then you add in the city so process as it states today is a property submits an unsubmitted letter unsolicited letter of interest we bring that to council Council says yes we're interested in this go do an appraisal we go get an appraisal that takes 2 three months we come back to council we say Council we have an appraisal do you want us to sell you say yes we want you to go sell then we have a due diligence period of another 90 days and then we bring it back to council and say here are the terms you want to do this and then Council says yes maybe we do maybe we want to change it and then we go back out for another 30 or 60 days um so that process can be 9 months or more from the time that someone raises their hand and says that they're interested okay this is streamlining that process to where we I'm fine with streamline the process I just don't want um staff to go sell something something without us knowing like you may have the nine whatever yellow parcels and you got interest in one or two we would like to know what those are and what the deal is before you yes cut the deal correct you will have final approval on Final sale of everything in disposition and then finally to council member Ebert's point so I can make this motion where we could all vote were you saying council member eert that you did not want the Redevelopment District to buy those yellow Parcels from the city um you wanted to go straight to private sale is that right or no um I don't know that I necessarily care about that my concern is that it turns into a Redevelopment project that the city owns and then it ends up not being something that we Select Property Tax on okay well let me reiterate the motion I want to approve the staff recommendation and direct staff to proceed with necessary actions for Property Disposition and Lease agreements with two caveats one I'd like to hold on the Lear parking lot till we have more clarity and number two I want to make sure that any sale it comes back to council which we've been assured okay thank you so much I'll second that I'll second okay all right I have a motion a second all those in favor say I I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously okay thanks so much sending it back to you madam clerk thank you madam mayor we're now moving on to item D2 data center text Amendment initiation okay Madam clerk do you have any public comment on this item we do have public comment on this item we have Henry Dalton okay Henry come on up I believe we saw you this morning yes all right sorry give me one second no problem okay uh my speech is not uploading one second can I go grab my laptop instead okay go go right ahead is there any other public comment Madam clerk no oh we do have one attendee via Zoom Lisa Hill and Robin Palmer okay um so Henry if you want to give us a second we'll let our Zoom commenters go so you can get get set up okay Lisa Oh So Lisa Hill all right we're emailing each other go ahead Lisa okay I'm double dipping here today and I wasn't sure that staff was present for the earlier comments um I my name is Lisa Hill for the record I live in W five I've participated in the discussion at the Planning Commission in the city over the past few months and I am in favor of council giving further direction to the development department regarding the administrative uh interpretation of Title 18 in my humble opinion there were a couple of things that were left out out of the revision or the interpretation as it relates to including power and noise limits if I had had an opportunity to participate in public comment during your revision process I would have stated so I just want to point out that the staff report mentions that wide public comment was obtained um I do live in Ward five I'm very active in the and reading all of your wonderful postings newsletters Etc I read the local paper as well as other um Publications regarding our city because I care about our community in 2024 and 2025 there were six W five NAB meetings and four with posted minutes none of these agendas note the topic of the data center interpretation um and I first learned of the data center development on the Planning Commission agendas as well as through the barber brief and this is Reno and so I do want to thank the development staff and the community La liazon department for answering my questions but I just want to point out I don't think there was an adequate period of public comment on this and so I am asking for the council to provide further direction to the planning commission specifically in relation to types of power sources that will be used for data centers including limits to the amount of power that they um will be using and if those power uh limits are exceeded that the city Define uh bringing their own sustainably sourced power and I'd also like to see noise limits included on that list um in your administrative interpretation I do not personally see any state level barriers for data centers sourcing sustainable power although some in the Das have by the city on the Planning Commission and also in our Council have noted some barriers I did not see any when I just did a cursory search of NRS in particular NRS 74.0 regarding the de definition of a public utility and oversight of the uh pucn I'd like to see that more publicly explored and accounted for for us that are concerned about climate change power source uses Etc so I just want to thank the council again and all of the staff I know you're working very hard and trying to take all of our comments I know the development department has already been through all of this but I do think there was some over site and not including uh Power limits as well as noise limits thank you very much okay thanks so much Lisa Robin Palmer via Zoom okay Robin can you try one more time am I on you are Robin if you'd state your name for the record and begin speaking thank you Robin Palmer climate and Community Advocate still I haven't changed my mind from this morning I still support a text Amendment for data centers and a moratorium on data centers until a text amendment is adopted I heard on NPR this morning so it must be true that Reno is having the fastest warming spring of several United States cities we already know that Reno is the fastest warming city in the United States increasing our fire risk challenging our water supply contributing to our poor wa I'm sorry our poor air quality and increasing heat related health problems and heat related deaths unchecked propagation of data centers with their massive energy demands is not going to help cool our communities data centers may put Reno on the map all right but not with a very favorable not in a very favorable light I'm in favor of data centers being required to bring their own clean energy thank you for allowing me to comment and thank you council members for your service to our community all right thanks so much Henry Dalton Henry you ready okay go ahead um hello my name is Henry Dalton for the record um I want to take a moment of silence to acknowledge the original residence of this land in the wasu numu and Neway peoples um I spoke earlier on this agenda item but I am here again to restate my position in favor of a moratorium for data centers uh as I said earlier I am a gra I will be graduating this semester with a computer science degree um a Bachelor of Science from UNR and uh I understand pretty intimately what the requirements of data centers are um to add to my comments from earlier they are a huge um noise issue with only one server uh produces upwards of 100 DCB of noise uh in the room that it's in and these data centers are made up of hundreds of these servers um so they are huge noise uh problems and I think that having no regulations around um their noise levels is wildly irresponsible for not only the people who live near near them or will be who will be forced to live near them but also the wildlife as other residents have stated um as a Reno resident for my entire 23 years of life um and as a resident of w one I've paid more taxes over the course of just the last year than business owners like Elon Musk have in their entire lifetimes to the city and to Northern Nevada in general despite that these businesses continuously get handouts and the numbers of millions of dollars in tax abatements like as proposed for this item uh Not only would these data centers be a problem in terms of noise in terms of environment issues in terms of the uh stress on our already not uh um well set up uh energy grid um but or energy grid with which has issues and has had issues in the past I should say um but they will also not be a producer of revenue for the city either um continuously this Council and the city is interested in catering to the needs of outof State business owners giving difference to their wants and needs over the of citizens like myself and others who have spoken today I would like to Simply remind everyone on this Council that you are elected and can be unelected should you continue to show difference to them thank you thank you Henry good job okay Madame mayor with that we have no additional inperson public comment we did receive correspondence as 11 letters in favor and one letter of concern that has been distributed to the Reno city council okay thanks Madam clerk all right Angela the floor is yours for the record Angela f before you start I just want to say there are no abatements um given away in this proposal correct no are not all right I just because I've heard it a couple times and I just wanted on the record except state law okay state law does that City of Reno has no abatements for D City of Reno has no abatement for data centers cuz I I I had a lot of people angry at us today so I wanted to just make sure that was on the record the state which is not Renown does have abatements for all kinds of things all right thanks so much data so next up on the agenda I wanted to talk to you about data centers and whether or not you want to open up the zoning code and revisit the rules and regulations we've put in place but I want you to First understand there's been a lot of misinformation in today's public comments number one is this administrative interpretation so let's go back to why staff put together this administrative interpretation it was 2023 we did not have data center as a use we had not been getting a lot of phone calls on data centers or interest in data centers in the City of Reno and all of a sudden we were getting a ton of phone calls from developers and we would say well you know how do you define yourself as a Data Center and they would tell us well I'm you know 10 stories tall or I'm one story tall I'm I'm loud or I'm not loud I'm this big and so every one of them had a different plan for development and we said I don't even know how we regulate this there's so many things about data centers we as city planners don't know and don't understand because you all do them differently so we said that's problem number one let's put in some protection for our City of Reno so we wrote this administrative interpretation and basic basically says until we adopt something in code we've now put in a new rule that says data centers have to go through a public review process so we added additional transparency and requirements that all data centers have to review be reviewed by Planning Commission and we also said we're going to put some limits on where can go so all data centers have to be reviewed by Planning Commission correct okay perfect so again the the public seems to think that we did something you know secretly and it was like in the pockets of developers no no no it was the opposite we actually said developers slow down we don't know enough about data centers we're going to make you do more than we make any other use in the city of Renos do so every single data center that talked to us we said you have to go through a conditional use permit so number one miss misinformation out there no they are not warehouses no we did not say they were warehous it's very it's probably the most frustrating thing that we do that that there is this big sense of conspiracy um it's it's just we're living in this very strange strange time and so um anyway go ahead I'm sorry I just wanted to because when I hear those things I'm like then I run right to I'm like Angela I need to know the facts so yep so the the next thing we did then is we put that in writing and that made it much easier for data center developers to understand the rules they said okay yeah now I know the rules for Reno I have to go through the Planning Commission and I have to address all these things got it then we spent the next 12 months because we were already working on our zoning code update we said great we will include this we will include data centers as part of that process so we went out to the nabs we went to the Planning Commission we went to city council and while we talked about hundreds of things that were being updated we specifically talked about data centers because that seemed to be a Hot Topic I was right every NAB we went to we had a PowerPoint presentation that included data centers and during that whole process it was 12 months and lots of meetings while it wasn't agendized specifically for data centers we covered a lot of ground in those meetings but we wanted to make sure the public had the opportunity to weigh in we didn't get a lot of input and at that time nobody had actually submitted a data center project so our staff had not reviewed data center project Planning Commission had not seen one again the the timeline that was when we first wrote that administrative interpretation January 2024 the first time we actually got a data center conditional use permit was October so it took 10 months before anyone actually submitted a data center yep so rather than just so here we are putting in more protection of concern and I always was from what I remember that we put in more protections yes and that's why it had to go to Planning Commission yes and um what else there and the NAB so anytime a project Planning Commission NAB so again multiple steps where the public go to your nap it's not on my nap we've had two in W four and I believe one in Ward five that have come forward okay so those went to the nabs one of them did not because the NAB wasn't happening that month was it w one um I believe it would have gone to the W one NAB maybe in December and maybe they didn't meet in December um but yes the the two in W four did go to the NAB before they went to Planning Commission so where we landed then is now we have something adopted in code so it's in code that administrative interpretation went from just again a an interpretation to its formally adopted into code the things that we as City Planning look at is land use and that's everything from how's the building designed how much how many trees are you planting how many square feet of landscaping do you have how tall is your building going to be what's your lighting going to be like these are things that every project has an impact and it's no different from data centers so again all the things that we've heard noise regulations yep we regulate that today it's not specific to Data Centers it is all uses adjacent to residential we regulate noise same with lighting any building regardless of if you're a Target or a Taco Bell or a data center we regulate lighting as well we regulate parking we regulate how tall your building is how close you are from your setbacks so all of that is covered when we review a project and again when we look at a conditional use permit we spend three months looking at your project and tearing it apart 3 months before it goes to Planning Commission a lot of people think oh we just get an applic we turn it over to the Planning Commission and say you figured out no we have torn that thing apart for 3 months and made them come back and redesign and redesign so a lot of thought and input goes into that one other thing that I think is gotten gotten forgotten about is is that the project of regional significance trigger this is something that Reno Sparks and waso County all have to follow within the regional plan there's a list of six things that was considered a regional impact and it's everything from businesses with a lot of employment or big hotels a lot of projects with with housing SE sewage is another big one but water so if you trigger more than 625 acre feet per year so any one business or a big planned unit development that triggers a lot of water has to go to Regional planning for okay can you say that again so Regional planning it's a separate body it's made up of planning Commissioners that are represented in Reno Sparks and was County so they then get to review all projects doesn't matter what kind of project it is could be a data center could be a casino if they trigger any of these items that has to go to Regional planning for their review okay so employment by no less than 90 or 938 employees housing by no less than 625 units right all these are a trigger they go to Regional planning hotel accommodations by not less than 625 rooms AG by not less than 187,00 Gall per day water usage by no less than 625 acre feet per year traffic by no less than an average of 6,250 trips daily so when those trigger that means you even add in another layer correct of oversight yep okay I love that now I will say too um you know typically we have other things that would have triggered the Planning Commission to review if you have a big casino that comes in that probably would have triggered a conditional use permit because it was a casino but we've had uses I think when Amazon came to town they did not trigger any kind of public review they just built their building and we knew at that point okay great they're good to go but no they had more than 938 employees we actually had to make them go to Regional planning even though the City of Reno did not make them go to a Planning Commission because these triggers happen no matter what and again this is if you're in the county or in the city of Sparks or in the City of Reno we've all all agreed on these things this is as a region the triggers that require a bigger group to look at okay so what you're saying is there are bigger Warehouse projects out there that didn't trigger this other level of oversight correct okay all right so there's going to get a lot of misinformation on Water I wanted to highlight the three data centers that we have seen so they're there in red we've had three of them come through two of them were small water users 2 acre feet the O openend data center that's the one that's um going on appeal to City Council next month they are requiring or needing eight acre feet but let's go to the big picture and I got this information from tomwa so no I didn't just Google it and get an answer um a casino so we looked at our local casinos and that's everything from you know the big casinos with hotels and the food industry they average 300 acre feet of water a year casinos today do that our typical hospitals again a lot of water usage 100 Acre feet skilled nursing so nursing homes apparently do a lot of washing 25 acre feet a year an average affordable housing apartment I said here's one that was just built off of Washington and Vine how much water do they need 23 acre feet how much about these data centers well eight and two so these the three data centers that we at the city of Rena have looked at and have analyzed are not big water users but I think there's a lot of misinformation about it's a data center we're in a drought why are we approving these things no everything we approve requires water even 10 houses would require more water than the data centers so again understand the facts before we just start assuming oh it must be true power that's the other big one we're hearing a lot of concerns about so we looked at all of the the different data centers in our local region um we've got Apple which is a watcha County data center we've got switch which is the the one of the big ones we have about nine different data centers in Story County today there's a lot just this month Story County Planning Commission approved three more data centers it was on their agenda not because data centers require a public review process but because of the height they were asking so they're building basically a data center campus and those buildings were asking to go taller than 10 stories so again relative to what we've seen we're not seeing anything in comparison to those hyperscale data centers I will add to you know as a region we should be looking at data centers not one person came to that Planning Commission meeting last month this month in Story County to file concerns about those three new data centers not one person appealed those three data centers that Planning Commission approved in you're kidding and wow okay and again in comparison by far power usage is probably the biggest impact we see on data centers but they're all different so we can't assume that every data center that we're looking at is using power of 650 megaw or 1200 megawatts we are seeing much smaller data centers we call them more Boutique data centers again that goes back to why we still well let's look at them Case by case through that conditional use permit if we got a switch with 650 650 megawatt our analysis would have been very different right right we would have said well shoot how are you going to build enough power to handle that we would have talked to Envy energy and said have you approved this um but when we get something small again very different in comparison all right so next thing we said is well what is everybody else doing we're not unique we looked at Uli again the Urban Land Institute and they said generally speaking there's kind of two levels of data centers the big hyperscalers versus the bouquey ones Story County by far is seeing the big hyperscalers we are not and when we talked to several different data center developers we said well why don't you come to Reno they said a couple reasons one is your franchise is much higher than Story County so they have to pay a lot more when they come to Reno than they would in Story County or lion County or even the City of Fernley so they looked at that they also looked at land availability all the data centers that we've seen have been pretty small the data centers that we see out in Story County are on hundreds of acres and even thousands of Acres so very different in terms of what we're seeing and what their needs are by far the biggest thing we're seeing Across the Nation when we have zoning codes and they have standards for data centers it's related to zoning and land use the things that we've heard about the noise the lights the design of the building um questions about how far you are from residential development all things that we already cover in our zoning code whether you're a warehouse or Taco Bell or Target or a data center we covered those things already so I feel like uh you know at least we can check the box that yep we've done our job as city planners in protecting the community so why are we here today I need feedback from you as to next steps and I put together a couple specific questions just to get you thinking I'm I'm definitely open to however you want to go on this you you tell me what you want we will take it forth and go out through the public process if we do initiate a text Amendment today just so you're all aware that will involve us going to the naps and holding public meetings and going back to the Planning Commission for their input and recommendation before it comes to you so it's not going to happen quickly but we have a safeguard in place because every data center that comes before us goes to Planning Commission and if you as a city council member don't like it you have the right to appeal it and it can come before this board so there are steps in place to protect any data center um between now and and if we were to initiate a a new text Amendment so that we're covered again from a city planning side the last thing we want is is to have a bunch of bad development come and we say oops we didn't know that was going to happen so we feel like we've covered that but again let's let's talk about some specific things that you would like to see done differently or regulated differently and we can take it out to a public process okay thank you Angela great job I appreciate it okay I'm going to start with councilwoman dur and then I'm G to end with uh councilwoman Ebert so go ahead thank you so much and uh just to set the stage I want to be clear from my perspective you did nothing wrong uh in fact you're experiencing the no good deed goes unpunished routine that so many of us experience in government right you're trying to do something good and you're getting hit as if you did something bad or there's a conspiracy so I want to acknowledge that right now uh from my perspective um we have heard from many many residents who have a concern about data centers and it's National um I know that you just went through a a presentation where you pretty much minimized based on our three experiences our three recent experiences any impacts noise water energy use and I have a little bit different perspective if you take the three that came before us um 30% of them in other words one that's 30% uh want to use about 30 megawatt of power that's what they're being approved for that was the web it came to us on appeal and just to put in perspective that the um energy for 30 megawatts and I understated it last time I spoke would actually be enough to power about 20,000 homes that's four day breaks that's five stone gates or maybe I have it reversed five day breaks and four stone gates in terms of energy use and why that's important to me is this council did a resolution to the Pu about um energy increases and this is what we said please listen to the public regarding their concern about rates that's what we said please listen to the public they are very concerned and about 250 groups or individuals commented uh to Envy energy uh to the Pu and this is important because the reason they came out was to proteste increased um energy costs and it was interesting MV energy and looking at the web data center um said we're only going to provide you power if you build a substation not just for you but for twice as much as you so not just for 30 megawatts but for 60 megawatts and so they too have said you're going to have an impact and we need you to do that at millions of dollars of increased cost to the web data center they spoke about it I spoke directly to them this is a requirement from mvy energy so we are um entrusted to protect our residents and that includes all aspects of community life the second thing that was important about our resolution was we asked another body to listen to us um we need to do the same and listen to our constituents and I could debate you and I don't want to Angela because I think you're a very well-meaning person where I would like this to end up is I think we should take a look at it based on the impa uh the input we're getting from our residents and talk to Tuma about the water use talk to Envy energy about the energy use talk about the noise use and see if we need to adopt some special regulations just to make sure we're being you know properly proactive on this topic so I'll have additional comments thank you madam mayor thank so much okay uh go ahead vice mayor thank you madam mayor um thank you for the presentation thank you for a lot of the information that I think you cleared up I have a question does Story County do they use different water than us no it's the same water and the same power grid wait so we had they were there were our Council was packed today with people that were concerned about the resources that go into today data centers and three data centers got approved in Story County they use the same resources that Reno does that's correct okay um who regulates do we regulate power can the city council and maybe this is for legal can we regulate or put regulations on power I I see noise building design screening lighting and distance from residents as part of what our standards are uh G no unless you can go through I mean I probably tie it to a finding of something but do we have any regulating power for no I would defer to Angela we don't no the only thing we do look at is when a building permit comes in they have to prove that they have approval from the the sewer body which is typically us Tuma the the Water Agency and envy energy the the body that controls power so if they haven't gotten those approvals to build their project then we do not issue them a building permit okay I don't understand and the reason why I'm asking is because I'm not an expert in energy use and I think the Pu is so if that is something that we're going to start taking on I'm going to need a lot more education in that in that Arena um the the cup process I think you said it is probably one of the stringent processes that we have for approval in Land Development so why I don't understand if if they have to go through the cup process isn't that more stringent than a text Amendment the yes today we don't have specific rules on power or water for any use other than Regional planning says they get to look at it if it triggers so much water but through that conditional use permit process it allows us and the the public body being planning commissioner if it's appeal the city council to weigh in and add additional requirements that are above and beyond the rule rules that we have in our zoning code okay and then my third question is probably for our legal team too what happens to the projects that we already have in the queue so they go forward um there's a moratorium um no if you're not asking about that um right now essentially you know if it's in the que it's in the queue so so the stuff that happens today whatever we decide is does not impact anything that has been brought before us or that is in process for appeal correct okay thank you all right go ahead councilwoman Anderson um something that I've heard in a couple of meetings and in some public comment is how data centers somehow interfere with firefighting um can you talk to me about um fire prevention measures at data centers and how that is different they're not using water yes I'm actually iner she CD that seemed like timing it's a it's a miracle uhhuh um Dave coch Reno fire chief um so you're spot on where you finished your question there data centers use very little to know water for fire suppression they use an inner gas like Halon or argon the idea being or even CO2 just to evacuate the oxygen from the area so the fire can't burn because that water is going to do huge damage to those very expensive um um equipment setups they have in there some of you may I mean we all know about Switch and some of you may have toured it that fire suppression system costs millions of dollars because of the investment they have so it's really kind of self-regulating I mean we we hold them to the fire code and we make sure that they have the system that will mitigate any fire that starts but they're self-motivated they're they're going to go above and beyond um anything we would require but just to add on to that let me ask you um but would assume the resources like with any house fire whatever that would look like that would be the same resources that you would have on a data center a warehouse a business correct F it's not any greater draw on water or power or anything else yeah so you fight the fire the same way you would any structure yes correct okay and then I'm glad you brought let me add to the they're typically a type one building construction which is non-c combustible it's concrete block it's it's something that's not going to burn anyway so um so those are easier to put out yeah because the fire is very difficult or darn near impossible for the fire to start because just not it's not combustible there may be some interior you know furniture or things like that that are in the building so you would say they're not high fire risk corre typically corre absolutely that's okay thank you so much uh councilman Martinez yeah Madame mayor go right ahead perfect yeah thank you all for the presentation and I just want to take a second to not just acknowledge all the public comment that came in today but also obviously hearing what the Planning Commission uh has been telling us for the last couple meetings that they had and so just wanted to acknowledge all the concerns that are coming in and making sure that uh I put that on the record and acknowledge that those things are being received um and reviewed as we have these conversations I think there have been some concerns about disregard for specific comments but I think all of us on the council take a very uh proactive approach of looking at the comments that are her that are given to us from the public and through all of our boards and commissions and so I just wanted to start there and also ask Mel I know you and I had met uh to discuss some of these things and I appreciate council member Taylor asking some of our questions because those are the same ones that I had U for director F about uh exact jurisdiction and I appreciate the the Baseline I'm wondering if you can go back to the slide where it triggers review from the regional planning agency yes so this um so one thing so state law has a whole section that says this is what's considered a project of regional review Regional impact so that then translates to the regional plan and this is the the six triggers that they look at of what's considered something of regional impact now they don't have a trigger for power usage they do have a trigger for when you're adding power to the system back to to the grid so to speak so Envy energy comes before Regional planning quite frequently because they're putting in a new substation or a new power line and what we found even looking at the the story county lines Story County um data center so a lot of times they are also required to put in new transmission lines and distribution lines and big lines so those would not have to go through trucky mows Regional planning because they're not part of our so-called land use region but any any new use that came in that required an additional power source or again a big you know substation more than 5 megawatts that would have to go to Regional planning and so that these are the triggers from a development perspective um that are considered Regional of regional impact and so these are the things specifically that we deal with on the land use perspective that Regional also looks at yeah thank you so much for laying that out again I will have a couple more comments during my second round but I'll just leave it at that for now thank you okay councilwoman abber yeah um so question on another um or something that's been brought up a few times the tax abatement so according to the governor's office of Economic Development they say that at the state level data centers can receive a 75% tax abatement for either 10 or 20 years based on some certain criteria what property tax abatement is that for is that there state property tax or is that something different than the property tax that the City of Reno would receive funds from so at the city we have we have zero jurisdiction or authority over that so I I cannot speak to um what those abatements go towards we don't ask that we don't ask any developer when they come in if they're doing if they're seeking tax abatements and so we don't get into that level of detail but it is it is the property tax property tax at our budget correct it's not some separate property tax that goes somewhere else it's the property tax that funds a large portion of C Reno's budget correct that's correct okay so even though we're not necessarily granting it the property tax abatements do affect our budget when we're paying for things like police and fire and other road maintenance other services that we provide for City of Reno correct absolutely and I I think that's a good point I think um we looked at just locally some of these data centers how much are they bringing in so switch for instance it's in Story County it's not in was County they bring in the third most money in the entire County in property tax Apple which is in waso County so that's Renos Sparks waso county is the second higher highest generator of the entire County in property taxes so while they may have used um abatements I will still say that they are bringing in a ton of money uh to this region okay so another thing I wanted to address you know since I was waiting till um the end to speak is you know the the comment about nobody giving public comment at story County's meeting the population of story county is 4,000 so it's not really maybe an issue to the population there as it would be here to have those kind of um developments and the impact that those types of tax abatements could have on Services being provided versus a city of our size and maybe some of the the budget issues we're having um so it's just want to call out that that's not necessarily an Apples to Apples comparison there with the population size um also um I have some questions on the noise um code regulations I know that there's some issues that I've had with uh a warehouse in my ward that was given a citation for um noise happening out outside at night and then uh their attorney um had a public hearing at City of Reno and said that they shouldn't have had this citation and and the citation was um you know removed or whatever so how how are these citations actually going to be enforced how how is this code enforced because it's been my experience that it's not really um easily enforced all right councilwoman um I'm gonna have Angela answer that and I just want to clarify um correctly I want to make sure the warehouse that had the um noise issues correct councilwoman eert uh was not a data center no it wasn't but I'm just using that as an example of are we able to um enforce noise gotcha ordin I think that's a really good example we have a warehouse type use out in North Valley's that operates 24 hours a day and so when that project came through they're adjacent to a residential subdivision when that project came through conditions were added that allows trucks to operate 24 hours a day and so because we added that allowance again big semi- trucks coming at all hours of the night it basically gave them the ability to have trucks that make noise coming and going when we had to Data Center the Keystone data center because they were adjacent to residential zoning we had them do a noise study and show how they were mitigating their noise so again through that conditional use permit process we were able to require a noise study and say well how are you going to screen the mechanical equipment put it indoors whatever you have to do and that's something we were able to do through the conditional use permit to make sure that the noise doesn't exceed a certain number okay okay so there may be some peripheral things that that could happen that maybe isn't going to be controlled by um a permit that could still happen that could be disruptive to the community and because the for instance the data center that we looked at because we specifically address noise and found ways that they said we can mitigate that if they're not able to meet the noise requirements that's in code we can site them because we haven't given them a hall pass to be loud versus the one that you're talking about we basically gave them a hall pass to exceed our noise requirements because we said you can have big trucks coming in and out 24 hours a day two different kind of scenarios but can I also point out and I and I think I'm right here here maybe correct me that that warehouse should have a cup but doesn't correct it did have a conditional use permit oh it did okay whereas I would think you could control the data center has more control than that warehouse and again because data centers they're they're so different unique right and we said gosh some seem to be really really quiet everything's in a building they're not loud at all others are loud so we we specifically said we're going to look at each one case by case and anytime there's residential nearby we then trigger a noise study and then we can say okay you've shown us that you're going to cover up all of that loud equipment somehow put it in a structure put it in a building show us how you are addressing the noise concerns and we will come after you with citations if you're not able to meet our noise requirements yeah okay it was my time up I'm sorry question okay um I am curious what actually says what trigger it into a data center how many cabinets how many uh racks is it's says that's a Data Center and we we came up with a definition again just on best practices our our biggest issue is how is a data center different from a warehouse different from an office we have really old data SE centers um that again aren't recent but they're in Office Buildings and they're that's what I saying they're even in downtown I would tell you we but I'm not going to no but usually like I hate to say they're like in closets they're like in really strange places but my point is when does that constitute a data center yeah so we have a definition I can read it to you if you'd like it's just something we've adopted into code so that again from is it so many square feet nope it's not based on size it's based on what's Happening inside it so we're looking at water cooling we're looking at what they're storing we're looking at how much power they're using um how are they handling their air you could have a warehous house that's storing boxes of computers that's that's not a data center but when you start storing equipment that functions to hold data that becomes a very different use right and then so here's the other thing to your point what what my experience has been because I've been in um I've been at switch a lot and it's very very very quiet you wouldn't know there is a data center there at all and so to your point and then some data centers use recycled water um so I think that's where you get the standards you put the mitigation in so everyone knows you know sort of what the city council sort of expects whenever they come in but that's I think the hard part is like not no two are the same yep corre correct correct okay all right um I'm gonna go back to councilwoman der for three three minutes and then I'm G to end with councilwoman Ebert yeah uh first of all I'm GNA restate this because I don't know if you heard me Angela I am not being critical I want to continue the work that you started back in last January when you said data centers are different we should call them out as a separate use and require them to have a cup the only part we didn't go the next step in my opinion is to identify the potential impacts and talk through whether they need to mitigate those or not if they're not using a lot of water proposing maybe they don't have to be assessed for water use if they are using a lot of energy maybe that should be something that is assessed inconsistent with our sustainability plan as one of the speakers said today we have a tremendous opportunity to forward um the plan that we've laid out in our sustainability and the state's sustainability goals so um just to be clear you mentioned you have to still the slide up for the Planning Commission my understanding so please correct me if I'm not correct when the no the one you had up um when the Planning Commission reviews no the one you already had up you were perfectly fine um this one these standards were set to my knowledge in the 90s they're they're not um that the numbers have not been changed or updated in fact we went to update the school one and have spent now five years just trying to update the school requirement here to be reviewed and we haven't been able to come to consensus but we fixed it here at the City of Reno but those were set and my understanding of what they do is it's a thumbs up or thumbs down to I've been told I think by Jeremy that they cannot put on conditions correct correct so it's either yes you pass or no you don't nothing in between no like if you put on this one condition it would be better so what I'm asking the council to do and I hope we do do is let's not wait for a crisis let's be thoughtful and proactive we're in a good situation you just said we've only had three two of them have relatively low water use and low energy what I want to do is head off uh any problems that we could foresee in the future and I want to remind this Council who may not know when um switch to use their example they wanted to be 100% sustainable and so as a result we ended up the City of Reno working with Tuma and other partners to send 4,000 acre feet of reclaimed water to Story County so they could use that instead of regular water I think that's a great principle and that we should endorse that kind of thing not just have it be a oneoff um in terms you know I mentioned previously that I'm a pretty big D an energy user myself and um that is why almost 15 years ago I installed 36 solar panels on my house 2011 so that I could cut my energy use by 50% the web data center came in um apparently the Planning Commission asked them to install solar they installed almost the same exact amount of solar solar that I installed on my own house about 7.5 kilowatts and so if I may finish my sentence Madam go ahead um so they only that is one quarter of 1% of their energy use but people said okay they tried I I think they could have tried more I think it's a fantastic opportunity to put our sustainability in uh plan into action and the power demands will be paid by us the rate payers um not by any particular data center so I do encourage our commit our Council to at least ask you to review the issues and make some recommendations I think it's a thoughtful proactive good way to count so thank you okay thanks so much all right uh go ahead vice mayor thank you madam mayor I'm going to ask for your professional expertise here because when I'm looking at a cup process the process that we have is more restrictive than a text Amendment so if we want to regulate and look at these as individual applications or or developments projects coming forward and be able to have more say and what we want them to look like is it a text Amendment or is it a cup I think if you open up a text Amendment and you put very specific requirements in terms of here's everything we want every data center to have to do my concern with that is that no data center alike and you will be coming back constantly saying well we can't make this work we need a variance well we can't make that work that only worked on that project not on that project so I mean that was the intent of a conditional use permit as we can look at them Case by case I think if there's key things that you guys are concerned about we can we can put those in as part of a text Amendment so that everyone knows coming in here's the minimum requirements whether it's noise Power Water um again above and beyond what the rest of the region does then we could add those requirements so that data centers know coming to Reno it's it's it's going have different sets of rules and then they can decide if they want to come to Reno or not based on those rules okay do you think that going through the cup process for an applicant as the city we can get what we need through conditioning and through the findings I mean I guess I'm asking what hasn't what's not working we have we've had data centers for a while and within the last 10 months we've had a lot of discussion about it so what's not working about what we're doing I think from the planning commission's perspective they don't know what you want to regulate in terms of Water and Power noise um from a city planner hat it's in code it doesn't matter if you're a data center or a warehouse or Target like we have the safeguards to say here's how we're going to address all your concerns now we currently do not address power usage but we wouldn't address power usage anyway we're not going to put a text amendment that says you can only use 30 or one or that that wouldn't be something that we would do it's not something we have historically done nor do most jurisdictions do that okay I I just don't I I mean I think councilman Rees has said this I don't know what problem we're trying to solve besides what you said of the Planning Commission doesn't understand the direction but I fully believe that your team gives them all the information that they need and if they stay within the guidelines of a land use decision we can make thoughtful decisions thank you madam mayor okay thanks um Council Anderson um just one question I've done my own research on this but I wanted to hear it from you um and on the record if someone were to bring their own power to a project what does that mean and look like are they building a power plant and we've heard we've heard multiple public commenters say require them to bring their own power what does that mean again not something we regulate it's something that's regulated by the Pu and so they have a completely separate process when we do have like big solar fields and they want to come in and maybe not tied to the grid they want to have their own power source we have zero authority over that that is 100% NV Energy in the Pu okay so just to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly they would need to bring bring power to the Pu the Pu would have to say yes we want that project yes we want that power on the grid and we want it to be delivered specifically to this one business so that they can operate in the City of Reno correct and it would be most likely they don't even want to be on the grid they don't want to be on our Region's grid they're creating their own grid again um that that does happen it's just not something we are involved in okay and then also the applicant in my Limited it seems like they would also have to build the power station that transferred that energy they own and have yes brought to the project 100% and whether it is a residential development that is coming to town and envy energy says you need to build your substation because there's not enough power in this grid that residential sub this happens all the time substations are built all the time the developer has to pay to build it and then Envy energy make sure the the power is going back and forth so again any any use that comes before us that wants to build their own development they go to EnV energy and they say how much is how much power is available near me here's how much I'm going to need and then they work it out with Envy energy as to do I need to increase the transmission lines or the distribution lines do I have to build a new substation do I have to you know all of that is dealt with with EnV energy through PU is really their ultimate kind of guiding group okay great um in my opinion the conditional use permit although I'm sure developers would love for that to go away it provides the community and the council maximum transparency project by project um and also allows us to learn project by project and optimize project by project so okay that's all I've got thanks so much um just backing a little bit off of uh councilwoman Anderson the cup I would assume that they um that they have looked at this with Envy energy do you know like do they have some sort of um standard guidance guideline for a conditional use permit uhhuh no I mean um sorry for um the Pu oh I again something we don't get involved in but we've had multiple conversations with Envy energy and we've said help us understand well the three that we've had are very small how are you guys looking at the the big ones in Story County Story County has like I said at least nine data centers today and they're they're Big Data Centers yeah and we have how many so we have technically three spaces that house data so we have three okay okay I got it m okay Miguel I'm gonna um send it to you uh three minutes go ahead thanks so much Madam mayor I just wanted to add my previous comments and say you know I appreciate you including the information from Urban Land Institute I think that's helped inform some of this conversation at least for me and I'll just wanted to read that if we do want to continue to make uh this type of land use more sustainable um one of the recommendations or a few of them are to have uh specific guidelines for folks and so for developers to be able to meet those standards and for us to be able to approve these projects coming into the city and I think that's one of the things but I also wanted to highlight is that it does seem that data centers are going to continue uh to come to our region and so if we want to again further the goals of creating a sustainable environment for our future and continuing to be business friendly and allow ing data centers a path forward um I think allowing them to be during in spaces where they're already transmission lines or uh like water reuse systems like council member der had mentioned and some of the purple piping I know that limits it to what we have currently available within the City of Reno but I'm wondering Angela before I run out a time if you could lay out some of the um standards when when it comes to uh some of the things identified within the Urban Land institutes uh document when it comes to like parking and plumbing height restrictions construction confusion substation zoning just because I think outside of water and uh energy use uh a text Amendment might allow us the possibility of looking at sort of these parking requirements and having set standards that differ as compared to like a warehouse in an industrial an icy zone so I just wanted to kind of get your thoughts there and if you feel like the code is encompassing of some of the recommendations from the Urban Land institute's article yes I think for the most part um the Urban Land Institute looks at hyperscale as a completely separate type of data center than Boutique so from the boutique sense the ones that we're looking at they basically say you know allow by right or with a a use permit of some sort and here's your set of Standards all the standards that they provided are related to parking lighting noise the look of the building for the hyperscale they propose that they are more clustered in areas so you can put again all these big hype these Big Data Centers together again so you can work on things like making sure there's effluent to those data centers and making sure that there's sufficient power because you're probably going to have to build new power you know complete power stations different than a little substation um so if you're doing these hypers scales which again we are not story county is lion county is east coast 100% is their recommendation was create areas or zones for hyperscale data centers otherwise more of these bouquey ones put in some set standards related to zoning and that way people know again developers know kind of what the expectation is when they come in okay uh Council nebert hi sorry about that um yeah um and Miss F can you please um say again does do we have as it's written now is Reno's process for data centers more stringent than Story County is that what I heard you say we are more stringent than Sparks Washo Fernley story Henderson Vegas okay all right um and we did have more people come and give public comment than Story County so it would make sense that we should have more regulations I would like to see us um well one more thing I want to clarify would adding text amendments remove the cup process or would it be an addition two the process we have today would stay in place if you want to change it as part of this text Amendment that's something we could do we might say as long as you meet these standards we will allow data centers by right meaning they can go straight to a building permit see a lot of enthusiasm for that but I I think that that is again one option that you have is to say okay we're going to say here's more specific rules for data centers if you can follow these rules we'll allow you to build them by right okay so it was my understanding that this is in addition to the cup process not in place of so I I heard some comments from other council members I just wanted to make sure I was understanding correctly and this is 100% I take the back this is 100% whatever you want if you want to leave the conditional use permit and add standards that is again up for discussion today yeah that's that's what I'd like to see happen and I would like to see you know pretty rigid um um regulations around noise I know that the web data center has three mobile home parks around it that were not considered residential um so I have concerns about people that live in those type of neighborhoods being more negatively impacted because where they live is not zon residential but the reality is people do live there so if we don't have regulations or code um limiting the amount of noise we can have some people that live in a really um bad unpleasant um environment um just because you know where they live isn't isn't Zone residential I don't know if that's a whole other discussion we include um mobile home parks as um residential for for the purposes of data centers the code we just adopted in January the zoning code sign up says that mobile home parks are now considered residential so they are they do have to um address noise so that it's something you've already adopted Citywide okay but web data center currently would they have to follow any new text amendments that we come up with nope they fall under the regulation that was in place in October when they submitt okay so this wouldn't affect them at all okay got it um I do still think that we should have um restrictions on noise and I do think that we should um ask for them to use affluent water and perhaps a percentage of their power usage be um renewable energy I mean we had a a substantial amount of people have given public comment and um I think that you know we are public service our job is to listen to them and represent them um I think that we should um add some some um more guidelines to our text Amendment okay um I I don't know if the rest of council will support it but I think council member doer and I are kind of on the same page with that Council councilwoman Ebert I'm gonna uh just cut you off right there okay a minute 15 okay bringing it back uh to get the get us back on track uh we have exhausted our rounds so we need to move forward I think listen one thing I I want to stress this Council has been really good about um you know I think sustainable initiatives we have a whole department dedicated to that uh we sted back on to the Paris climate Accord um there just we have really cared about this trees um the charging stations of you know renewable energy with cars just everything so I think we have I we're doing a lot more than most cities I think and I think we have to continue to to um stay on that path so with that being said I think we would all agree that we should put in some regulations or measures or whatever standards no different than I think councilman dur and I talked about with horses um benchmarks what those things look like like I don't know yet I think before you do that we need to find out you know is everyone moving to portable water cuz I'm hearing that there are different um you know like there's just things that are out have been outdated that now you know they'll have new benchmarks right I I don't know what that looks like but I I agree with and I think everyone up here would agree um because we've seen challenges with certain warehouses so it makes sense uh for noise uh renewable energy uh water those types of things so how do we get there I guess so if you would like to move forward today and initiate a text amendment to address data centers you just need to formally make that recommendation um and again we can take your feedback the things that we've heard you specifically want us to address is noise Power and Water effluent as well and so we can blustering to your point clustering um we can we'll we'll go back and kind of look at Best Practices and and see what's working what's not working in some of these other jurisdictions outside of Nevada and come back with some recommendations and go through the full public review process and get input okay and thank you so moved okay thank can I asked do we have those don't we already have that in the cup process again I'm not understanding what we what you're saying that we don't have in the cup process I think in my mind we would put probably some kind of threshold to say um this is how much power usage we are comfortable with you using without doing something to mitigate it so for instance if we say 30 megawatt um anything more than 30 megawatts we're going to require that you do something above and beyond with solar and wind and you know find some other way to mitigate your impacts we can come up with some kind of creative language that again allows these Boutique data centers that don't have significant impacts to still know that we are welcoming them to Reno um and they do have to go through that conditional use part process unless you're telling me you would like to let them come forward by right which again it's it's up to you guys um but we can address things like water if if the water is a certain threshold and we'll work with t on what's an acceptable acre feet um then that would require maybe that they have to tie into effluent so I'm not sure I would want to make these text amendments or regulations and then also have the cup process on top of that that seems um more regulation when we it's already in the cup process that's what I'm trying to understand I guess that's what I'm not clear on yeah if you if you are comfortable saying we're okay with data centers we'll allow you to come here without that cup but here's the triggers of when we will require a cup and that's what we're talking about some of these these bigger concerns so if you're 30 megawatts or more we're going to require cup if you're 29 megawatts and less maybe you don't trigger a cup you can go straight to a building permit so wait oh I'm sorry go ahead or if I could say a different way the way I might view it is that it would inform your decision-making because if you don't write now ask them how much energy how much water but you would in the future you can actually make a better decision through the cup process but if we don't ask we remain ignorant of it and we just say have you affected land use uh the road you're only having 10 employees and so many such like that I I think it just makes us do a better process better evaluation gives you some Road some guidelines but then again I I think I understand on this side too that it also has to go before Council and for a Planning Commission so with that being said wouldn't that also be the stop Gap so because here's here is I think maybe to your point but also no two are the same and that's what I learned about the last one when ever you know asking about recycled water let me tell you switch has a whole patent on the way that they mitigate um a lot of that and it's it's fascinating and it's you know Innovative science it's unbelievable and so that's where you know it I guess depends on what your vision is for a data center based on your company but I'm just saying that I just think that no two are the same just like no business is the same like let you know Maverick versus another convenience store two very different convenience stores and I will say the challenge with effluent we only have really three areas in the entire city where we have effluent we have a little bit in North Valleys we have a little bit off um Veterans Parkway where it's just right next to all of our flood areas um and then we have effluent down in the south area so if we're saying you have to tie into effluent that pretty much tells the data centers you're going to North Valleys yeah so then you're boxing them in in one location which could be detrimental to that area or or let's say to Residents that don't want it there and that's an area where we have trouble with effluent because I see they've got to tap into yeah so again unintended consequences of mandating that all data centers TI effluent that may not be a good thing um but that's why we we're trying to look at them Case by case and say well how much water are you needing you're barely using any water somebody with a pond or a pool probably generates more water than you do so why would we require that they tie into effluent and that's what you do through the cup process that is 100% why it's helpful to look at each one through cup yeah and Angela just um on the the point you just made about why would we even require anybody to tie into a fluent why wouldn't we rather say more GL Global statements such as Clark County which is they have said you can't use evaporative cooling but you can do a lot of other things and it may not require effluent corre you may use air cooling you may use any kind of thing so my I would not get into the detail about effluent I would say if Clark County you said we're being more stringent but no we we don't have a requirement like that about not allowing evaporative cooling Southern Nevada as a whole has that requirement on everything apartment commercial retail Warehouse we as a city of reeno do not water is not our issue in terms of they don't have water we have water right we're in better shape for sure but my point is is that we don't have to get so micromanaging to tell them how to do their cooling what we can do is say we don't want to see you use high water intensive Cooling and then there's many options they could go with reclaim water they could go with air cooling they could go a different process to the mayor's point about which so I just that's where I see the regulation going is more generic less micromanaging if if they if they're going to use so much energy like 30 megawatts again that's 20,000 homes worth those are power plants we have to pay for why not just say hey we'd like to see you offset some of your energy use in concert with our sustainability plan that we've already adopted I mean that's the kind of where I see this going not Draconian so Angela how do how do we get there I think if there's four of you that want to initiate a text Amendment make that your recommendation and we will move forward based on today's feedback and again it's about a six-month process with a lot of input from again the whole community and Planning Commission and Council so we'll give this a couple tries to what I think I hear you saying I feel like that's a long that's a a long way down the road and I think I feel like we're we're we're aligned that we can do it now based on what we already have in place because you have to go to Planning Commission that would have to go to the city council I I think those are good measures um it's no different than you know we we have an issue right now where uh the hearing officer uh makes the final decision on certain impacts in this community a hearing officer doesn't even come to council so then we have no ability to yank that back and I think even on this agenda we have it on here to say no we want to be the final stop stop gap which allows us to have a lot more say and mitigation in the process moving forward I I actually think that's the best way because a lot of times we see this gets a workaround but when you have to come to council or or Planning Commission there's a lot more oversight that's just been my experience would you agree and I think too if if if that's the direction you guys want to go we won't then then you won't be recommending a change to Title 18 you'd say keep the process you have keep the conditional use permit I've heard the things that you have said um again as we as staff review these things we can keep that in our mind say okay here's of these hyperscale potential data centers things that you're concerned with we will address those on a case-by Case basis with each one we can do that as well changes that's where I'd like to make a motion and it's because of transparent we've had a discussion here today but all those people that were in the room with us today don't they can go watch the tape but I think that it's important for us to have you take a look at it and come back even if we whether or not we adopt a text amendment in the end because you've seen it before we've initiated and then not adopted because we didn't know where it was going or we didn't like where it was going but I'd like you to like I would recommend what you just said which was to initiate a text Amendment review other ordinances in Los Vegas and nearby States using the issues we've already identified for you and come back with a recommendation if it takes 6 months I'm content at least we're moving the conversation forward and at some point we'll have a go no go and and that's just a good process okay wait let me just ask on the text Amendment though doesn't that mean taking out the cup no it no we would still be doing a cup until you change the rules yeah and then that text amendment is the process if you want to change the rules so in the meantime we are still processing processing all data centers through a conditional use permit if you do want to move forward for a text Amendment again that doesn't change the rules today we have to go through six months worth of public input go to Planning Commission get their formal recommendation has to go before you guys three more times I feel like we don't need to go that far down the road I feel like we're close so I don't want to go six months down the road on a text amendment I think it would be better the sooner you know we can get it in Fr of do it in months I'm fine with that but I I I am a realistic person and I know that one of the criticisms has been people didn't get to a pine whether they're for it or against it they want it or they don't want it I want to hear from them personally and I want to continue on our path I'm not asking to stop things I mean I will tell you when you brought Title 18 that's when I flagged this issue nobody from Planning Commission had said anything no votes had happened I said I am comfortable with Title 18 but we need to do more work on data centers and I'm going to vote Yes on Title 18 with the expectation that we're going to take this up separately so I said all of that on my out loud voice that's still where I am today I wanted to support Title 18 but I don't think it's the end I think it's a beginning again you did a good first step that's where I am let's take our second step okay can I ask a question really quick go so the public comment that we have seen at the Planning Commission the public comment that we've seen at council is that not considered being informed on the issue yeah but specifics we we need to give them specifics okay so specifically in the conditional use permit process um correct me if I'm wrong we have maximum transparency to the community on every project and we have maximum a new regulation it's I'm not asking for new regul I I I am leaning towards not adding additional regulation here when we have a maximum flexible and a maximally transparent process through the cup and so hold on excuse me sorry um if staff which I believe that you have heard us and I believe that you have heard um the public comment I don't think that you're going to be bringing recommendation approvals on data centers to our Planning Commission if you don't have these specific answers for them in the beginning so I do not um support an additional regulation on this I just want to make that clear before we make okay so if I may just respond um in order to I've been at this for 10 years and I know what we can say and can't say and if it's not very specific it's very general people always say well there's no specific thing about energy use water use noise this kind of noise and and we we don't have a good leg to stand on that's why it's better to be more clear uh for both the public and for us so that we don't make a mistep and I think that that's what the Planning Commission is asking us they're saying they don't want to vote if we haven't given them criteria like we have for signs like we have for speeds like we have for traffic like we have adopted many many principles and we' put them in but we don't have principles on this we're saying hey staff figure it out and we don't even know I I mean we've given them some general guidance but that's why over and over we have initiated text amendments that's why is to allow the public and allow us to understand what we're saying do or don't do so I'll leave it there okay go ahead no um I did make a motion I guess I was looking at like no with horses when we said hey we'd like to see these things in place I don't see why we can't take the same approach they're not in place though and so if we said we have not we have eight conditions today we don't have let's say nine and so if we put a ninth condition on that was about let's say water it's it's not supported in our ordinances and therefore we're not not going to sustain an appeal I mean it's just as simple as that okay uh so I did make a motion I didn't all right have an opportunity I just said just to repeat it and I need a second I said to initiate a text amendment to lay out standards for data centers uh review other ordinances both in Clark County and nearby States and looking at the issues that we've discuss today and bring it back to council feel you you you made a motion off second the I'm going to second the motion for discussion all right um okay so Angela help me get there because what I worry about because I've seen this before where it takes forever and ever and ever and then we have no standards it gets convoluted it takes up a lot of resources I feel like the council is ready to put um mitigation in place um I don't know what that looks like but it concerns me whenever um you know we're like okay we we've got to do more and more and more I love the fact that you can come to council you can come to um uh Planning Commission I mean I just think you get so much more um oversight I think you get a lot more oversight whenever it comes to the bodies but that's just that's just me you 100% yeah okay so so could we ask her to expedite is that what you're getting at I'm trying to figure out yes how we do this much quicker uh less you know time I just feel like this we have three in the City of Reno obviously we want to put something in place so in the long R run that it doesn't become problematic but it's good to have those benchmarks the things that we can follow so what's the easiest way to do that with create without creating all this delay and all and you know I don't know it just it's seems like a lot we will continue reviewing all data centers through a conditional use permit based on these things that that won't change we so if anyone new comes in the door we're still covered it will still go to Planning Commission and on appeal it would come to you so you can add whatever conditions you feel are appropriate for that data center in the meantime it will take us about six months I'm just that's the fact why if you want a public engagement process and every time we try and shorten that it blows up and we end up spending twice as much time so I would suggest that we just have a realistic expectation and say it's probably going to be about a six-month process hard about that for me is exhausting all of the resources that we have on something that we have three or four in the city and I feel like we're all aligned on our sustainability goals and initiatives it's something that's been super important to us so that one is a hard one for me to swallow so it I can't support it and the land use issues this slide what aren't we addressing I still don't understand what aren't we addressing through the cup process that we have perview of an a land use decision through a text amendment I don't know if you want to add triggers to say we don't want to accept data centers that use x number of megawatts but how do we know that until we see the data center we know that through the cup process I have concerns about noise I have concerns about resources I trust the cup process that all of these things are going to be addressed through that process which does seem like to have better protection it's way better protection I agree with that okay so I want to move on because we got to get going so I have a motion from councilwoman dur I have a second from councilwoman eer I thought you were the second um I well okay well whatever um met him since it's second so wait wait hold on we're down this road okay I have a motion and I have second but I want to amend my motion okay yeah I want to amend my motion to expedite the process so that um we've already heard a lot of public comment today and um I think if you do one round with the nabs I think you could bring us back something to initiate an ordinance so I'd like you I'm not going to give you a specific time frame but I really feel it's important to expedite and I guess I'll ask the second all right if that's okay with her I just have to get her permission that's why I which of you all right am I a second or now yes yes either either or I just I didn't it's hard to know if you're there just because you're not in the room but I I know I am I've been trying to raise my hand and stuff but that didn't seem to be working either but yeah I'll I'll second yeah I'm sorry you're not on my um oh yeah you are you're right here sorry Megan um no I second then you came in second so I don't know Mickey okay okay I'm going with the mayor would you accept my amendment to expedite so I have a motion and a second all those and I and I am concerned just so you know I'm concerned about the time frame absolutely um but I think the cup PR process is better uh if we want more regulation that's what I really think I think those have always proven to be uh kind of where you want to put the checks and balances and it just has more teeth so you still second it all those all those in say I I but also just discussion piece like I feel like still have the cup but we just set that as a minimum requirement the things that we're talking about like establish some minimum requirements that we just know are going to apply to all data centers and also have the cup process like that's my understanding of this and that's my understanding too and I I have never seen this as an either or like somehow we're losing the cup I want to C and I want to have our staff have done a review so that they can do a thorough review when it comes time that is all we're talking about delving into the issue you said you know very little about it you have to do some reading some exploring you know that's what we have to do are we voting so it's to I will just clarifying my motion that it is not to remove wait one more thing that we have not talked about with the cup and I and I just and we shouldn't but this is like taking on and on and this is my point if it goes on and on and on and I feel like we're all an alliance to make you know uh regulations here but it's like I know this I know this and it takes forever so um but the cup goes with the business it runs with the land it runs with the land that's another one that I have an issue with too is it runs with the land right that means if someone else comes in and buys the business they walk right into a cup and they could be a bad owner yes if we build a building for a data Center and let's say it would switch switch builds it and then they go away and move somewhere else and then Apple comes in they get to use that same building for a data center because there's a conditional use permit approved that you know sorry it reminded me of something else too something that we didn't talk about was um disposal of equipment you know if a data center leaves do we have any requirements that they um remove all of the equipment that they've used in there that they recycle it or dispose of it I think that's something important we should also include okay all right thank you so we have a motion we have a second all those in favor say I I I I though uh th all of those in favor say I those opposed say Nay Nay Nay so we have a TI vote so it does not pass that's a three three vote so let me let me try to throw something out here what about if we look at measures we can put in place you know relatively quickly without a text Amendment but keep the cup in like um a lot like the discussion that we had on horse mitigation those types of things well the cup is staying in like okay well then we don't need a text amendment I can try a motion if you want yeah go ahead we don't need a text amendment I guess is my point M I moved to maintain existing data center zoning regulations and make no changes second all right I have a motion and a second any discussion all those in favor say I I I all those opposed noos Miguel Miguel where were you on that or councilman Martinez no sorry I was trying to unmute okay so it's was 2 three you didn't vote mayor so no I I didn't is he the motion was I move give me a roll call vote Sor thanks uh vice mayor Taylor dor no Martinez no eert no Anderson yes mayor yes that's a 3 three okay all right any other motions you want that's it okay all right thanks so much next uh madam clerk so what it was a 3 three so what happens no change nothing nope and um we'll bring it back to a future agenda so we can all right Madame mayor we're moving on to item D3 for building Enterprise fund affordable housing spending [Music] limit do you need no I'm good yes thank I'm inant paper tow okay no public comment no public I was like Angela's asking me but I don't know what's happening we do have public we do have public comment on this item from JD klippenstein hey JD come forward nice to see you um Madame mayor council members my name is JD klippenstein I'm the director of development for the Reno housing authority and I'm here in behalf of our agency and our executive director Hillary Lopez I'm not here to speak specifically to the cap of The Bu building permit subsidy program but rather to speak in support of the program itself um I know there's lots of considerations that go into the number but we did want to just say that this program as well as the sewer fee connection program the subsidies that have been available the waivers have been very very helpful uh they were instrumental in our Dick Scott Manor project which provides 12 units of affordable housing for homeless or at risk of homeless vets um and I am really happy to share that as of today we closed on our hawkview Redevelopment project um which is going to build 200 units of affordable housing right next to the Debbie Smith CTE Academy and while we weren't able to access that this program for that project the 18 months it took us to pull all the financing together showed me that every tool is helpful so while you continue to have conversations about this program I just like you to keep in mind that it is really beneficial and things like these can help the city meet its affordable housing goals so thank you thank you council members do we need a presentation on this or we um I have one question but oh okay Angela are you okay if we just ask a quick question absolutely okay thank you um my question is at my briefing I asked for this agenda title to be Rewritten so that was more clear and the reason is is that we've already spent a lot on building permit fee subsidy program and I asked that this implies that it's only $60,000 that we're spending but we've already spent a lot do you have that figure we do so we over the last four years on building permit fee subsidies alone not sew just building permits over $700,000 right so the reason I'm asking you that question is that it's important to know that we've spent over 700,000 and that we're not spending 60,000 what we're doing is capping this so that it would be 7 36 or 35 I think it is plus 60,000 and that rounds up to almost $8 million $800,000 excuse me $800,000 not not 8 million I'm sorry I me excuse me8 billion doar no no no not even million I I'm sorry my eyes aren't working well today so excuse me $735,000 and what I'm saying is that we're adding $60,000 right in your proposal for $795,000 that was my point so rounding to $800,000 okay so I just wanted to be clear to the public that we're not spend spending 60,000 we're spending 800,000 and all we're doing is saying we're running out of money and we only have 60,000 left to spend that's correct is that correct thank you for that clarification that's correct thank you the circle you're juggling lots of balls today Angel so many balls right now great moving one hat can we get a motion I'm willing to make the motion sadly to um to cap our additional spending on affordable housing building permit fees to an additional $60,000 do we have a second second we have a motion on a second any discussion all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much and now I'm not sure where we are let's see here we are up to D1 Madam clerk do we have any public comment on this item we do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence okay so Madame vice mayor for the city this is a uh city attorney's office John Shipman again this is an item um is requested for to have discussion amongst Council for changing potentially the uh administrative hearing process so we're here to hear whatever Direction Council wants on that so what item is this D1 D1 I'm sorry we've taken everything in backwards order today I'm sorry is there a process that we should be looking at to review no my understanding was is that there were there was um Council wanted to change the administrative hearing process and so if there were specific recommendations or things that you wanted we could I hear I hear yes I dispersed everything so I don't know what I did do you want an agenda uh who um an agenda no no who's um G to present on this item yeah Madame mayor for the records John Shipman we don't have a presentation this is like essentially an open discussion amongst Council whatever you want we can bring back okay give us Direction so okay thank you so much so here what I'd like because I did some research and the previous Council had the ability to so let's say there is a business in uh violation they have to go to the hearing officer the hearing officer does make a a recommendation or a binding right yeah generally there's like a a a code violation and then they are they have to come to a hearing and an administrative hearing officer will listen to the uh the evidence that the city has that they violated a code and then comes up with a decision and then the appeal of that would go to the municipal court at this point in time okay so how do we do because it used to go back in the day before I got on Council it came back to the city council again me going back to White cups also have more teeth than them and we have more purview right now when something goes to a hearing officer they get to make that judgment meanwhile I have I have real issues with whatever the business was or however that looks I feel like it should come back to council because then we have the ability to say this business is a bad actor so get help us get there yeah so in the past the way it worked is that um that was done that appeals wouldn't go directly to Municipal Court they would go to the city council for different things so if you want that if you want the appeal to go from it'll be you know the equivalent to like your your land use types of appeals but that would be different than actually serving as the administrative hearing officer I don't think you're asking for that but if you're asking for the ability to like uh when when an item is appealed to hear that that would be great we could go back to the that code if you wanted that that would be great that's just the convers I wanted to have with Council um go ahead okay just looking to raise my hand y are you saying that today to to the mayor's example um something about a code enforcement goes to a hearing officer so are you saying that's not appealable to city council yeah correct at at current um those go directly to Municipal Court once upon a time it was appealable yeah for certain things I mean I mean if you're looking at I mean I think you have a choice if you want to just limit that to certain you know types of appeal or for types of cases you could do that if you have this um but generally you could make it as wide or as narrow as you want in terms of hearing those appeals you can have limited appeals over certain things so if a data center was a bad actor then I could come right well again I I I just want to be careful there because there land use yeah there's land use kind of issues there and what what what this is dealing with is more kind of like meat and potatoes code issues things like you know people uh you know violating you know parking noise all the things that uh code normally responds to but that gives us more ability to put in place certain measures based on those issues noise and to be to be clear it doesn't I mean you always have the right to you know by ordinance pass addition standards that people have to comport with um but this process would just give you if somebody was unhappy with the appeal process be it the the person who's the um subject of the of the um Code Enforcement issue or if staff felt like uh the code officer got it wrong or the um the administrative hearing officer got it wrong either the city staff or the person who's the subject of that code enforcement action could appeal it to you to the city council for an alternate decision yeah I I just think it should be in the hands of the city council instead of a instead of the court it's yeah what you're suggesting it's normally in the mun court so the mun court at this point would take what the hearing officer did and then um look at that appeal and determine whether or not it comported with law and so you would just be taking over that role and then that potentially would go to um district court for appeal after that point so thanks so much would you like to call no not yet I thought you did call him but you spoke so I okay one second get my time okay um go ahead vice mayor oh thank you thank you I have I'm just going to say hypothetical here yep we have a bar bar gets shut down for code enforcement um they have to go to a hearing office hearing officer says you have to fix all these things right bar comes back hearing officers you fix da D D D D check check check check check right yep and then they get to open again right so the process would now is that's the end what would happen if they came to could somebody appeal that and take it to city council and what would be be able to change could we say never mind you cannot open or what I I like the idea of a hearing officer because it is a political body and it's supposed to be um I can't think of the word I'm saying but neutral it's supposed to be a neutral body where you go yeah and that's I mean that's a very good point just to make that point that um you know what the hearing officer does is collects the evidence judges the evidence gives you an unbiased view of you know that that is kind of a third- party view about like what the the person that is the subject to the code enforcement what his or her case is what the city's case is then you're presented with all that evidence um and uh you're acting in that capacity more like a court than you are kind of a political body at that point and you're looking at whether or not in light of the findings that the administrative officer came to um is the evidence there to support that holding and if if the answer is it's there um normally you would say you know you would you would you would affirm that appeal just like you would with the Planning Commission um if it if the the answer is no I think that the administrative hearing officer got that wrong and misbalanced some of that evidence um I'm going to you know I'm going to overturn that um it would come to as an appeal and if I'm understanding what people want potentially um e staff would appeal that if if they felt like look it really should be closed down um it shouldn't just be suspended um then staff would be coming and filing an appeal um or it could be the bar owner in your scenario saying I I don't think a suspension is proper or these conditions are proper and I'm going to file an appeal to the the city council so those would be the two ways it would come to you does that make sense it does I think that the challenge that I have is we would have to know when things are going to a hearing officer because I don't know if we actually know when everything gets if Council knows if we get a list of when things are going to a hearing officer and then we would actually have to work through staff to make that appeal there's just seems like there's a couple steps missing well and again so I want to be clear here is like you're acting as an impartial body so there wouldn't be the ability to say staff appeal because that indicates that you're not being impartial right so it would have to be staff saying we disagree with the hearing officer and we believe that for instance this business needs to be shut down irrespective of what the hearing officer believes it can't be it can't be the type of thing where it's like you are serving as a judge and at the same time directing staff to appeal because that that again undercuts uh that that serves as bias and it undercuts the whole due process of the the issue so um okay I'm I'm so sorry Carl I just feel like um maybe I need more information background from some of the previous Council why they did it why you know some of that stuff uh so I now that I start to think about it I see where you're and why they put that in place so maybe it's something we could bring back to council I don't want to like hit this over the head I don't think it's of the like everyone's most important issue right now unless uh another Council me member believes that no okay then I'm sorry can I we I'm gonna pull this off the agenda right at this moment unless go ahead go ahead Council woman doer wants to aine which is totally fine I just want to know that I think it's a good proposing anymore yeah I think we should bring it back I would like to put more more yeah all right so car uh Carl and John when you bring it back at some point in the future um if you could provide some clarity it struck me that it's just allowing an appeal process for let's say someone uh came and have a code violation let's say the hearing officer um opined against them upheld the code enforcement said you have to fix these they're still not happy they should have the ability to appeal to the city council I think that's the main thing I want to see I don't think I necessarily have to appeal it although you can add that if you want I don't think the staff should be appealing it I really think it's up to the person that um has been found in Fault whether they want to appeal it or not so I think it's very simple and straightforward you know it's it's just coming to this body prior and then maybe the next step if if we hang there and we say no person you violated the code they could appeal to Municipal Court yeah and and that's that's totally doable too I mean adding one more step to the process it's really up to to the body on how you want to interject yourself there my only caution would be is that you're really acting as a judge and so it's not it's not the type of situation where it's like you know policy yeah it's not a policy it's like you have to show that you know that the evidence is there to support and if you don't bring it back that's okay too I'm just saying if you do I'm I'm advocating for a streamlined process where it's very clear who can appeal and what issues are under review and in any appeal we're acting as a quasi judicial body and we already are doing that role yep yep okay thank you hey um quick question let's say m Court came out with the decision and this Council was like no we think that they got it wrong could we appeal that Jonathan um I'd have to check that I I want to say yes but it might be kind of an atypical appeal because it might have to be almost a a writ action because normally that's the last you might be able to appeal to District Court I believe that's the rule because of it's because of the nature of the of of this you can probably get to dist Court I don't know if you could get to the Supreme Court so um I want to say yes but I can confirm that okay so again um we'll get more information but just something to throw out there for you to you know give us an answer later on if that's a possibility I don't know okay thank you so much okay I am sending it to you oh uh is who Okay councilwoman Eber is on the phone okay go ahead yeah yeah I had a question and I'm sorry if this was already kind of gone over not quite the the right thought path here but would this address situations like when we had the um the um lak Mill Lodge come to council with um just a laundry list of um calls for service and you know came to council and you know I kind of asked for something some kind of action to be taken with the lodge but nothing happened until essentially two years later would this address anything like that where if we have a lot of calls for service the council can trigger like a review of of a business license so so in general there's I mean we have in our code the ability to do you know emergency suspensions and revocations of of business license and there's specific due process that has to be given um when we're talking about it within the context of an appeal um again yes you can you can revise the process so that that would come to you after the hearing officer dealt with it in the form of an appeal if one of the other parties appealed um it it wouldn't again the way that came to the council last time it wasn't as an appeal I don't believe it I think it was a revocation of the business license or maybe it was an appeal it was I think it was they had been suspended for a period of time and then they were coming in and as part of an appeal um for them and and I believe it was the RightWay Market also yeah and I think that that currently is the same process right now so it wouldn't I mean we could look at it but that's the process that you have right now so okay okay all right um is is there any possibility to change that like I'm just wondering if there's a way that we can um initiate um removing of the license or suspending a license quicker than the turnaround time with the lake Mill Lodge it seemed to take two years and a series of other events after we became aware of the 700 plus calls for service again I think I think you have total flexibility in terms of we can look at the process and if there's things you want to do to the process we can definitely look at it I think the challenge is is what is that we need to know what you guys want in the sense of um you know what what what you're really is is necessary and then once we have that then we can draft an ordinance to get get you as far as close to that as possible so okay okay thank you I appreciate it okay okay we're going to move on we're not going to take any action on that we're going to bring it back at a later date so it's a little bit more comprehensive but appreciate the background from our city attornies we're on to item D7 the fire audit acceptance okay let's let's get into it hi you guys have waited all day long it hasn't been you've been so patient not too okay go ahead good evening Council um before you is the fire inspection fees audit followup um as you recall the purpose of this audit originally in August was to provide you an analysis and assessment of the fire prevention Bureau inspection fees so just so you know our audit standards require that we confirm that management has implemented our recommendations or that management has action plans following an established methodology this includes us inquiring about the progress on implementation performing follow-up assessments and updating you on the status of Management's actions the extent of the procedures that come before you must consider the significance of the finding and generally speaking we come back every six months if there are still findings outstanding so there were 15 findings on this audit when it came to you originally in August there are currently six findings on that audit that still need additional follow-up so we'll come back in another 6 months with where those are at there are four findings that were partially implemented and closed and then there were five that were either implemented or accepted and then closed and so just as a reminder internal audit is here to provide you Reno constituents and City management accountability transparency and continuous Improvement in City operations at its core we're here to help you achieve it achieve our objectives and so I have a motion to accept the report and I'm happy to take any questions okay by the way um we haven't seen you or maybe I haven't been here but I swear to God you were at the University I was at the univ I was here before and yeah well of course yeah that's why I I fell in love with you guys um so when did you get back uh it'll be 5 years this month my how come I haven't seen you we hide we hide upstairs yeah you know they they they s in a little corner and they they let us hide that's total BS I was going to say I have not seen you Emily are you hiding people in your closet she tells me not to leave my office is that what she's doing does she have you like in um file cabinets up there oh you know she just tucks me away let's me Cann believe that oh my god do I feel dumb anyway I it was wonderful seeing you but you don't come to council correct um only when we need to present you with reports yeah okay well I I you know I'm a big fan thank you um anyone I'm happy to make an emotion here if anyone has any comments NOP okay I'm going to make a motion I have a question go ahead what were the what were the was it six findings that we're still working towards um fixing yeah excuse me yeah most of these findings have to deal with processes that haven't happened yet so um one of them is to add a late fee onto the fee schedule during the budget process that hasn't happened yet so I can't close it until I see what that fee schedule looks like or if we're going to ask for additional resources through the budget process hasn't happened yet so we leave it open there are also findings on here in which the department has said that they are working collaboratively with other City departments and so we are waiting for that process to continue through to see what the outcome is before we close those findings as well so um that's what those additional follow-ups are for are for those processes that haven't completed yet okay um so just so I'm understanding correctly so that if somebody were to have a fire inspection let's say at a rental property and they were fined because let's say their fire extinguishers are out of date and it took them two years to pay their B would there be an extra penalty um associated with that citation for paying at late is that one of the things that we're um working on establishing you want to answer that uh John Beck for the record uh Fire Marshall Reno Fire Department um so basically the way the process would work is if if somebody is out of compliance we give them an opportunity to fix what needs to be brought into compliance and if they fail to do so then what we do is is we would give them a notice of violation and that's the that's the course that we would take which which that notice of violation fee schedule is it mirrors the um the uh code enforcement sorry slipped for a second code enforcement th those are those are um in conjunction with what code enforcement has in place as well so would there be a late fee assess if somebody took a a long time to pay the fee for their citation no negative um so we we wouldn't assess a late fee um what we would do is we would we would inform them of what needs to be fixed and then we would we would work on a time to come back and actually have it fixed and if they if they fail to do so then what we would do is we would introduce the notice of violation schedule which starts at $100 and then it and it moves up according to how long it takes that for them to to come into compliance okay so if they had a feed because they it took them a while to come into compliance but then they didn't pay it for a while there wouldn't be a late fee on that um I I don't I don't believe that there's an actual late fee that's assessed on that it's just what what the inspector would would would recommend and and and write as far as a notice of violation okay council member uh Ebert council member derer has a question yeah thank you um so my question is like really to our auditor aor so are I know you said some of the things can't be done yet because it has to be in the budget process but are there some things here that should already be done in your opinion I mean you're the auditor so you get I mean I'm not asking to put you in a bad position I just I when you do an audit I think it's very important that we back you up and if an agency or department is is stringing it out and not getting it done then we need to know and we need to encourage them to to speed up their response and I want to be fair across all departments yeah I appreciate uh Rob Miller again for the record um I appreciate the comment um and the question and that is why we do follow-ups on a regular schedule well what am I missing here is there something I mean the way it's presented here doesn't really tell me I I know I could read the report but is there something that you feel uh can be sped up not wait for Budget in this current uh report for the we haveing no they they are moving at a pace that is acceptable but we always want to trust but verify right as far as as this goes any additional from our auditor if if go just a little something um thank you um Emily kid internal auditor for the record um you've seen some follow-ups come back here once twice three times four times the fifth time the third time we all kind of sit up a little bit straighter and figure out how we're going to resolve the problem or we accept the risk of taking in action gotcha and that's what happened on that fifth time related to aella and building permitting right I don't see that happening here the Department's been very responsive to our requests and talking about the balance between resources risk money and time that's what I wanted to get on the record okay thank you so much thanks council member D do you want to give us a motion yeah sure I'd be happy to make a motion to accept the audit report finding a followup second we have a motion and a second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries thank you very much we are now moving to item F1 city clerk was um po proper notice given on this or do we have any public comment we do not have any public comment and this was noticed in the newspaper and now I will turn it over to Carl John to read the ordinance thank you Madame vice mayor this is ordinance adoption ordinance number 6703 case number LDC 25 0024 900 Western Road zoning map Amendment ordinance to amend Title 18 chapter 18.02 of the Reno Municipal Code entitled zoning rezoning plus or minus 0.83 Acre Site located on the northeast corner of the intersection of Omaha Street and Western Road from single family residential 3 units per acre sf3 to single family residential 8 units per acre sf8 W four thank you do we have any Council questions discussion ready for a motion I'll make a motion to adopt second we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much we will move into um item J1 public comment we already did H1 do we have any public comment Madam clerk Damen Cole good even uh can councilwoman Ebert see this as well yes okay excellent so found out about the idea about annexing McCarron and that brought up some ideas that had already been planning for a while um what is McCaron Boulevard is it a Freeway highway road Street nobody knows because originally it was planned as a freeway a Ring Road 1974 this was part of the bike plan uh for the network that was being planned I found that out uh this was from the 2023 uh report for the amount of collisions the information that I saw today I noticed was a little bit lacking in some of the detail because they weren't showing all the different pages and maps all of these intersections that you see that had Collision problems had room for improvement and so that's been in the plan for about two years now including Mayberry and Plum big area there big difference between the character of the road there compared to let's say just south of that where it turns into into like freeway quality road again this road here if you notice also has bike lanes and bike facilities planned for it uh that was something that was missing from the presentation earlier um for the area for Plum and Mayberry they're planning buffered bike Lanes which is usually found on a areas that are more Surface Street with parking more uh condensed areas versus a shared use path or bike path which is essentially a fat sidewalk uh that has a line going through it which is already been implemented on McCaron in several areas this right here is also a shared use path you wouldn't recognize it as such except for the yellow line going down it this is how it works basically that's what it is so the deficiencies opportunities they're also showing that there's no mass transit in that area of Mayberry and uh Plum as well they were looking into increasing that I found it odd that the presentation today was talking about lane widening um how does widening improv safety it doesn't it makes it worse so there's two different things there's safety versus level of surface and they conflict with each other or do they here are the considerations free free flow of traffic like a freeway no stop lights but we can't have gr separations so we have to have intersections plus we have residential commercial and all these different things here just within the 3M area we got two parks we have may uh we have coffee we have an elementary school high pedestrian Zone how can we improve this so here's plum because this is the one that came up in the newspaper here's how I would do it that brown line that goes around there that essentially is a side walk with a line going through it and unfortunately but these are your benefits look through the paperwork that I gave you it's it's in part of the public comments carel Indiana they replaced thank Daman you're welcome thank you Damen yeah Kurt figpin hello I'm weird on being on this side of the dice um I'm Kurt thigpin I'm here more to introduce um the gain lesbian Chamber of Commerce which I'm a board member of um we expanded in Northern Nevada a few years ago and we really just want to work to establish a relationship with City of Reno um all of that to support local businesses we do a lot with certifications of local businesses owned by lgbtqia individuals um lots of members here we do grants to small business owners we've given out $40,000 in Grants to local businesses here in nonprofits uh which we hope to continue this year with our partnership with Cox Communications um I'll be sending city council more information on some of what we have going on as well as some programs that we'll have more in the community we did a uh morning coffee Meetup today this morning with local business owners we'll be doing a lunch in series as well that I'll be making sure to invite you all to to attend uh we have representatives from across all of your wards that are uh members of our uh organization so we're looking forward to continue doing more great work in Reno and we thank you all for um supporting small businesses in our community and appreciate your time thank you thank you very much Madame vice mayor with that we have no additional public comment for the record we did receive 15 comments which were either General in nature received after 4 pm yesterday 10 letters of support one letter of opposition and four letters of concern and those have been added to the record thank you madam clerk some council members weren't here when we went through H1 does anybody have anything that they want to end with or say I do sorry just really quickly even though um councilmen Martinez and Council me or men reys are not here I am just wanting to extend my great gratefulness for their willingness to shave their heads for the Northern Nevada children's c um Foundation shave for the brave um I think Monday morning councilman Ree and I are going to be watching the sunrise while he loses his locks um we're raising money all of the money goes to Pediatric children's cancer research which has recently been taken out of our federal budget so all of your help is appreciated and we would like to raise more money than Mr Abbott in Sparks so that's all I've got to say thank you other council members okay adjournment to Second all those in favor hi hi thanks for a great meeting everyone