Pledge of Allegiance and I was going to ask our Parks director Mr olot to to lead us aliance thank you may we have roll call Madam clerk uh yes we are calling roll for the Wednesday March 12th 2025 Reno city council meeting uh vice mayor Taylor here council member derer here council member Martinez here council member eert absent at this time council member Reese yes here council member Anderson here mayor shivi absent at this time uh Madame vice mayor you do have a quorum thank you and we will move into public comment Madam clerk uh Madame vice mayor our first item today is public comment 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 s colon SL SL l i n KS period r n o period goov SL c u n c i l 03 hyphen one2 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 three 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 are 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 the behavior continues you may be removed from chambers if you are an attendee in the zoom meeting and would like to make public comment please raise your hand at this time and then in person we have uh Terry Brooks followed by George pastr good morning Terry good morning it's me Terry Brooks again and today I'd like to share with you my thoughts on employment and education and what seniors have to go through most older people who are seniors today haven't had as much education as younger people get today most seniors have held the same job for a long period of time and have learned what they needed to know to do their job through time so seniors have really had to go back rarely had to go back to school to learn how to continue their work by using a new kind of tool but if they left their job and started a new occupation they might find it necessary to continue their education I have often quit my job not for a new occupation but so that I could continue my education or I've also gotten a new job and worked at certain times or location which at the time was convenient for me to continue my education when I worked at that clay mine and brick plant we'd get laid off in the winter which was convenient for me to take classes in the winter and I once worked at a textbook company that was right down the street from a college and that company left me work a schedule that coincided with my classes in college and when I worked as a librarian at the University of Missouri they let me work a schedule that coincided with my classes at the University of Missouri and here you our ooser lifetime learning Institute offers seniors a variety of classes 150 different classes both in person and hybrid classes and our local senior centers also direct technology classes for seniors called senior Tech correct connect so seniors who feel like they may lack some knowledge of modern technology have a chance to learn a lot more about such modern technology I would like to thank you for listening to me today and I look forward to coming back when I've learned what else I should say thank you just for the record uh member Ebert has joined us on Zoom George pastr thank you very much uh Miss vice mayor and members of the council for letting me speak today I appreciate the opportunity my name is George pasty I'm a resident of Washo County um I'm here to speak today about Nevada land use law um I had the opportunity to listen to the presentation made by a city planner and the Very robust conversation regarding uh the status of Nevada master plan and whether or not it should be taken into account uh when making findings um now the general issue uh um I was very impressed with the council's discussion of that matter I thought it was very robust and substantive however I felt that uh the presentation made by city council staff does not reflect Nevada law okay the presentation generally uh tracked the prevailing point of view in Most states that the master plan is advisory however a significant minority of States hold that the master plan is Regulatory and the question arises well where is Nevada okay in terms of that uh the Nevada Supreme Court as far as I know has never definitively pronounced on that question however the way to answer the question is by looking at the Nevada development statutory scheme in NRS 278 uh and what it to shorthand uh to shorthand the the analysis if you look at 0284 the first sense of that says any action in a local government uh relating to development zoning and so on and so forth must conform to the master plan of the local government uh the local government shall make a specific finding that the ordinance conforms the master plan and then the final sentence says okay if any provision of the master plan is inconsistent with any regulation relating to land use development the provision of the master plan governs any action taken in regards to an application for development so that speaks very clearly surgically and precisely to the question of whether or not one should be looking at the master plan in making findings on specific projects zoning ordinances so on and so forth now this regul this is just sort of the outcome of the regulatory scheme which talks about who actually adopts the master plan and which is the Planning Commission so on and so forth and the minority of and Nevada is in the minority of States Oregon um California and others that when they have this comprehensive scheme the courts hold that it is mandatory so I think that that's something that needs to be discussed now in the context of findings your attorney made an important distinction relating to quasi judicial and versus legislative action however na U council member Naomi D made the Counterpoint that a lot of times we're looking at zoning changes when we're looking at specific development applications and that sort of becomes a hybrid case thank you so much okay thank you appreciate you all right George if you would mind my staff is going to get your contact information so that you and I can have coffee sure okay thank you yeah Madam clerk do we have more public comment uh we have we have no additional public comment registered we did receive two comments that were General in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item prior to yesterday March 11th at 4m. these comments were written correspondents received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on reno.gov meetings okay thank you we'll move on to item A4 which is approval of the agenda manager Bryant do we have any revisions we have revisions regarding the order we do not have any revisions regarding um items everything on the agenda will be heard today after consent pull all pulled consent items we'll move to immediately before item H1 uh we will go in orders D4 D7 D5 then later this afternoon we will open up items D3 on the city council agenda with items um with the RDA so that we can hear D3 B1 on the RDA agenda and B2 on the RDA agenda as well as B3 and then the remaining items will go relatively in order other than we have a rough estimate of D1 and two for the RTC items around 3:00 Madam vice mayor I'll move to approve with the provisor that it's floating and at your discretion second we have a motion and second all those in favor I all those oppos but Madam vice mayor before we continue could you just you went it was so many different different items could you just say it one more time u m pull consent yep then any items that were pulled will not be heard until immediately before H1 at the end of the day oh all the way at the end of the day correct because we need to immediately move in to the Northern Nevada Public Health presentation with Dr Kingsley D4 following that will be D7 following that D5 the legislative update then we will open up items d D3 with RDA 1 2 and 3 then we will move into D1 followed by D2 and then the remaining of the agenda but it goes C1 then D6 it's still D1 D2 C1 D6 E1 but we will repeat the order after lunch okay thank you so much okay all those in favor I okay all those opposed motion carries unanimously council members uh we'll move into the consent agenda council member Anderson any items I'm good thank you okay thank you nothing Madam vice mayor council member der I would you check with Miss Ebert I don't think I do have anything I'm just finalizing council member Ebert do you have consent items to pull Ste do you have anything no I just well I just wanted to acknowledge that um our representative from Project Bear Hugs is here and I I don't want to pull her item and wait all the way to the end of the day but I I would have if if we were taking them because I want to give her her moment in time and I think it's a great um allocation from the general fund from um vice mayor Taylor I just wanted to compliment um so I I I won't pull that I would have pulled it but um let me just see I think there was one other I wanted Madam vice mayor would it be appropriate from the representative to just jump back into public comment for one moment to acknowledge the donation and then let us know it was so kind of you to make the donation so I I think it's uh is that okay I Madam clerk we we don't want you sitting here for for 11 hours for 11 hours we don't want to do that but we'd love to hear about the project just for the briefest so if there's only one thing being pulled I mean we couldn't we hear that for the three minutes well I think we've heard I mean we all know what project Bear Hugs is so we're appreciative that you're here and we'll take a motion to approve the consent sorry did you guys hear me I don't know if I got cut off I said B9 B B8 B9 B10 b89 and 10 10 I'll move to approve all remaining it two public commenters um public comment yes okay for consent uh Hannah hubar followed by Kylie bledman solve that problem thank you madam clerk thank you madam clerk I just want to say um hi Council thank you very much for the donation we really appreciate it um that will be used to help uh ongoing relief supplies for any disasters that are happening in and around our area we are still responding to the LA fires um that will be an ongoing process as with storms coming um and the current storms that are actually in La it is causing several mudslides in those areas which is causing even more issues so just want to say thank you very much and we appreciate it Kylie fedman good morning Council for the record my name is Kylie floodman I'm here with bird um on behalf of bird speaking in support for item B9 to extend our franchise agreement for an additional two years to revive Mobility Services in Reno bird is proud to have been the micr mobility operator in Reno for the past three years connecting locals and visitors alike so to highlight some of the impact that our writers have made as well as the success of the program I would just like to share share a few stats with you all over the past three years we've amassed over at this point now year to date over 790,000 rides equating to 197 miles ridden on micr Mobility devices within Reno alone using the epa's calculation we estimate our Riders have replaced around 406,000 miles of car trips equating to over 127 metric tons of CO2 emissions saved that would have otherwise been um emitted by a car in 2024 alone we saw over 184,000 rides from 33,000 users 65% of which were locals uh we do that off of billing zip code if anybody's interested or curious and 11 11% of those rides were from connecting from local Transit stop so obviously being a part of Tourism is important to us but being a true Transportation connector is a core piece of what we do here at bird so while micromobility is about making positive climate impact improving micromobility and connectivity it does also Drive economic impact an Emory study shows that each micromobility Rider contributes about a, to a local to the local economy and that's because unique to macr Mobility or maybe not what you get with a car from going from point A to point B you're more actively engaged you spot more businesses along the way from your from your point A to point B and uh like like I said that Emory study shows that each micr Mobility riter has contributed about $1,000 to local economy outside of that specifically within Reno the bird program has generated over $215,000 for the city over the past 3 years and more recently over $3,000 to our fund for uh our adaptive and accessory or accessibility fund as we look forward a few of our priorities um are around safety improving our accessibility efforts and connecting wasu County as as a whole so we are in the early stages of planning a spring safety campaign some ideas include additional signage a safety and safe route group ride as well as a safety event and Patrol with helmet giveaways later this month in partnership with a local Reno business we will be launching our um new adoptive adoptive vehicle offerings within our app and finally we have now launched in the transit app and with LIF further connecting um all forms of alternative transportation in Wu County we are clearly passionate about micromobility in Reno and thankful for the opportunity to have provided our services here over the last three years um thankful to the council support of sustainable transportation in progress there as well as our city partners and our Community Partners that have allowed us to iterate on the program and we are here hoping that we will have another two years to do so thank you for your time we have no one else signed in and we did not receive any correspondence okay I believe we're taking a motion on the consent I'll renew my motion second we have a motion a second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries thank you very much and I believe we're moving into uh item D4 which is a presentation from our um Public Health officer Dr Kingsley welcome welcome thank you for being here thank you happy to be here Madame vice mayor while they're loading Dr kingsley's presentation let me just say um that I have the privilege of serving as the chair at Northern Nevada public health and in that time uh as the chair I've gotten to know Dr Kingsley uh he's been with us now just short of a year uh but coming up on his year anniversary and lots of positive things going on on at the health district lots of um opportunities uh public health is uh something for everyone and so I'm excited about the presentation today and happy to welcome Dr Kingsley here I think you'll all enjoy both his presentation and Dr Kingsley personally great thank you uh for the record Dr Chad Kingsley District Health officer Northern Nevada Public Health here for a jurisic jurisdictional presentation I want to provide a snapshot falling apart on me here put that back on just a a snapshot of Northern Nevada Public Health but really to increase our collaboration and accountability to you as one of our jurisdictional partners and also ingrain into US resilience for the coming years when we're able to function better together both for our community and both as um as partners um this is our I this is our inner inter government uh agreement IGA for that has created it since 19 58 uh Northern Nevada public health and for public health for our community the breadth of Public Health uh many of our many of those function services that provide are mandated we do provide essential Services as well but the breadth of it is large a lot of times uh for our community and understanding all the parts that we are part of um both as a a three-year process of Community Health assessment and Community Health Improvement plan but those things in which we touch both epidemiology for the 88 uh diseases that we are meant to Monitor and report investigate we have EMS emergency preparedness and Vital Records then we also do the inspections for our food establishments but also for our buildings and pools both Vector which is mosquitoes rabies anything that can transmit diseases we have we also help monitor our water systems and deal with salt waste and as well as regulations for all those immunization Sexual Health chronic disease women infant children and community health workers and then our air quality for air monitoring that also touches building inspection and regulations and then our budget and uh fiscal compliance overall when speaking about public health many it's the same side of the coin is Public Safety which is prevention right our our firefighters while they're there to handle fires would rather prevent fire same thing with our police and our our law enforcement would rather prevent crime instead of and having to need to do it same thing with public health with public health is prevention so you never get thanked for the mosquito bite that never happens right or we never get thanked a lot of times for having a healthy food establishment where we don't get sick and we have a long a big impact on our economic stability if we have healthy healthy parents and their families they're able to go to work if they have a if they we help prevent cancer or diabetes they have a longer time in the workforce um same with our children with their education with immunizations that uh the impact we have on that is significant and helps our community be healthy progress have longer longevity and and growth so our governance overall currently how we do it we set up six strategic priorities and how we monitor those is through a system and it's just one of those examples so under healthy environment we set goals and then we monitor those goals and this example currently right now 18 are on target one is offt Target three are critical two are currently deferred so we measure those see where we're at and how we're doing our performance and how what we need to do and how we need to um tweak that so health for example healthy environment we knew that we needed to improve in customer service and efficiency with our permitting um currently so for part of that our recent interventions since I've been here for the last year um and hearing those requests from our community as well as our elected representatives that we really needed to improve our processes for environmental health services so we've engaged in community engagement collaboration we are meeting with our food establishment for improvements and resources uh we improving our permitting process and our turnaround times as well as uh reforming how we do our pull inspections and then as as ongoing processes too working with Rems and discussions for improvements for our EMS Delivery Systems here within our community organizational impacts so since we have been uh uh recording everything that we do in a sense in our Process Management we're able to provide this and this is a three-year snapshot of where uh of of Northern Nevada Public Health currently at 202 full-time employees um we have our position just to speak on our position vacancy rate so why we have six positions Frozen we currently also have seven positions that uh we are not currently seeking recruitment for due to our budgets so we're we're taking the correct steps in order to be able to uh meet pending budget uh crisis similar to you on many points so that we're able to better continue to to deliver our services as needed but this is just representation of the last 3 years where we're at other things we tracked is so inspections completed uh for a food establishments um have gone down but a last year was 8,100 uh plan and building which is one the interesting so went up went up from 2900 to 3,400 from the year before so we've seen an increase in new businesses opening up so we like to see that as positive growth um permits reg uh registrations notific patients managed 16,000 Vital Records 52,000 and the public records request about 5,000 and then the diseases case that we investigated over 6,000 and of all those cases we have a 93.5% um rate of them being um uh met so same thing is our this is just uh display how we uh contact and communicate with our community um these are all the grants and many and and our funding sources that we have but our Revenue uh we do have have one County transfer uh that has been the same since 2016 at 9.5 million and so that is really what the three jur jurisdictional Partners put in as part of it our others then is our charge for our services our in government and our license and uh permits expenditures is primarily with our staff um but we do have other expenditures into Biologicals chemical supplies advertising and we do have a new uh uh TB Clinic coming up um this is distribution of our employees per a lot of our largest is clinical and Community Health Services but this is uh overall what we're looking at on distribution of our employees over the last five years fiscal projections as same as as many of as us in these next five years looking at that um we've been at 9.5 on our transfer with our inflation as well as increase to our staffing uh to our staff salaries we're looking to to reach to 12.4 working with our County our our County Partners to help address this and to be able to continue to deliver those same Services there's a lot of federal uncertainty about 50% of our funding is through the federal government which is path through dollars the CDC 80% of their salary or their their funding is passed through that goes directly to the state then the state here Department of Public and Behavioral Health then assigns those out in Grants where needed um so just working with that we are resilient on many points but as continue as a day day-by-day process process this is our projection um our 2005 2006 improved and I'm hoping the same thing from our 26 27 the next time we look at this that again we're going to be slowing the curve down um but I believe we're all facing this crisis and working together with you uh on this to help to improve this for our for our constituents where we're doing right now is we are reducing staff by 10% and overall and this is we're at so that was close but um any questions on that I want to go and give you the time that uh anything of those things so I'll start to the left with councilwoman de um I'm going to uh defer to our chair of the division or the organization first M ree thank you so much Madam vice mayor uh Dr Kingsley thank you for the presentation and I do apologize we keep a very tight time schedule here because we have so many things we're dealing with uh what I am hopeful for is that um my colleagues on this board uh see you as a resource understand what the role is of the health officer obviously um having gone through a global pandemic it changed the way that we as council members viewed public health because before we might have had very limited interaction with public health then it became very high and almost on a daily basis we were being asked questions about public health and now that we're past that and into a a maybe a more uh maybe a less cautious or static era I just think it's important to understand the slide that you identified which identified all the roles of the health office um I think is very important because from our perspective here on this Das generally what happens is a constituent will call us about an issue they're having and they're looking for help right and sometimes it's about a permit that they can't seem to unlodge it's about a restaurant complaint about something that they're dealing with and we don't really have the capacity to jump right into public health without going through you and so I'm very thankful that as the mayor who has been a very strong Advocate uh for our business community and certainly our restaurants and our Builder developers has worked with you and through me to do the work that we're doing that some very positive changes are coming out of it and so for my part uh know that we are in uh good hands here locally with regard to health issues and if there are any specific health issues that one would be interested in I'm sure that there are answers but it's everything from air quality that is related to dust permits it's uh sexually transmitted disease Health it's Aid to women and children who are getting inations a lot going on there and so really exciting um I think Dr Kingsley is doing a very good job of of bridging that Gap in communication especially with our body and so I know his door is always open thank you council member re I do not see any other hands raised council members do you have any questions comments I'll just make a comment yeah I don't have a question but I too really appreciate your service um over the many years I've had opportunity to work very closely with with um you know now the Northern Nevada and tell me the proper name Northern Nevada Nevada Public Health Public Health um group I'll say I was about to um I used to work at the county myself where where you're embedded and um there there's just so many unexpected Connections in the community that we don't see one that I valued has been and it's it's you don't think of it naturally but it's about the air so you Monitor and manage the air and the air quality um it become comes to the four when we're talking about fires but like water issues if it's not flooding and we're not in a drought people aren't really thinking about it right they turn on their tap they get the water that's the end of the story um the same with air like we take it totally for granted we could not live without the air and when the air is compromised um we know now my understanding has been that for over 40 years and I'm going to say it's probably 50 years now uh Reno the our Reno area has had challenges meeting air quality standards and I just wondered if you could I don't know if you're familiar with it enough to speak to it but if you are I would love to just hear a snippet of that yeah um just a a quick over that so looking recently with air quality management looking over the last 20 years and this is importance where as jurisdictional partners as well as the Board of Health they made decisions 20 years ago that have impacted us today on this season um alone we have not had one red burn day we really haven't had an inversion um and so we've seen we've seen a DRFT Improvement to our a air quality here but look back 20 30 years when you would have those inversions and it would you would have multiple Red Burn days meaning that if you have any Comp Health complication you should not be outdoors children have asthma you should not be outdoors well and it's something you don't see you could see smoke in the air but what my understanding is is there's particles in the air that you can't see uh in the water we call it total dissolve solids but in the air I think it's called particles and they're of a certain size and these smaller particles my understanding can get in your lungs um and really cause some health problems and I think it comes back to home for us because when we're doing developments one of our rules at the city is that you can't leave open areas that just have dust yep so you're supposed to I think cover the areas or stabilize them in some way so it doesn't you know we have big winds so it doesn't create blowing dust and problems for visibility and health unfortunately and that's one reason and just for our newer members that the our planning folks will often require parking lots to be paved and not just a dirt parking lot they say well we don't have the money and and can we just leave this open well you you are one of the reasons why so anyway thank you for your service I just wanted to highlight something we don't naturally think about but this very important to our community agre thank you thank you thank you council member eert yeah thank you um I had some other topics I wanted to discuss but because we're on air um I did want to ask what what role does your department play in events where we have smoke from fires let's say in California or somewhere else that's blowing into um Reno I know um during the pandemic we had a really bad fire season and the air quality was horrible what measures do you guys take to help protect people that maybe have to work Outdoors or the unhoused population is there any kind of Outreach you guys do to keep their health safe as well thank you for that question and so uh addressing that we do so we have a code we have a a green yellow and red and when it's a red that's when we put the advisement out and we do do a a press release on reaching I believe it's the same challenges on unhoused and how do we reach our unhoused population and uh being able to inform them that today is a day that is a challenge when it comes to smok coming from another state really that's just us monitoring where we have we have stations set up that monitor those particles that says that this is an advisory so it's then Comm reaching out to communicate with the unhoused but also with our partners and so those Health alert are sent out broadly um but I will continue looking how we can better address that for everybody within the community so they they're aware that they need to perhaps wear a mask or if they're if they have a health condition that they can take better um seek shelter where needed to so okay would there be any kind of Outreach groups that go out to provide masks to the unhoused or maybe to let's say the car's campus or or anything like that is there any kind of coordinated effort in that regard we do have a great relationship with the Caris campus as well as Community Health Alliance uh local fqc as well as our partners um those do go out we do are actively on other grants as well as point but I do believe the care campus does have mask available for anybody at this time to be able to use thank you um I'm not sure how much time I have left I do have a couple more questions but I don't want to take anybody else this time you have about 40 seconds left okay okay um late last year we had um um I don't really know how to describe it we worked with um not government worked with um Health Department to um do kind of a cleanup um uh procedure on um a local Motel is is there any kind of set procedure now in place to address areas that that might need um some kind of intervention or cleanup um did that process you know result in any kind of um continued efforts to uh identify other locations that might need to be cleaned up or possibly um shut down or have their businesses modified in some way um was there anything that um came out of that that has like a long-term um effect on how we um maintain our public buildings I would NE we are currently both speaking with all our partners both Sparks Reno and waser County how to address the problem um or the how to better improve to provide services both for those living in those conditions as well as for our community and how to better regulate and work with those business owners those talks are ongoing we're continuing um and I want to thank Reno for that I've been in contact with both Jackie as well as JW on addressing these points and we're both our staff and Reno staff are working to better address that and how do we move forward with it so yes it is ongoing and if you I would be happy to sit down with you and let you know update where it's at and uh and be able to provide in that information so thank you Council for the public benefit counc member Ebert we'll come back to you Council uh councilman Martinez has a question thanks so much thank you Mr Dr Kingsley for being here and providing that update I think sometimes when we don't sit on these subcommittees or commissions it's difficult for us to have access to all the information so I appreciate you taking the time today to come out and share some information I really just wanted to give kudos to you and your team for some of the Spanish language Outreach that you're doing I know wasn't in your presentation just wonder if you can talk a little bit about some of that programming that's been included in the work that you do thank you happily too um as as many have known I I attended medical school in Mexico and and engaging with uh providing those Services is important for our community um we do provide uh translation services both we have uh Wordly both in the moment uh we both have an app but we also have staff sufficient staff to be able to provide translation service we have been providing um enhanced services for uh food cart handlers we provided $100,000 to make the road to be so that they can help community members as well both for their permitting as well as set up and and purchase or for permitting prices to help cover those um but we also provide translation services where needed at in office as well as online and all those points and we've made it a point both with bilingual pay as well as with our staff that we're meeting this demographic with in our community so and and happy to do that so yeah I just want to thank you for that and appreciate uh that effort I think the last question that I have for this about a minute that I have is just con uh concerning the second point that you brought up of healthy environments um and making sure that nor Nevada public health is creating a healthier environment uh the area that I represent has a lot of uh heat areas um and just wondering what sort of work you all do in that in that Arena or in that space if any just curious for and the clarification you're asking about um heat awareness like for like during the summer yeah sort of like the air quality that you talked about just wondering if there's something similar in terms of heat mitigation or anything like that so this is an an emerging concept so while we're not the hottest uh looking at our partners uh or looking at our Southern uh Partners like Arizona I was in Arizona when they initiated this past year heat awareness um so I have we starting to look at that Hot August Night um our rip cook off you know those different things that are occurring we are seeing we are the fastest warming Community though we're not the hottest so over the next three years we are going to ramp up how to address that and be able to provide that information for our community overall so awesome thank you so much appreciate it council member Ebert yes thank you so I have two questions I'll get to them quick one is do you guys have a hotline where somebody could call in and just kind of notify the health department of situations potentially like the motel from last year where they would um you know like to request uh maybe an inspection anonymously um so that's part one this is part two it's it's different but um just want to get through it quick um do you have any specific Outreach um to let Reno seniors or area seniors know about services that you provide specifically for them great we do have numbers online it will be on our web page and uh I'll follow up and have staff send you those phone numbers that community members can reach out for concerns or reporting anything that they need to uh to to your second question um we Health and Human Services is not part of Public Health um that is available through the county and I believe through the cities um we do do programs such as fall preven mention for seniors but we're one of the resources that we one of the partners that we provide to Senior Services through the county um so we're not directly involved but indirectly involved so okay so follow up on that um would they need to contact you for things like vaccinations or would that be a different group so we do actually at the senior center over by the county we are there so usually if there's a senior center our staff is there also usually once a week to provide vaccines where needed and that you especially flew um flew in those uh we do also have um adult we don't have a lot of vaccine for adults but we do have them and can provide those ones that perhaps are not in the community or are more costly in the community such as uh shingles and we do provide those uh those uh vaccines for seniors were able to if not then we have partners that we refer them to right has there been and forgive me if I says has there been any um uh public clinics provided outside of vaccin uh vaccinations uh for the public has there ever been any kind of Outreach to help the U maybe the lower income Community with um things like um just checkups regular kind of blood work just so the people know where they're at or um things like dental cleanings any type of you know public Clinic yes just refer that so we do have two fqhcs here in our community federally qualified Health Centers both a Community Health Alliance and Care campus do provide those services but we also organize four Family Health festivals a year uh throughout the community and all those things you mentioned are provided there wonderful thank you so much thank you for your time I think that's all my questions thank you thank you Dr Kingsley thank you appreciate it Madam vice mayor as Dr Kingsley leaves I'll just make an open invitation to my colleagues to come and tour the health district facilities um it will give you a great opportunity to see some of the unique programming that is done it's uh it'll blow your mind quite frankly because the first couple of times that I uh walked through and did tours of the facility you come to see that there's a lot going on there immunizations vaccine clinics and it is all Focus really on our most vulnerable communities our seniors our children uh low-income folks it's a it's a great resource and Dr Kingsley is doing a great job there thank you thank you very much okay madam cler we're going to move on to item D7 we have no public comment registered and did not receive any correspondence okay this is the DRP FY 26 operating plan and we have Mr McArdle good morning Madame vice mayor and council members Brian McCardle revitalization manager um I am here to present uh the downtown Reno Partnerships annual Opera budget uh and assessment plan uh at this time I would like to invite Yoma jarden executive director of The Downtown Arena partnership for them to give their uh annual update and budget report before we do that do we have any disclosures I have a disclosure um Madam mayor fellow council members and Madam clerk I am disclosing that I serve on the board of directors of the Dr downtown Reno business improvement district DRP and nonprofit Des designated by city council to implement a clean and safe program of safety ambassadors and maintenance workers throughout downtown Reno item D7 involves the potential acceptance of the drps FY 2026 downtown Reno business improvement district operating plan budget and annual assessment rate adjustment on this matter I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office the city council me to the DRP board of directors as a director I have a per se commitment in a private capacity to the interests of the DRP pursuant to NRS 281 a656 in addition I am a bid rate payer and I have a pecuniary interest in the assessment the DRP provides clean and safe services that would otherwise fall to the city to provide because the drps interest goals and operations closely aligned with the city's interest goals and operations my commitment in a PR capacity to the interests of the DRP would not clearly and materially affect the independence of Judgment of a re reasonable person in my position while I have a pecuniary interest in the assessment the resulting benefit of detriment Ur uring to me will not be greater than that uring to any other member of the bid in a similar rate tier the fact that I am a rate paay will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon these agenda items mam clerk please Lodge this disclosure on the record I will be participating on this item thank you council member Jordan thank you thank youo that was a long one good morning everybody uh my name is NoMa jarden I'm the executive director of the downtown Reno partnership and we are very excited to be with you today to give a quick look back at our last year and a quick look forward of what of what we're planning to to do in the coming year I did want to before we we got going to do some quick introductions of part of the team that came with me here today we have our board uh chair Tony Marini is with us here today our vice chair um I think he's in route right now additionally we have a number of our ambassadors that are with us here today just to answer questions and they are the true heroes of downtown I'll be here presenting but they're the ones that uh should get all of the praise for any thing we do here today so thank you again Madame mayor vice mayor council uh members and city manager I want to do a quick reminder of what our boundaries are and what governs us we cover 110 block area of downtown reeno we are the only business improvement district in the state of Nevada although there are 1,600 business Improvement districts Across the Nation we are the only one in the state of Nevada we've been around we're in our seventh year and we were formed in 2018 through a a group of really invested downtown stakeholders and this body and uh it's been a great 7 years we are a 501 C6 nonprofit We are not a government entity um and we are governed by a 17 member board here the picture that you'll see before you is just a quick map of what our boundaries are it is a very large District that goes from Wells to the East Keystone to the West the southern end of UNR to the north all the way down to California Avenue to the South so we cover a large area here you'll see some familiar faces on this list they represent distinct districts or um different segments of downtown and uh they are our 17 member board that helps govern everything that we do here's some more of our members very excited to say we have a very active board we have four residential Representatives um that live downtown we have two designated residential Representatives and the two electeds live downtown as well so our current fiscal year what have we been up to what are our numbers we currently have 32 ambassadors that work 247 this is nearly triple the number of ambassadors when this entity was initially formed why is this important is because when it was formed it was the first one nobody really knew what the benefits would be uh how well it would be received and what sort of significant impacts it would have and and as you can see over time the demand for the services of our ambassadors has increased and the downtown Renault partnership has responded to the requests of our constituents and the downtown stakeholders and we now have 32 ambassadors 10 security guards which I'll go into a little bit more that was a new ENT U um initiative that was launched in the fall and again we Patrol on foot in vehicles on bikes and you'll see them all throughout the 110 block area just just some quick stats we'll go into some of these as we go forward the significance of what the ambassadors do 24 hours a day 7 days a week um I want to pull out a couple here that I think from a service standpoint standpoint are really important over 1,400 rides that the ambassadors give to shelters and services um in the last year and that averages out to about four rides per day so what are we giving rides to everything from shelter to the DMV Social Security to uh maybe rehab facilities all the social service entities that we coordinate with is who we transport individuals to and we are averaging four per day this is really significant you'll see some pictures that's uh pretty awesome as we go forward over 1100 shopping carts have been recovered and returned to their rightful owners and and off the streets and again removing the shopping carts helps the individuals get into Services you can't get into a shelter any service with a shopping cart and over 20 uh 236,000 lbs of trash that was collected if you stacked that trash in 50 gallon bags High it would stack higher than a commercial airline flies so it's a large amount and we do over 32,000 business property and residential check-ins um every day they're going in and check in with the shopkeepers on what's going on I'm just going to run through some photos of some of the stuff that we do every day again the significance of how much we recover and dispose of is tremendous removing graffiti again if you remove it quickly it doesn't proliferate so we're out there seeking graffiti removing it and getting it off of our streets and public spaces uh again the shopping carts we clean them out we get them through a great partnership with the City of Reno and they return them to their shopping centers pressure washing we have scheduled pressure washing we coordinate with the City of Reno they have certain streets uh and Alleyways that they pressure wash and we coordinate so that we are augmenting those services and not duplicating it and we uh have scheduled pressure washing but we also have on call so if you see something that's kind of messy it needs to be pressure washed give us a ring over 32,000 business residential and property check-ins here's just some photos when they go in they you there's nothing better than talking to someone who is behind a counter to find out what's going on on the streets they will tell you the Good the Bad and the Ugly and we're there to to help mitigate things before they become bigger things so we have great relationships with our shopkeepers and our residents here's what I referred to about transports this was a recent uh every Wednesday we take individuals to the DMV this was five individuals I think it was two Wednesdays ago that we transported the DMV and helped them get the necessary ID and license shes that they needed again just some more before and afters of some Alleyway that this is a common occurrence that can proliferate really quickly and we get there and we clean it up and dispose of it as quickly as possible just some more West Plaza again I like this photo it shows some cleaning of a park but it also shows the really cool new trash cans that are along the Riverwalk those are working out beautifully by the way and here uh along the riverbank I know the water quality along our river is tremendously important this one we pulled this photo out because it took a 22t ladder uh repelling down the side of this building in order to get the to this location to remove this trash and they got down there and removed I think 18 bags of trash one of the big things that we launched fall of 2024 was our security guard program we currently have 10 security guards that Patrol 247 in hotspot locations and what they do is they position themselves as a deterrent and a prevention of certain activities that have been identified in certain areas and we are seeing great benefit with these security guards it's that in between there's not enough police they're going to higher levels of calls but being able to engage the security guard when needed and particularly to use them as a deterrent in hotspot areas is really proving to be very beneficial really does increase the feeling of safety for all those that are walking or living downtown and according to uh Arena police there has been a reduction in the calls that we're having to make to RPD because of the security guards so they have really been a great addition to our ambassador team we rolled out our positively downtown campaign often time I think you all know that sometimes negative can take the fast lane and positive can take the scenic route well we want to make sure that everybody understands all of the positive things that are going on downtown we want to shout from the rooftops the 15 new businesses that opened this last year we want to tell the stories of the residents and those investing in and the great things that are going on so we launched this uh last year and now you're going to start to see us put some resources behind it tell some more stories and really push out this positiv downtown campaign uh in the last year Nathan dangi in our office launched our inaugural state of downtown report when you're talking about wanting additional retail and services in downtown the first thing that any retailer is going to ask is show me the data show me what the demographics say show me what your residential units are tell me where it's trending and then we'll talk so we developed this this is a one M radius from the Reno Arch and it'll give you every bit of information you could possibly want which helps investors developers and businesses to answer those questions and attract investment in our downtown we're in the process of up updating this and Nathan has been going around to different Brokers and Realtors to share this information so that they have it at their fingertips when they're meeting with potential uh investors additionally Kristen sabini who is our assistant executive director and runs our social media is here with us today if you're not following us on our social channels please do we share a ton of information about all the businesses events and things going on downtown and as you can see the numbers of those engaging with our social Outreach or our uh social media campaigns and our website has increased tremendously uh Instagram is up 143% our newsletters are getting opened at a very high rate and you're just seeing some direct searches of our website that are pretty T tremendous so I encourage everybody to uh follow us on social and again we are highlighting between 11 and 13 businesses or events every single month so we're not just telling our story we're telling all the businesses in downtown story and we're highlighting all the great things that they have going on additionally if you've seen some curbs lately they're getting a refresh they uh needed some additional chipping off of some old paint and some refreshed there's a great partnership with the City of Reno we help to remove the old paint and the city's coming behind us and and putting some fresh paint down continue coordinated with City walks this was the brainchild of city manager uh Jackie Bryant that launched a few years back and it was so successful that it has branched out into Citywide we still do these a couple days the week and they are really pulling together all the different departments and individuals to address things real time and the value of these City walks I can't emphasize it also shows the community that we are one we're working together we understand that we're all going to rise together and Revitalize Iz together or not so uh these walks have been really helpful addition to our vacant storefront beautification program we put the screening up around what was the old heresite now revision revision I think that's the name of the new entity coming in really excited we we put this up to screen this uh property that was unfortunately went into bankruptcy and was closed for a while uh we are excited that hopefully very soon we will be taking the SCP raining down because that project is out of bankruptcy and is beginning to move again and the importance of this two mega blocks of downtown coming back to life uh is pretty tremendous we hosted roll and Reno if you came down to our roller skating event we had over 700 people that came had a great time had food enjoyed themselves what we heard from everybody was more of this we want more of this I think the Western Lights was another thing where you show if you if you create it if you build it they will come and this was one of those that the Community whatever the demographic really enjoyed it so we are you'll see in our future thing we're we're planning to expand this and do this more we support all sorts of downtown events the brewery District City of Reno Western Lights and the Riverwalk you'll see us at all these events I love to point the photo out uh from Western Lights this is Naomi deer's photo to me this was just such a great councilwoman doers photo such a great picture because it showed the art and the people and I mean I know there was almost 60,000 people that came down but this is what what the potential of downtown has and I think everybody saw that through some of these special events we still continue our lunch and learns we do them in different District areas the Riverwalk the brewery District um we do Residential we just did another residential lunch and learn allows us to really dive into the specific issues uh or items within a district and they get to not only hear about what we've got going on we get to hear from them but they get to talk with each other sometimes there's not a forum where business can talk to business about what's going on in their District how can we come together and lift our area up a little bit more so it's proving to not only be information sharing but also Coalition building Ambassador Event support we're at every special event you name it we're there we're patrolling it helping to clean up greeting guests and uh guiding people through these special events which uh have the numbers keep going up here's some of those numbers you can see we have recovered from the pandemic with regards to foot traffic at our special events here's just a few of them that just show the numbers continue to go up which tells you people want to get out they want to create memories they want to have social interactions they want to experience the great things of downtown you just have to present it for them they'll come downtown developments when we were here before you last year I think every one of these pictures was in its groundbreaking stage or just was framed out so you can see some of these great developments here that are either open or opening soon and the impacts that they're going to have on uh the additional housing uh the retail the experiences in downtown and these are just a few of them but you can see that these uh from last year to this year it's kind of neat to see in photo form how they've evolved Nathan dangi and our office tracks all of that information if you ever need anything about foot traffic developments Economic Development he can help you with that Pavilion B where we are currently located uh there are two buildings the old bus station this old building on the left you'll see it was is heavily water damaged we have renovated it are expanding into it back to that slide before where we have 32 ambassadors we have outgrown our space and we are moving additionally into this space um why do I bring this up because we are activating another previously empty blighted building so it will be lit up people coming in and out of it and we all want to see more of that downtown we can also hold large 25 person meetings in in the space where we'll be able to attract uh retail Investments downtown we'll have a space where we can sit down with them show them the parcels talk to them and we have a location to do that now okay the arpa funding the co relief funding that the city was so gracious to grant us here is a uh just a rendering of what your believe Plaza is going to look like this summer so we are planning to move our roller skating to this location and this space will have roller skating 5 days a week and it's my understanding that the city is also going to be activating the other two so seven days a week this summer you're going to see this space activated so we're excited to move forward with Roland Reno at this new location with food and drink and food trucks and vendors and a really cool experience additionally we're planning some crosswalk art some signage shural and some parklets so stay tuned as we move forward you're going to see more of this so looking ahead what do we want to do in the next year we would like to increase our ambassador Staffing by six to8 individuals fiscally this doesn't have a huge impact on our budget because of our turnover level and our salary savings we're really just over hiring so that when we are down employees we actually have additional positions to fill in 110 blocks even with 32 or 42 individuals that's a lot of ground and on average there's only about one and a half Ambassador per 12 you know uh 12 block areas so by adding ambassadors we can cover more ground offer more services additionally we currently have the 10 security guards we would like to increase that by two so again we can have more than just two security guards on at each shift and really add one more during our peak times of swing and weekend positively downtown already talked about this we're going to push this out we're also going to seek some grants to have even a further reach Virginia Street this is a canva drawing so don't please don't hold us to what this this looks like this was our this was our Christen did an excellent job of doing some canva clip art to try to give you a potential visual what this mic look like there's new trash cans all throughout downtown more uh being deployed every day and we're going to add some planters and Life to Virginia Street to add some color and vibrancy this isn't just because we want to add plants it's uh International Downtown Association will tell you best practices is if you have a street that doesn't have any flowers or Greenery screams were closed if you have some Greenery and color and floral it says come on down we're open and we have a lot of things to be proud of and excited about downtown and we want to uh improve the aesthetic for those walking Virginia Street which is our highest traffic Street foot traffic this is a new program that uh when I go back to talk about the 15 businesses that opened in downtown Reno this last year probably you may not have heard of a few of them well we want to do and there are uh examples and and best practices Across the Nation is to go in to these businesses that we know are very focused on maybe doing their tenant improvements hiring their first level of employees trying to get their permitting and the things they need done and then all of a sudden their doors open and maybe not everybody knows about them maybe they're not familiar with the benefits of a social media campaign or how to boost something or to get some professional photos we want to go in and meet with these businesses before their doors even open and do a matching grant program that says we want to have you be as successful as you can be we're going to work with you on how we can amplify the great things you're doing to make sure that the entire community and region knows you're here we want you to stay here we want to find creative ways to do this so we are uh building this program out it will evolve as we move forward but our board has approved putting some investment behind this to help our small businesses uh let everybody know they're here again through our arpa funding just some more visuals that you can see some of the things that we're planning to do some little parklets and different things fusus the fusus cameras which has you guys have been given a number of presentations from RPD on the benefits of the fuses camera to helping for crime prevention and crime solving we are investing in helping to make sure that the bid doesn't have gaps of coverage so what we're doing is with RPD we're we're going through and saying where are the fusus cameras planned where do they currently exist and where are the gaps where can we step in and help with the with the fusus camera system so that there is a broad coverage for our Reno Police Department to have the necessary tools for them to solve crime so we're doing that our bid assessment here is our rate table you'll see since Inception our our rates really haven't changed and what the assessment payers are uh charged we did last year we reduced our assessment rate by the maximum of allowable within the formula which was 5% and our board recognizing the economic conditions that we are still in and coming out of want to hold that 5% reduction for this year so uh we are keeping that reduction in place and we are seeing that um assessment revenues are are just relatively flat just like you all get with your numbers everything flat seems to be the word of the year and again for those that don't know residents pay uh a reduction they pay 85% of the standard rate and nonprofits pay 50% here is our budget 3988 million is our overall budget again only a very slight increase from last year there were some new developments that opened up that uh increased it a very small amount compared to last year you can see our program services and our operating expenses and our supplemental maintenance that we pay to the City of Reno for some augmented um maintenance in downtown Reno so with that that here's our socials again please follow us lots of information that we share and questions thank you councilwoman Jan tried to be brief tried okay um I see council member Ebert's hand up sorry can you hear me yes great um I I know I've taken my family down to some events you guys have put on downtown and they were all really wonderful very successful I have a question on um maybe just ideas that we could add to some downtown events I've spoken with some constituents that have some great ideas that we could do at local um facilities downtown who could they reach out to to share this kind of um information with um always reach out to us even if it's not on a space that we control we can definitely coordinate on on how they might be able to um facilitate those special events I do know that uh the city has some large augmented special events coming over the next uh summer uh next two summers in particular but always open to hear anybody's ideas we always love to hear these so they can reach out to us at the downtown Reno partnership and and answer those questions and how would they do that just to your website or Is there our phone number listed that people can call in yes website is best and we have all of our phone numbers listed there but anytime they they have a question they can they're always welcome to call me or or call our our main line and it's on our website great thank you I think that's it for now I might have others later thank you I don't see other hands raised council members uh council member dur uh thank you council member former council member Jordan um really thorough and good presentation I've really enjoyed working with you on this project the the small amount of interactions we've had thank you for sharing my photo but I think it's emblematic of what you're trying to do to to council member Ebert's point the the events are so important for downtown to bring people downtown they need to have a reason to come and they need to feel safe and you're working on both of those why come and how do we make you feel safe so whether it's working with our Reno Police Department our code enforcement um our clean and safe teams you know Etc um you are slowly but surely getting there now it is it is harm by some of the businesses that are closing and we have active program of um facade improvements and those kind of things that's come under recent question uh as to whether well uh you know what's going on and I recently had a chance to talk to um Ashley tney who's over our business development and I know that um while 250 businesses May close 260 open in Reno in other words these are not the exact numbers they close but maybe 280 open the point is is about 10% more open than Clos and I think it's important too to get that message out um you you know we've recently heard about Harris and the reinvestment being considered there um which sounds like a really exciting development but I just want to encourage you to keep on keeping on I know it's hard work it's a big lift um one thing I was a little confused about earlier I know that we cut out the line item to pay for additional police services and I I have heard from some business businesses or some actually residents that the police are so stretched RPD is so stretched that they have a trouble calling about crimes that are happening even you know if they're non-property damaged crimes or let's say life life damaging crimes um they maybe put it on a second burner but what is the relationship could you just explain it just I mean it's complicated it's changed over time and I would hope that you could just help us kind of tease it apart a little of course so uh first off we have a great relationship with Reno Police Department I am in communication with them daily we meet weekly we coordinate and collaborate on what they're experiencing what we're seeing and how we can best work together to solve the issues uh that may be presenting themsel downtown we have a great relationship with Reno Police Department so the uh supplemental police funding was only contractually for the first three years of the contract so as as you can imagine um I'm not going to speak for certainly the Reno Police Department but they are the ones that deploy police in the areas and in the ways in which that they find most beneficial and are the most effective I think the Deeds program has proven to be very beneficial and you can see this um this last year there was more police according to RPD in some of the public meetings we've had there's been more police presence in downtown Reno in the last year than there was years prior so that's without the supplemental police funding so what we did understanding the police are stretched so thin and they need to be moved around at the chief's and the leadership's discretion we and many cities Across the Nation particularly post pandemic did this they enlisted security guards okay security guards can be positioned in a manner and in a way and be managed that is fits that in between and so that's what a lot of bids are moving towards understanding the police are stretched about as thin as they can be but to think that a some sort of deficit because of the supplemental police funding um the last year would tell you that's not true okay thank you council member ree thank you madam vice mayor council member Jordan and thank you so much for the presentation always a privilege to hear what's going on I want to also thank Nathan and Kristen for a lot of the work that they're doing all of your team does your ambassadors who many of them are here um I try to be downtown as often as possible and what I will say is in the last several years and it coincides with your arrival at the DRP um what I notice is just an increased sense of Vitality in downtown um I had some folks who were here from out of town this last weekend and they were lighting up the arch this weekend for international women's day and the comment that I got from a couple of the people um was that they walked all throughout downtown for two days they had never seen a cleaner downtown um then that what they saw they said sort of the Comet was in no shade to another city but they said why can't La be like this uh and so I think probably you don't hear enough of the nice things that people are saying and most of us hear most of the complaints and it's just the nature of the job it's okay but I want you to know that your team is making a measurable difference I also think it was um every time I go to an event uh a a new apartment center opening a restaurant opening um your team is there and they have rolled out the blue carpet um and it's also very encouraging because uh people want to see that level of engagement right it's not just you extending your hand one way and receive nothing in return they're both hands extending to towards one another so thank you for that uh the slide that I was most interested in the presentation uh had to do with some of the activation programming and I know that this Council has really focused on activation uh the Western Lights Festival of course phenomenal uh success home run uh Rachel and her team uh at the city did a really good job and of course you all did a good job uh we want to see more of those kind of things and of course there's a cost that come with that I think that that probably cost somewhere in the neighborhood of $400,000 very expensive to undertake but when you think about the scope of something like that you're really talking about why it costs that much and and you can't just say we're going to invite people down here randomly one weekend to set up a food truck here and there it really has to be a massing of them um the roller skating can you just talk about that a little bit more because I went to the annual the initial event last year that sparked the idea um it was wall to wall people could not even participate because we had had you know reached its capacity um but maybe um our stff sta will be so kind as to put that slide picture back up and you can tell us a little bit more about that but again kudos to all of your team I know that Mr buw came in after you made some kind introductions um a number of your folks are here to support the mission so we're happy to have them as always uh first and foremost I like I said earlier and thank you very much for pointing out the good work of our ambassador team again I get to stand up here and give the presentations could you please indulge me and just could we have our ambassador staff stand up hey you're [Applause] here 247 out there doing tough work and tough conditions so thank you and they're always smiling every time I talk with one of them they're got a good attitude they're really working hard it can be cold outside but their hearts are very warm and so I appreciate them all so very much very very uh compassionate and effective group and and our organization would not be what it is without them so kudos to all of them um so the roller skating it was such a big success last year and if you came uh particularly our second roller skating event we almost had to close it down because there was too many people they were spilling out onto the sidewalks and even the streets and I thought fire department was going to come and say you guys got to watch it out there's too many people and um we had outgrown that space and the demand was there the feedback was phenomenal roller skating is just a universally loved and growing Sport and recreational activity and so we have partnered with the space of the City of Reno and Brighton Dennison who does a lot of great special events um all over the city and we will be expanding into this space so that we have more things to eat more things to drink more space to skate uh more things visually to experience and to do it five days a week for uh two months out of the summer so you're going to see this for two months and again your space is going to be activated the other two days as I understand so you're going to you're going to have activations here uh your believe Plaza 7 days a week and then you've got Locomotion Plaza that's getting activated your Wester Plaza is getting activated so some spaces that have traditionally been hit and miss activations you're going to see really come to life this summer and and what is the approximate date of when you hope to launch that I knew you were going to ask me that June 2 no a I think it's the second week second week of June as the weather warms up yes we wanted to wait school was out we wanted to get yes and so that it will be the second week awesome can't wait I'll have my RO SK on skate rentals you'll be able to get everything you need there council member Ebert hello I'm here sorry technical difficulties um I had a question about um the turnover with downtown businesses it's great to know that we have more opening than closing but are there things that DRP is doing to help the businesses we have stay open so we don't have that kind of turning effect can they reach out to you and say hey um I know we have the bigger events but is it possible to hold smaller events at specific um businesses downtown to to keep those going so kind of smaller scale and this is kind of what I was getting to earlier um smaller scale events that um these businesses can reach out to you for for extra support on specifically absolutely thank you very much councilwoman Ebert for for the question I pulled up slide 35 to respond to exactly what you're commenting about and what we hear from a lot of our businesses is we we want you to help amplify what we are doing so we already have a community calendar and people are welcome to add all of their events that they are hosting at their facilities on our calendar we also push that information out through our social media channels but this this new in initiative uh what we're really wanting to do is to take that even further we want to do some paid placements we want to do some boosting of some of the things that they have going on and we really want to amplify their existence and the great things they have going on we already do it to a large degree but we want to put some additional funding behind it to push it out and sponsor it we did find when we did we did a boosted post we did a test of a boosted post um when there was some news about uh a business or two that was closing we put a post together Kristen did of all the things that had opened and we put some money behind it and we boosted it and I got to tell you that was one of the highest engaged posts we had so what that tells me is the community is eager for the positive they want to hear about the good things the negative may receive all the comments on social media but the people that are going to come down frequent the locations they want to know about it they want to frequent it they want to make it a success so we're putting some dollars behind that to help the individual businesses do that and and council member eert we're going to customize it based upon the business again come to our website reach out and uh we will do everything we can to assist great great so there will be that not just helping schedule event but also that social media uh push to get more um participation that's great thank you so much you bet okay council members I think we're looking for a motion to accept the report second all those in favor I I I all those opposed motion carries thank you so much thank you for all your hard work really appreciate it thank you very much we will move on to item D5 the legislative update Madam clerk we have no public comment registered and we did not receive any correspondence okay hello Nick hello Kelly morning mayor and Council Nick Sone government Affairs manager for the office of policy and strategy for the record uh today I'm going to give you an update on uh the legislative work we've done and during the legislative session so far so the alignment with the Strategic plan um as uh per the Strategic platform as well as the uh legislative platform uh based on our daily work that we're doing down in Carson it's supposed to be based on what the council's priorities have been throughout um all of the Strategic plan and again that islative platform that was adopted on January 12th so key dates and Milestones today is day 38 uh the next major Milestones that you'll see are March 17th so um there will be a big flurry of bills coming out between now and Monday um all individual legislators will have to get their bills out before then and then April 11th will be first house committee passage so that'll be um really it's time that you see a lot of bills kind of drop off because they haven't gotten a hearing or they have not passed out of the Comm the the first house committee so major themes with local impacts housing and homelessness land use and planning Public Safety and criminal justice workers comp and employee benefits and then other bills of Interest really this is not everything um I couldn't possibly include all the 350 plus bills that were following already um but I did want to kind of touch on some of the major things that we've been working down on down in Carson uh so assembly Bill 62 expands the state credits for affordable housing currently there are about $40 million in uh state tax credits for affordable housing this would expand it to 100 million we supported that bill AB 317 um the intent from that sponsor was to give cities or counties a new power to kind of provide housing to the unhoused um but the way that's written we think it conflicts with some of the projects that we're already doing so we opposed that bill um it would have required that like uh housing for the unhoused have porches doesn't have a kitchen and favor a community kitchen and she's been really willing to work with us and understand are concerns there AB 366 makes changes to the Supportive Housing Grant fund last session uh a Supportive Housing Grant fund was made this just makes it clear that if the money is not spended this fiscal spent this fiscal year uh it would not revert to the general fund so that money will continue um being available for any project that might be might need it Senate Bill 28 we supported that one that is the city of Las Vegas's bill which would allow tax increment financing for affordable housing uh we testified that we probably wouldn't use that portion of the bill but it does expand upon the um allowable area median income that we could wave fees for affordable housing development from 60% to 120% so just more tools in the toolbox for the city uh sb51 is the account for help that is the League's bill that would provide $20 million for cities and counties to be reimbursed if they uh wave sewer connection F fees building permit fees etc for affordable housing uh that bill is actually scheduled for March 17th and again that's the League's bill so the executive director director for the league will be there um to present that bill s SP uh 283 would be the rental assistance funding bill uh this is the Senate side's version I think there will be another uh Bill coming out of the assembly but this would give $24 million to Clark County $6 million to Reno and $3 million to Sparks and then s289 uh is the affordable housing authorization for local governments for background this was a bill from last session I believe it was SB 371 uh it was vetoed by the governor but is intended to give cities and counties the ability to do anything related to affordable housing initially from last session it actually had included the term rent control but that was removed by um amendment a96 is a heat mitigation element and master plan uh that was heard originally we opposed the bill just because it would been impossible to implement by the effective date um the sponsor accepted our Amendment and gave us a little bit more time to implement that AB 131 would require us to pass an ad ordinance for historic properties um the problem with this bill is that it defines any building over 50 years old as a historic property um I think some feedback that we've gotten from the community and um based on the fact that we're going through an ad ordinance right now uh we suggest that we oppose this bill because it's preempting our Authority and might get in the way of um what we're currently doing with our community AB 185 requires cities to pass an ordinance to allow for child care facilities in any residentially zoned area um we're working on an amendment to make it clear that we can still use the discretionary approval process that we use uh the reason that we um are doing that is so that we can make it clear that um the way the bill was originally worded uh you might have a child care facility next to a cannabis establishment and we don't necessarily want that we want the city council and the city to still have control of that AB 241 would require cities to pass an ordinance that allows for mixed use residential and commercially zoned properties we recommend we oppose this it's very prescriptive it goes into the land use and Zoning um um Power that are traditionally a city council or Planning Commission power um part of the problem with this is one uh it creates another expedited process which means it would be a staff review only um and we believe that the city council or the Planning Commission and the public should have a right to know what's being built around them and then also it seemingly only has an appeals process where you would go through the county as the bill is written so if a if the city denied an application someone would go to the county and say that they didn't like what the city had done so we're going to work with a bill sponsor to clarify some of that s sp48 um originally that bill um is worded to U require a bunch of things related to our master plan it also makes some zoning changes for Southern Nevada uh we'd just like to kind of see some of that become permissive so that we don't have an unfunded mandate coming from um the city of Las Vegas or one of our regional partners and uh we are looking at amending that to include some of the language about co-terminus uh Planning Commission uh terms as well as um like I said getting rid of some of that um some of those requirements in our master plan a102 would allow Northern NADA Public Health to license EMS Personnel uh for background Southern Nevada Health District already does this if the Northern Nevada Public Health Board of Health decided to take on that responsibility they could but it would have to take an affirmative vote in order to do that so we recommend we support that just gives more local control AB 168 changes to allow bikes to yield instead of stop at stop signs originally the bill was um written to include ebikes and E Scooters uh we were able to work with the bill sponsor to make it clear that that only applies to bikes ab291 requires automatic record ceiling uh this would be about a $300,000 fiscal impact to the city and will require three different uh three additional um full-time employees for uh the municipal court so we recommend to oppose and uh we did oppose that bill um last week bdr 422 um we haven't seen the actual introduced language but I did want to put this one on radar this is the automated uh automated traffic enforcement speed speeding cams red light cams Etc um we don't necessarily have a position on this but I did want to put it on your radar as it has been something a topic of discussion by the council s SP 199 is very specific but it prohibits the use of AI for generating police reports we recommend we oppose that um and hopefully we can work with a sponsor to make it more clear what AI can be used for and what AI cannot be used for sb28 um originally that Bill had actually taken away the power to use e911 search charge funds for body cameras uh the the bill sponsor has um completely gotten rid of that and actually changed the bill to just allow um the ending fund balance for the e911 SE charge um to increase for waso County as well as Clark County SB 319 is Senator DA's fire bill um we're excited that he's introduced this piece of legislation it was just introduced yesterday um so we're still pending revieww hasn't actually been sent out to fully um look at all that but the the general um consensus or what that bill does it continues to have um the power or give the power to the local government and the locality to kind of make that decision and it also would require us to do a study to examine the feasibility and the effectiveness of a Consolidated fire district ab93 uh this is this would expand workers compensation for Harden lung to Marshals and fire investigators uh we don't necessarily have position on it but I didn't want to put these on your radar just as they um have large costs to the city I believe the fiscal note for this one was $1 million and again just because we put a fiscal note on something does not necessarily mean we oppose it but I do think it's important that you're informed about that ab42 expands mental stress statute to include civilian police department employees um from my understanding they're going to kind of hone this one down to just be crime scene investigators but the current fiscal impact would be $1 million per year and then s sp170 expands required testing uh for annual exams for all firefighters to look for cancer um or other types of diseases and again uh that one would cost about $600,000 per fiscal year altogether if you look at some of the unfunded mandates um with these additional benefits or other things coming from the legislature I think it's about $3.5 million that uh would impact the city's budget for this next fiscal year um other bills of interest ab61 is Sparks toll road bill um that was heard we don't necessarily have a position on that one but I did just want to put that on your radar that that bill has been heard AB 1880 a sidewalk vendor ordinance change that bill would require cities and counties to come up with multi-jurisdictional business licensing for sidewalk vendors as well as food truck vendors um we were able to work with the bill sponsor to really hone in and say you know Northern Vada has done a really good job based on the um changes that were required last time with Senate Bill 92 uh and they are willing to work with us and have actually Exempted Washo County from the bill entirely so we will continue to be in charge of our destiny there the other thing I will say um there has been discussion from this Council about the 1500 foot requirement from different facilities I did ask in good good faith that that might be something they willing to tackle this session I don't think it is but it might be something we can tackle in a future session AB 197 imposes civil penalties for failing to redact nonprofit information from public records uh we're working with the bill sponsor to make it clear that that would have to be willful or gross negligence just because we don't want the city or um individual employees to be at risk for that AB 256 a regional rail Transit working group that's heard we supported it um and it would have some representation uh this is not meant to be duplicative of what the RTC is currently doing but is meant to kind of share that information across the state and then s SP 145 I apologize for the typo makes appr appropriation to the Leer theater about $12.5 million contingent upon the city being able to match those funds and that is not yet scheduled and there's my presentation thank you Nick council members I do not see uh council member ree thank you so much and I apologize my system just reloading thank you Mr saone for the update sounds like things are moving fast and furious and Carson as they often do if you would go back to the slides which identify um I did have a question not on this slide um not on oh yes Senator DA's fire bill so SP 319 so I read it as enrolled yesterday um and I think it's um a great opportunity for us to continue this discussion in Carson City uh what is the timeline for such a bill meaning it was enrolled and and I suppose read yesterday and then how how goes it it's got to get to its committee next or working group the next thing it has to do is go to a committee for a bill hearing um as I mentioned the next major deadline where you'll start to see bills drop off is April 11th so it has to pass out of that committee unless there's an exemption made by the majority leader um by April 11th okay and that that would be the next step and then uh I can't remember the deadline for the second house committee pass in your conversations with our our friends in Carson City um has this bill yet come up are you having conversations about it with our uh Senate delegation I think we were waiting to see the the bill language before we took any kind of active position based on uh the information that Senator Dy had shared with us and based on uh what the three jurisdictions had uh the conversations the three jurisdictions had had previous I I think it's so critically important let's go now to the slide before this not this one the oh I wanted to ask about AB 185 so child care and child care uh costs are just astronomical it's it's really a burden to our families um at every level of the socioeconomic scale but especially for folks who are really working uh sometimes working two jobs and quite frankly the cha the cost of child care uh becomes more than those two jobs it it's crazy to me I have a niece and nephew who are two and uh six months and Mom is really struggling to be able to figure this out so why why are we opposing this and and I don't understand the aster and and what is this about I know the general presumption is that we don't like anybody at the state to tell us what to do locally so is that our general presumption as to why we're opposed that is part of the reason also I will say assembly member Anderson has been incredibly good to work with on this and we have made a lot of progress we just want to work out the definitions so U to your point about child care facilities or maybe daycare that an individual is looking for um that's not how the bill is currently written and we just want to hone in the definitions to really fix that problem and not necessarily let like um some other type of facility be um required to be built in any residential area without review by the council thank you so much um keep me post on this one because the issue is a critical important it's very difficult for folks to enter the workforce stay in the workforce and balance the competing needs of child care costs and so we exist in a a way in Reno that is not overly involved in child care but we have vacation Station we have some programming through our par and wre which is functionally an element of that and so I just want to make sure that we know what we're doing there and so I'd like just to to know what's going on and just one more thing there the bulk of the bill is really targeted at HOAs or making sure that in H can't actually prevent Child Care Facilities being built in and that's not a role that the city traditionally takes on or or plays a part in um so I'm really hopeful that um after he gets out of his first house we can support it in the second house council member Anderson yes thanks for the update Nick um just one question about the um SB was that 319 the fire bill is there anything that we can be doing to help Senator Senator Dy or your team to move this along we're just really grateful that he introduced it grateful for the opportunity to open up the conversation and find all the areas that we can work together and move this forward is there can we do anything to help you or Senator Dy at this point I appreciate that I think we just need to continue having those discussions with our regional Partners as as we review the bill and look at the operational impacts um as I mentioned this would require a study which I think is good for the whole region and that we can really look at the effectiveness and we're we continue to be in control of our our destiny in that in that way but I I'll can I will keep you posted as we see changes and potentially a scheduled hearing for that bill so Nick I have a question on SB 283 not necessarily a question but this is the rental assistance program um we at the City of Reno and I the city of Sparks have seen tremendous success in this program so I know it's not scheduled right now what are the next steps for that and I would just say um this this is something that really helps all of the people in our region and it's extremely important right now and I know you know that too but if it if anybody's listening out there we really appreciate the support and the the um the the program and it makes a big difference and we were able to um I think I don't know if anybody is here from our hand office but we had a great series on this that was that was covered locally so fantastic job yeah I think the great part about last session was coming back with that $3 million in rental assistance funding the excellent part about this bill is that it's being run by the Senate Majority Leader um so that's a good Ally to have uh and I believe that there will be a bill in the assembly that might also um have another way of funding uh rental assistance so we'll continue to watch that but I think we have some great allies really I think for any money ask I want to be very clear that we're not going to know anything until May based on the economic Forum update well thank you very much for your work council member dur oh thank you um couple leave these up if you would um first I want to say we've talked about this before but where you put a pose it would be really good to put like a slash and then put concern in other words to to council member re's earlier point about you know why should we oppose a bill on uh you know daycare or child care no that that just seems wrong but we're concerned about the bills it's written right and so I I've talked you about it before but even on this presentation it' be helpful to have not just your little Aster but like something that says you know maybe uh just concern and so that really reflect what we're trying to do there um the second question about that bill I had was so there's also um schools uh or or uh for example in my own Ward there was recently a proposal for for a fa to turn a home into a um it wasn't posed as a daycare it was posed as I think a a school for 25 children or 30 children and is that different is daycare how how do you define these things so with the amendment that we were working on made it very clear in our conversations with assembly member Anderson that this was only about facilities that would serve no more than 12 children so I don't think that that facility would um be incorporated in this I got you and is there anything that defines daycare versus any other is there different categories that there might be a loophole think Administrative Code um and that's why we're really working on the definition to hone in on the daycare versus potentially the school that you all right then on a couple of these um well um I was wondering I know where they were going to this SP sp28 where they were going to expand um the lower Ami to up to 120% I think it was of Ami well let me just POS I you have support but I'm going to mention council member ree again he often ask could we get some lower housing 30% Ami 60% Ami and all is what you're saying what would be an example is this like a house that's more expensive that they could now be eligible for the vouchers is that it yeah that's correct so it would be up to 120% Ami so it just gives the city council more power to wave fees for potentially more of that attainable housing or Workforce housing that're to but they could use the like Section 8 waivers is that the idea here no this is for the sewer fee waivers or the building permit fee waivers that the city okay I understand and then would they actually on this last one 289 affordable housing authorization for local governments what actually is that I mean you say it's not scheduled it it is um a pretty simple bill it just says that a local government can do anything related to affordable housing oh period is that like they're fixed to say we could do rent control or something that is the attempt that is my understanding of the bill sponsors intent I mean that's been put out that there's been this back and forth legal opinion we can we can our attorneys say we can't the legislature says we can so this would give us specific authorization that is the bill sponsor intent to clarify that councilman Ebert yes thank you um I have a question on a couple of them but I can't um recall that the numbers on all of them so the um the um piece that uh Mr J is working on um was there any Outreach to City of Reno um prior to him kind of kicking this process off the senator had reached out about um the fire department and different issues that we might be facing related to the fire department but we weren't entirely sure what kind of piece of legislation he would be initially introducing okay so he wasn't you know directly in communication with us about the the desired result result before he started on this I think he understands our general um willingness and input uh or our willingness to have that local kind of control when we're talking about these conversations with our community uh and I think that's reflected in the bill okay great and does that also address any conflicts we may have with contracts with other agencies it would prohibit us from um kind of sharing um our resources and regionalizing take that sure hi councilman reer this is Jackie Bryant um it would not be addressed in the bill itself but we are aware of any obligations that we have and certainly would not um do anything to hamper those obligations okay um and then I also have a question about the child care piece is there any language in there regarding um routine um kind of uh inspections of these facilities I know Child Care is a huge need um my son recently had a daughter and that's a struggle they're facing with the um you know a baby that's only a few months old um but I want to make sure that children are safe too um so is there any kind of language in there that says that there could be maybe unannounced inspections or quarterly inspections or anything of that nature just to make sure our children um remain in safe environments that's part one and then part two is is there language in there about age limits because I also have some constituents that reach out to me um regarding their struggles um with adult children with disabilities that need to be in in daycare and just a struggles that they're having so is there any kind of provision in there for adult children that need to be um assisted during the day so this bill doesn't touch on uh either of those things currently the state is responsible for licensing child care facilities and we don't actually license them we just say where they could go um per our zoning zoning code um so I would say that's a responsibility of the state I believe that that's something they look at um but I can't speak directly for uh the department of Health and Human Services okay is that something that we could add in there just in the interest of Public Safety like I said I believe that that is a responsibility of the state already currently um but I'm happy to follow up with you after I I take a look at the administrative code and uh the statutes to see how uh the state handles that thank you I appreciate that and I don't expect you to know everything right now I'm just kind of throwing that out there um Council um council member Ebert we're uh moving on to other council members we can come back to you for another round I didn't realize my three minutes was up thank you that's okay council member ree did you have a question thank you madam vice mayor Mr Sone I just want to make very clear with you um My Hope Is that Senator DA's bill is successful and by success I measure that success as being um it benefits our community broadly and helps Washo County Sparks and the City of Reno to move towards a regionalized fire program I believe it is inconsistent with um our responsibilities to keep people safe that we have these siloing that happens our firefighters are fantastic as are the ones at other neighboring agencies I I would say ours are better because I'm like Madame mayor very competitive uh in that regard um but fire regionalization really should be the end goal how we get there whether Senator DA's bill is yet ready for Prime Time those are all things that I leave to your hands to navigate us through but I certainly support uh Senator d efforts uh and I'm interested to see where it happens to go um we have I think a critical time now uh with the backdrop of both the Los Angeles area fires our own fires that we've had here locally that were very nearly devastating to a huge portion of our population to explore the impact of fire regionalization and it should happen it should happen in this session it should happen in next session if it doesn't happen in this one it will be something that I will consistently advocate for from this Das and so I just want to make sure I'm very clear with you um and I believe that's what our colleagues on this body have directed uh and so how it is organized how it's paid for who does what with whom those are questions we must resolve but as a general statement please know that my position on the record with you is we should move towards regionalization of fire Services Madam May did you want to weigh in on it anything no all I just I want to say like every year how you doing I'm doing great it's an honor to represent the city and Carson City yeah you feel like you're you're getting your sea legs I I think that I feel much better equipped to tackle the task than I did um last session so it's been uh truly a pleasure okay good that's all I want to hear thanks for everything I appreciate you thank you councilwoman de yeah I don't know if I just missed this but did you specifically speak to Bill about um getting rid of the or resetting uh depreciation or property values on sale uh I did not cover that in my presentation but yes that bill does exist it's assembly joint resolution one assembly okay so is it scheduled for hearings or anything it is not currently they just vote on it they don't explain it if you could yeah so a bill will initially start off and go through the whole body and then it'll be directed to a committee this one would probably go to assembly Revenue yeah uh and then it'll have a work session then it'll go to the full assembly they'll vote on it then it'll go over to Senate and do the whole process again through go through the Committees uh and then it's just hasn't been scheduled for anything yet is that it okay thank you I mean I'll make a point as my colleague did that we desperately need it it came up at our last council meeting how very important it is to get this reset on sale um it was important before our budget was it's even more important now thanks yeah and as a followup to that will you please explain the length of time it will take for that joint resolution to become effective so that we manage expectations sure totally so this would have to pass out of the assembly and Senate this time it does not go to the governor because it's a joint resolution then it has to come back in 2027 to be voted on by the legislature again and then it'll go to the voters to change the constitution in 2028 okay council members I think we're moving on to accept the report motion to accept all those in favor I did have I did have um a second round okay council member Eber if you could maybe get it done in two minutes that would be fantastic okay thank you um so I just wanted to Circle back again on the fire bill I think we all agree that we want to provide the best level of service um for the community and I think it's um really important that waso County Sparks and Reno have adequate representation in this process so we're we're highly involved in this um I do also want to ask if uh all of waso county is included as in um uh Lake Tahoe areas sorry was that a question are you asking if uh Lake Taho is included what is what is considered Regional what what is the definition this would include the trucky Meadows Fire Protection District so it does not touch on Tahoe okay okay um I just think it's important to be clear on that when we say regionalization between waso County Sparks and Reno um the other piece I I just want to add is we have um relationships with different groups I'll just mention Rema um that do different services for different regions so I know that there will be um conversations about if there's any changes in those um Services um so I just want to make sure everybody's aware of like the scope of this but also um I wanted to ask if this included a separate funding mechanism for this group that'll be part of the study to look at how that funding mechanism would work okay and um I know again we've given direction that we want to provide services across the region but we also are all pretty aware that there that there used to be kind of that shared service in the area and there was what everyone calls a divorce so I just want to make sure that we kind of avoid the same mistakes again um whether it's true or not some of the information I've got is um some groups didn't feel like they were properly represented or had enough um kind of say in what happened in their regions so I just want to make sure that we support the best way to move forward even if that just means agreed autom Mutual Aid and we retain our IND idual fire departments thank you council member e open to the definition of regionalization that it's maybe not necessarily um the same format as we have thank you council member Ebert Nick did you thank you do you have Direction on that yes I okay so we had a motion in a second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much and um Council we need to reopen reconsider item D7 because we need to re the motion differently Cal move to reopen it I'm going to step out of the room oh oh you weren't here okay no sorry Madame vice mayor that was my mistake in not phising my motion well so I wanted to just uh ask that it be reconsidered and so that will be my current motion is the reconsideration of item um D7 D7 on the uh downtown Reno partnership and I second okay all those in favor I I I motion carries unanimously Madame vice mayor as to item D7 I uh move to adopt and accept the Reno downtown partnership FYI 2026 business improvement district operating plan and budget and proposed assessment rate and direct staff to file the preliminary assessment role with the city clerk second we have a motion a second all those in favor I I motion carries unanimously thank you very much um and Madame mayor we are on item D3 and I believe believe we're going to open the RDA at this time oh it's D3 and yeah R8 B1 give us just a second here while we open the RDA and we'll get do we need a call roll for the yes pleas call we are calling rooll for the Wednesday March 12 2025 Redevelopment agency board meeting vice mayor Taylor here council member derer here council member Martinez here council member eert here council member ree here council member Anderson here mayor shivi here you do have a quorum all right thank you so much we do not have anyone registered and we do not receive any correspondence okay thank you so much may you get approval of the agenda so moved second all say iOS motion carries so moved second I have a second all those in favor say I I motion carries was that a separate motion I'm sorry I don't know if I had technical difficulty I I didn't hear that one yes it's uh for the minutes oh okay thank you I um item A51 correct where are we items B1 and B1 yeah sorry we are all over the place yeah for the record we're going to hear item D3 on the council agenda and B 1 on the RDA agenda at this time perfect okay D3 and B1 are essentially together okay take it away excellent good morning Madame mayor and council members um for the record my name is Cameron amatti I'm an associate civil engineer in the public works department I have a short presentation that will cover what we are here for today where we are in the overall project schedule and our next steps for the Central Station project this item is on the regular Council agenda because they selected the construction manager at risk and the Redevelopment agency agenda because that is where the funding is coming from for this portion of the project the Central Station project fits these goals responding to the city strategic plan this is the overall Central Station project that we have shared with Council previously phase one of this project is complete which consisted of the preliminary design of the facility and the selection of a construction manager at risk Core Construction we are now in phase two which includes final design abatement and demolition of the existing police station today we are here for Award of a contract for demolition of the old police station building at 455 East Second Street this slide photo here shows the location where the work for this project is being performed now that the building is vacant at 455 East 2 Street and asbestos abatement has been completed this project scope of work includes the demolition of the building and earthor to build the site back up to grade this work is needed to protect the site from potential vandalism the potential unlawful occupation of a vacant building on city property removal of downtown blight and to prepare the site for future Construction of central station this slide here summarizes the project schedule on May 22nd Council adopted the RDA number two budget with $10 million allocated for Central Station this project was advertised on December 11th bids were opened on January 23rd and the yellow highlighted item is what we are here for today for Council to award the demolition contract demolition is scheduled to begin in April that concludes my presentation and thank you for your time I have two recommended motions for you today okay thank you so much okay uh council members go ahead uh councilwoman um yeah go go ahead yeah I just wanted to say I'm looking over there but Ebert's not there so go ahead councilwoman D um yeah I just I appreciate the presentation I support this I'm excited about the possibility of um you know having a a new fire station on this site I know it all has to start with first the asbestos abatement and other issues before we can get into actual demolition um what I discovered on other agencies I've worked for directly as as an staff person is that sometimes when buildings hang around for a while um first of all they start if we're not using them they start falling apart and then they become a nuisance and an isore and um and people can break in which I I've seen it often and then it just gets worse so um I have changed my opinion I used to believe that we should keep buildings and reuse them and I'll give you an example at the flood project I bought like eight buildings and for a long time I used one of those buildings as the winter overflow homeless shelter and all they did was get to sleep on the floor but at least they were out of the cold and they were bust over there from the CAC and bus back um it was imperfect wasn't great but at least they were out of the wind the rain and the cold um and and they were and they had some supervision and help you know through the night um but over time the other buildings got vandalized and um I um I began to change my mind and we began demoing those buildings now I did have a pause we came to a really big building called the Excel building it was really big the police had used it for training um both inside and outside you know to Stage uh practice drills the fire department had used it state agencies had used it and I thought as long as it was under use we shouldn't demo it now I was no longer there they decided Ed to demo it anyway because of the issues we're talking about so I think that when you decide to demo a building it has to be a thoughtful decision about is anyone using it can somebody use it even in an interim period or is there no use so I just want to make sure before we demo anything this or anything else that we understand if there's a demand to use the building in its current state I mean remember this up to 6 months ago our entire Reno Police Department was living there so in the six months you know what might have happened it could be used by any others should we demo it and I'm supportive of demoing it but I haven't been out in the community asking the question do you have answers to some of those thoughts um I can elaborate a little bit Yeah elaborate a little bit on um the use of the buildings if you will so we have been in communication with um both our BTS department and the Reno fire department and RPD yeah they have conducted training there oh they have yes they have okay good they have been utilizing the building as much as they can um however after asbestos abatement there is not much left on the interior of the building and since we have turned off the the heating to the building and other Utility Services it is starting to like you said fall apart and um we don't really see any other potential future use of the building okay um you know there was a study in 2011 that basically the useful life of the of the building had expired and it's inefficient to operate I'm sure it expired 10 years ago 10 years exactly to go so yeah those are um kind of some thoughts on that we are working with RPD and RFD um however um they're getting as much training in as they can at this time okay well just having been a manager dealing with a lot of empty buildings I I feel your pain and and I can support whatever your recommendation is thanks thank you for the question Mr M thank you so much for the presentation um I I guess I have two things um and maybe a third one is I'm I'm so appreciative of core for the work that they've done on this site already and the semar process has really been something that from my perspective has really worked out for the city it worked out for us on the construction of the man Springs aquatic center it's now working out for us here so I I hope that each time any kind of contract comes up we are making good decisions based on the site specific needs what our planning needs are the eventual use of the site anytime that we have a government building I hope we'll deliver it in the most efficient manner so that's sort of the first thing is some recognition both of our part partner core here and the semar process in general uh the second thing is um and perhaps um not immediately related to this site um but related to the other site that we've now got to go out and demolition U over on Fourth and record Street uh will that similarly go through a semar process or is that do you know and again I'm asking you something that's probably not in your direct presentation but they seem related right one is like football field away from each other and both are demol right right and so I'm just hopeful that we are going to go and figure out what's the best delivery method for that site as well I believe you're referring to the CAC building and I believe the answer is um I'm going to speak a little bit out of my purview but if I give a wrong answer director kosy right here she'll give you the hook right it's uh it's not going through the semr method I believe that um the potential future owners of that building were going to be offered the opportunity to build on to bid on the demolition of the building so kind of a delivery different delivery method that was promised for that site and when do we anticipate the actual demolition happening on this site here at the old Central Station um we Core Construction pending your approval today of the contract would begin U mobilization in April oh great yeah so they begin mobilizing securing the site even more and then um get underway with with demolition in April and mrad I think the reason why that's important to me so that you understand is that um you know everywhere that we operate as a Redevelopment agency right we are thinking about the future of downtown we are not gambling that future we are not speculating on what the best policy outcomes would be we are making a choice a vision-driven approach to how we want to see our downtown environment or wherever else we operate so to those who think that somehow we're just out there winging it I I think this really does a disservice to the work that your team has done to our staff to the work that we do from this dis we know that this site needs to have a demolition occur that it will have a future use my hope of course is that it will be the future home of a central fire station um but we also have to move forward and as we do that demolition I think it signals to the rest of the broader community that we are serious about the efforts that we undertake that we are going to clean up the areas where we feel there is blight uh just leaving the building to sort of rot in its place until we do something with it is never an option I don't think and so I'm glad to see your team involved thank you so much for your presentation always a privilege to have you in Council thank you sir all right councilwoman Ebert sorry about that um yeah I don't really have any comments on this at this time but thank you very much for the presentation okay thanks so much no no okay um I I just a few things um I think you you know we we have talked about what the future is for a fire station there correct when are we going to see that I mean I I assume this is the first step and then we got to get there but am I right and the only reason I I say this is that um there's been a lot of different um sort of ideas I guess you know there were people that reached out to the city a few years ago knowing that we were going to you know possibly obviously relocate but uh up for sale for maybe affordable housing or a housing project I mean I think we actually did see this we did see a presentation on that right um so and the only reason I say that is that if that were the case and it wasn't if it ended up not being for purposes of the fire department you know is there some way to sort of have recoup some of that cost because this is for over three million correct to demolish it correct kri kosy your director of Public Works the the path that we're on right now mayor you're absolutely correct we we identified this this parcel for uh building of the fire station and these costs here are um being funded through the Redevelopment agency which um which is which falls under the blight um as far as far as and that is the big reason to really take it down cuz it's bad in that poor neighborhood I hate it hate looking at it the next steps is we have we are we've we're going on the path with of design we'll complete the design and then um we'll we're working on a a funding path for the fire station okay it's obviously up to this body to make that decision we we as staff would not do that so we would be bringing that back to you okay I just didn't know if like you know other people were coming in with plans for it or where we were but this is the first step and then let me ask you this Carrie um how I mean it seems like a lot to tear down a building um and maybe you know that's just standard can you give us a little idea of how when you work with a company that they're sharpening their pencil because my fear is and I see it all the time everyone gets these really big eyes when they know they're going to work with a a government agency particularly a city so that's the other piece of it that I want them to know that they really got to sharpen their pencil this just it seems like a lot but again it's not my expertise I don't know so maybe talk a little bit like how do you sort of gauge that so through the process we obviously have to follow the law NRS dictates the the construction manager R RIS process we once we once we select the contractor then that contractor um has a duty to Pro to ask for proposals if they are not doing the work in house so so it is very similar to the design bid build process those proposals are um uh are evaluated and in this particular case those propos the the lowest bitter was selected as the or not bidder the lowest proposal was selected um to do the work okay so there is a process yes it's not just an open checkbook we are looking to make sure that we are good stewards of the Public's money well and that's what you're really good at so I appreciate you I just wanted a little background so people could understand that you don't just go out there and award contracts to anyone correct and I I will say this um core has done a really good job on other projects whether they're ours or you know County or whatever it looks like it's scho District School District exactly so thank you so much great job yes great job to my team okay um anyone else no that being said I'll take a motion Madame mayor I move to award the semar Construction contract to core West for the demolition of the Reno Police building at 4555 East 2 Street in an amount not to exceed 3.53 4997 okay thank you so much I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I OS motion carries all right um I have a you have something second motion we do have regular Council agenda D3 and then Redevelopment agency agenda B1 okay they are the same exact motion I just wanted to clarify that I I believe we need one under each agenda okay as the Redevelopment agency agenda item then I'll move toward the owner sear Construction contract to core West for the demolition of Areno Police Department building at 455 East 2nd Street as part of the Central Station project and not to ex 35 34997 and authorize the mayor to sign all right thank you I have a motion in a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries unanimously all right thanks everyone thanks good job you guys okay moving along I think it's a good time everybody okay so right now we will break for lunch and then we can come back at what time 1:00 and we have a labor e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e all right second ready we are going to reconvene the Reno city council meeting and Madam clerk I believe we are on the Redevelopment agency Item B and do we have any public comment for this item there is no public comment for this item um I do I just wanted to note that we are reconvening at 108 with uh council member derer and mayor shibi absent okay and I believe I'm also on Zoom so okay Brian I believe you are up with a presentation all right thank you madam vice mayor council members Brian M or I should say Bo board members RDA board members uh Brian Mardo revitalization manager um today we are uh have two items in front of you um one of those is to do a brief explainer on how tax increment financing works and the second after that item after that is to discuss the analysis from the Grand Sierra Resort on the feasibility and the community impacts that that uh project will generate and so we will'll have our consultant hun and partners do two presentations covering those items uh we also have the applicants in the audience if you'd like to ask or answer any questions uh but let me just preface the project and where we're at at the moment uh murel group has sent in a catalyst Tiff application tax increment financing application to the Redevelopment agency to build a thousand seat new Arena a satellite ice rink a new parking garage 800 hotel rooms 300 housing units uh across their 140 Acre Site we brought this item before this board a few months ago to see if we if we would like to pursue to the next step and the next step would be doing a market analysis and feasibility of the entire project essentially saying can this project be viable in this community as well as what would be the long-term economic impacts the job impacts uh the placemaking features construction labor social benefits and fiscal benefits uh this analysis reviewed the job creation both during construction and during the operation phase The increased Revenue it will bring to both the city and the region how it will boost tourism hospitality and Retail across not only the property but other sectors and how will provide more housing uh in the area and so after this analysis today the next step in this process will be to to determine to how much and to what extent Public Assistance is needed to make this property or this project finan financially feasible and so it really isn't about how deep people's pockets are it's about does this project pencil uh and is it financially feasible and that's what we're really trying to find I will say that in the analysis it is suggested that this project may require uh a 20-year extension to rda2 um it may require that part of the analysis will be to review whether that is viable with and without it and staff will review during the process both the methodology and the feasibility of the project both with and without extending the rda2 area uh and given that we will start to um put the deal analysis together uh on those two possible [Applause] scenarios yeah should be do 101 first okay all right um I will go right into the Tiff 101 presentation I'll save some future comments for the next item um but with that let me invite uh hyen Partners uh both Lexi cuff to do the Tiff 101 explainer and a bit of Education just to remind everyone what tax increment financing does how it works and how applies to this project so thank you y thank you everyone uh good afternoon I'm Lexi cuff project manager here at Hunden Partners um if I do or if I could have the ability to share my screen I can put the presentation up here it's saying that while the other participant is sharing I'm not able to but I also understand that you guys may have this right in front of you as well you should be able to share your screen it's saying you cannot start screen share while the other participant is sharing oh there we go and now perfect um so thank you very much yeah as Brian mentioned uh kind of just doing a quick overview on tax increment financing obviously understanding that the City of Reno specifically the Redevelopment agency does offer several of these participation programs we're going to be taking a a deeper dive here today looking at that tax increment financing or Tiff assistant program and ultimately the the purpose of these are really designed to be the same to help finance and support projects within the city's two designated Redevelopment areas so jumping right into it what is tax increment financing so it is the probably most utilized and common uh incentive deal that uh is used all across the country but looking here specifically at the City of Reno um and how it applies is what we'll do in a few slides but at its core it really is that public financing tool that uses the increase in property tax revenues from that designated Redevelopment area so what we'll be talking about in a few slides is that but four concept so but for the uh Redevelopment areas or the designated Redevelopment area that's set in place with those incremental property taxes this project would not exist or those incremental property tax revenues therefore would not exist um so ultimately the purpose of these is to not only stimulate that Economic Development by attracting the private investment and revitalizing underutilized properties it also does provide that financial support for projects that would otherwise not be financially viable on their own um so it does in terms of its function it works by freezing the current property tax base and we have a a graphic on that in this next slide here that's kind of referred to as that Baseline so the Baseline property tax um over a predetermined timeline and then as that property value Rises due to new investment new development there is that additional or incremental tax that is generated and then paid back to the participant of the program typically that property owner and what that does it really just help helps to offset some of those ongoing um expenses throughout the Project's life cycle um and then once that Tiff ends the city county and state then captures the entire property tax so that includes the base as well as the incremental once that time frame is complete in terms of risk these are generally considered to be on the the more lower risk side to really encourage that private investment and the reason for that being is the city is not responsible or expected to issue bonds or to take on debt or to have some sort of effect on that municipality's credit rating um since the funding does come from that increased property tax so really that performance that's generated by the project itself there's no major upfront cost for the city so if if this deal does go through and a project is not developed or does not generate the expected increase in property value the city does not lose money or does not realize kind of that negative effect because there is then that no tax increment to allocate so how does Tiff work um so looking here at our graphic is really wanting to show that property tax base that Baseline there um and what would be kind of existing before a development comes in and then understanding during that Tiff time frame there when um new investment or new develop de development is added to a project then what's generated in terms of that incremental property tax that then gets rebated to that property owner and then that kind of last end of The Arrow there being the after Tiff so once that Tiff period ends then the government agency will no longer reimburse the developer but instead they will retain the full amount so here we used $1,000 as that property Baseline tax then generating about 2 thou 2,000 in terms of that increment value so by the end of that Tiff period the the government agency is the one that is retaining that full 3,000 an annual property tax revenue benefiting the city or the county or the state in the long term looking specifically at our Reno Redevelopment areas so in terms of those program eligibility requirements I mentioned that but for test so but for this program or these um you know incentive deals being set in stone would this project come to fruition and that answer is no so but for this uh Redevelopment agency area the project would not exist so then looking at our prevailing wages so that wage rates that are required to be paid again it's specific to the City of Reno here not just looking at kind of the broad definition location the property must be located within a Redevelopment area which it is and then area benefit so demonstrating that there will be um direct or indirect benefit that gets trickled out through the community because of this proposed project um providing that significant benefit so in spending supporting jobs um and looking at that employment plan understanding that there is the new employment opportunities that are generated by this proposed project so once these are all kind of checked the box or eligible then we we take a deeper look at our specific project which is what we're going to do here today so looking at the GSR Reno Arena proposal Lexi sorry can we break so we're going to do this in two agenda items can we break at this point and answer any questions comments or concerns around how Tiff Works yep absolutely are there any questions I ask um go ahead I'm just going to make a disclosure um so that's fine I just want to make sure that we don't take any action yet I and I apologize vice mayor um if you asked if uh and I was not in the room if you asked if we had any disclosures I don't think we're at that agenda item yet but yes I did not ask no I did not ask okay I just didn't want to get in front of you so all right go go ahead Council okay um I just wanted to ask yes um i' I've done a fair amount of study on this and I know there's this but for test um but in reading the staff report it seemed to imply that all of the criteria were already met for uh for this future project that's about to be discussed to be eligible but you in your training here your intro you've mentioned the but four test and I just wondered at what point in the process does that come is there a later Gap analysis that you do that test is that how this works there's this is Mike E I'm one of the projects Executives with and this is at this particular project if we're now moving into the the project that you're asking about to get to that next but four level on this project um there needs to be a deeper dive into what is financeable is the project legitimate what are the a performance what are the performance that are going to exist and then if there's a shortfall to have that move forward so to make this move forward because we haven't seen kind of that next level that pull that um the next level of onion skins back um we need to get into that next level to see if that butt for test qualifies for this particular project okay but just in your general training I'll call it uh I just wanted to make find out when that occurs it sounds like that's a next step in this partic next thing we're going to talk about but in general the these are a series of steps that have to happen they all haven't happened yet for project we're going to discuss next is that right it it it our mind it hasn't happened yet no because we haven't had that next level of detail dra out okay that that's all I wanted to understand thank you madam mayor I just had a question it was the same thing I think on the butt four test is when I was reading the presentation I almost saw it as two things the butt for is the first part is without the RDA the project wouldn't happen or the and then the second part is the financial part but for the public assistance the project wouldn't happen is that correct too without the public financing that the project wouldn't happen excuse me I think we need to make sure we're using the correct words because we are I don't think there's a desire here to have public financing which in my mind being a for former investment banker we're having a okay hold on one second hold on one second let me get rid of these earphones so what I guess what I'm saying is but for the increment the project wouldn't happen or the a tax abatement whatever you want to call it is not going to happen that that's correct is this better let me make sure we're we're in good shape now okay y so I guess I'll have more questions on that as we actually get into the project thank you all right hi would you like to go sure thank you so um thank you everyone for the information um I have some questions but I'm not sure if this is the right time so just let me know if it's if it's not um for this particular project was Tiff part of the discussion prior to the original announcement do we know Madame mayor if I could help assist Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record the item that's in front of council right now is just an education opportunity on Tiff 101 very Basics on tax increment financing okay anything specific to the Grand Sierra Resorts application for their Tiff is going to be item B3 which will be the next item okay so this would just be specific as it relates to the Consultants who are available to answer your questions or staff for us to answer any questions on TI in a general concept okay anything specific we'll hold that for the next item okay um so I do have another question that might be um answered in the section um we've mentioned blight being a part of the reason to do these projects is the identification of blight has that been used in this process like is that part of what the Consultants are doing have they take in blight into account yeah Brian Mardo vitalization manager for the record so when the district is created is when you determine a bunch of factors that allows an actual Redevelopment area to be created and blight is one of the factors that is taken into down underutilization blight economic activity is taken into consideration in in this case 2005 when rda2 was created um Project Specific it's a lot of it needs to fit the goals of the Redevelopment agency once that boundary is created and so does it increase the economic base does it allow future experiences uses economic activity for the area and so it doesn't H we don't need to determine that this site is specifically blighted it was determined in 2005 when these areas were created that there were a ton of factors including some blight that allowed the Redevelopment agency to exist okay at that time all right I think that's it for now thank you okay go ahead counc Reese thank you madam mayor um and perhaps I'll direct this at at you Mr the um I I want to understand sort of fundamentally uh your work in this space and hund's work in this space I have spent a fair amount of time reading what all characterizes white papers and economic studies about the use of tax increment financing and Redevelopment agencies so I want to understand what distinguishes the projects that are successful in using Tiff and and take and carry out the goals for which they were intended and the ones that fail because at the end of the day I think what our Council wants to do is use the tools we have in the toolbox this may very well be one of them but we are trying to find the one that is the most successful to achieve the goals and your team described it earlier I think um as one of the lower risk ways to do it I think that's true as opposed to different kinds of star financing or different kinds of bond structures but I I want to know what distinguishes good Tiff and RDA projects from bad ones because we just don't want to be the bad ones I think that's a fair question and I think some of that might be in the eyes of the the beholder um so in many cases a tiff can be uh successful if it does create development if it does create spin-off if it adds quality of life and they can be very unsuccessful if these don't happen and then there's a Financial Risk component um some tiffs that have missed have uh issued increment on Forward Thinking bonds or Forward Thinking increment that maybe hasn't developed they've been a little bit overly aggressive or there's been an economic downturn or there's been then obviously that gets through workouts and some things like that the tips that are what we call either reward or a pay as you go Tiff where the risk lies on the actual development that's been granted that incentive we find those to be a little bit more secure because number one the municipality has shown that they're business friendly and they're development friendly meaning that they'll allow the tool of a tiff to be used for a potential development and then if the developer fails the elected officials have not put fin ancial risk either to a general fund obligation or Bond rating or or taking money from anything else it's the developers fault so the municipality has said hey we are business friendly these are the tools that we have and these are the tools that we're willing to use if then the developers fail it's the developer's fault and you haven't either lost credibility within your own local community or within your bigger Bond rating and bond agency community that I'm sure your Finance people deal with on a regular basis and so let me see if I the answer Mike you're saying even within tiffs Tiff land there are different types of Tiff arrangements and ours is the payo model which places the risk on the developer who if they don't build the thing there is no increment to receive that's correct so I always use it it's a little bit simplistic but sometimes when I send my daughter to to go to the grocery store I come call the tip was there change there never seems to be change but since I gave her the money I only get the change back in this particular case if the development goes and they generate $100 in Tiff and you need to give them $10 back you only give that back to them once they've paid you the $100 first so you're not ever out in front of a pay you go Tiff thank you so much that's all for my first round all right Council D you have your light on I'm sorry okay uh anyone else go ahead yeah um in this analysis was it um um reviewed with the um existing um time frame of the RDA or was it for2 years in addition or a combination thereof Ashley Atty assistant city manager for the record that will be specific to the next item we're still on education for that thank you sorry that's okay we'll just keep helping get through it okay any further questions no all right um I don't know do we have to take any action on that no okay we are going to move right along uh we are going to go into R B3 I believe hi welcome back um so Madam clerk um do you have any public comment on this item uh yes we do okay Josh Hicks I also actually I'm sorry Mr Hicks before you come up here I'm actually going to read a disclosure and see if anyone else has any disclosures no okay hold on one second okay um let's see fellow city council members and Madame clerk I have been informed that this item involves Adam Hosmer Henner an attorney from McDonald corano who represents a Consortium of gaming clients and interests in my private life I've retained Adam Hosmer Henner to represent me on a civil matter unrelated to this item involving an electronic tracking device that was secretly placed on my car I have sought guidance from the city attorney's office as a client of McDonald corano I want to address concerns um in a private capacity to the interest of McDonald corano pursuant to NRS 281 a for the record any action that I take on this item today will not be reasonably affected by my relationship with McDonald corano or Mr Hosmer Henner given that this is not a clear case where the independence of Judgment of a reasonable person in my situation would be materially affected by my commitment in a private capacity to the interest of McDonald corono exstension is not required the fact that I am represented by McDonald corano in an unrelated civil matter will not impact my ability to impartially review and render a decision upon this item Madame clerk please accept this disclosure for the record um and for this meeting pertaining to this agenda item thank you very much okay public comment thank you Madame mayor members of the council members of the board um I'm Josh Hicks I'm with McDonald corano and um I'm here on behalf of a coalition of clients um including Caesars Peppermill the Atlantis Sparks nugget the Bonanza and Boomtown um I'll just note we've submitted a letter for public comment um it was dated yesterday March 11th hopefully you've had a chance to see that I've also submitted a letter um earlier in February dated February 19th um and those Express um various concerns with the use of Tiff and I I want to just dispel one um potential misunderstanding right off the bat my clients um do not oppose the expansion of the GSR but they are concerned about the appropriateness of the use of Tiff for that expansion so with that said I do want to talk about um just a few things that are in our letter I'm not going to go through everything in there with the limited time I have but I want to talk about two threshold issues and a little bit of those have been touched on already um the first one is blight and the purpose of Redevelopment areas uh what chapter 279 talks about what the rda2 plan talks about is addressing Redevelopment of blighted areas and the question becomes what is blight um and one thing that I found very interesting in going back when the rda2 plan was put together back in 2005 it included a report from Kaiser marsten and that report included all kinds of examples of blight including pictures of blight and I'm just going to give you a couple ideas of what some of those things were defective designs un intended use of buildings poor construction quality overcrowding old and obsolete buildings inadequate streets stagnant property values stagnant retail sales low retail lease rates and high crime rates now those are things I think when I think about the GSR and all the good work they have done out there they're not what I think of as what's happening out there and I'd say that I think the Redevelopment agency agrees with that um I want to read you from the RDA status report um this was just in August of 2024 and it pertains it's an explanation of the Grand Sierra District profile and I want to read you two sentences from that the Grand Sierra District consists mostly of the Grand Sierra Resort and the supplemental properties supporting that Resort as many of these Parcels are well-kept and only serve the resort and guests there is little need for redevelopment in this area and thus little need for redevelopment funding support so right off the bat a threshold issue is blight is this a blighted property how do we reconcile that statement that the RDA made just a few months ago with what's happening today there's been a lot of discussion about the butt for test I know I'm almost out of time but I'd urge you to read our letters because we've identified several areas where we don't think that but four test can be met it's an important threshold test and threshold is the word RDA uses for it that's not my word so we hope those will be taken seriously as this matter proceeds further thank you thank you so much all right we have no one else registered um but we did receive one letter in favor that was uh logged yesterday great wello Madam mayor uh Brian McCardell again revitalization manager just to introduce item B3 so this is actually the report of the analysis of the GSR Arena project that is part of our Redevelopment agency Tiff review process this is the first hopefully many Tiff uh projects that we bring before this body um I briefly I I'm sorry I created some confusion I briefly preface some of the the deal points and how this project came to be summarizing the arena the ice skating rink the hotel the golf facility the parking garage um I went through most of that I'll just leave you with this and I think Hunden will will touch on this in their analysis but uh at the end of this this review this project could generate roughly $350 million over the next 30 Years in New property tax uh the tax increment created or requested and we don't know what that number officially is but that tax increment requested would be a fraction of that new property tax created over the next 30 Years leaving about $250 million in new tax increment revenue for our region over the next 50 years um that also includes $4 billion in economic activity 17 million in new SE tax and $5 million in City room tax that's over the next 30 Years uh that's totally independent of of the tax increment um deal so I know that will be summarized in this presentation I just want to highlight a few of those points and now I will turn it back to hunting Partners to uh continue with their analysis presentation thank you hello everyone again Lexa project manager working on this so we were hired by the City of Reno Redevelopment agency to really understand that full potential um the market potential and the feasibility of the proposed project here and what those elements ments that are that are laid out in front of you here in this slide um what they could potentially Drive in terms of that demand and financial impact um that really does show the value that's generated um by the project to the local community over that 30-year time frame so looking at these proposed elements here we have that 10,000 seat Arena 2400 space parking garage uh 50,000 Square ft Community ice facility about 24,000 ft of retail um a high-tech aqua golf driving range 300 Apartments where half of them would be dedicated to Workforce housing with the other half being market rate and a potential 500 500 room Hotel tower that would be in addition of those current off offerings on the site so to give a development timeline here of what's proposed so looking at where we are at today and then phase one projected in 2028 which is largely anchored by that Arena as well as the parking garage in aqua golf facilities which would be the first of its kind um within the market here that second phase set to develop the 300 units of housing as well as the retail would be projected in about 2032 with phase three projected in 2036 which would be that new hotel Tower and new hotel garage where this total construction cost for all the phases outlined is estimated to exceed about $1 billion so in terms of our methodology we wanted to touch on some of the other um deals in terms of stadiums and AR Arenas that have been done kind of in in two silos so one focusing on University Arena structures and these typically take the form kind of past precedent deals here take the form of really relying on a lot of public uh public in order to be built so we wanted to highlight here that other than the University of Texas Austin The Moody Center which was recently built and is one of the most successful Arenas in the country currently um no other Arena development has completely private development backing or private um funding and development backing that so no bonds would be issued um no off-site taxes would be used and no new taxes would be created in order to build the arena here so really just wanting to outline what kind of deal this kind of stacks up against in terms of some other national case studies and then with that we also took a look at some other um instate stadium and Arena structures looking at their funding overviews so understanding the private funding and Public Funding and again whether Bonds were issued or off-site taxes were used and that key takeaway again is really just compared to some of these other Stadium and Arena projects specifically here um recently delivered in Nevada the proposed project would be the most privately funded in the state at this scale and a breakdown of this requested RDA structure so where GSR the location site currently finds itself in within that area um so that current structure does allow the developer to recapture up to 100% of the incremental property tax through 2035 and so this again reiterating that the policy has been instrumental in terms of fostering those initial phases of developments and really incentivizing those private investments in Reno that would not take place if not for the structure here so looking at our project specifically those requested changes so again like Brian mentioned there is that potential of wanting that extension period to cover all phases and all elements of the proposed project which would push that expiration through 2055 and then a key adjustment under this new structure the developer would recapture the the Reno fund portion of those incremental property taxes which only accounts for 26% so if we look at what the up to 100% we're only looking at about 26% of the total incremental property taxes here where the developer would pay and then the government or the municipal would receive the other 74% so in this case it would go to that um the fund which could then be used for other RDA projects and again really looking at the area in terms of that increase in value an important note here is neither the current nor the proposed RDA does require the city to create bonds so there are no bonds that are at play um within either structure those projected economic impacts so looking within the shortterm we have that increased construction activity and job creation during the buildout of those initial phases and then those long-term gains being the increased local spending and taxes generated from new visitors and activity um that is directly correlated to the project um and events that are not currently taking place or are not cannibalizing in terms of what's currently offered within the City of Reno future gains once the RDA ends uh Reno can capture the full amount of the incremental property tax revenues of these developments some quick highlights that we wanted to touch on in terms of those frequently asked questions is how much will the City of Reno pay the developer and again Reno is not paying the developer any direct funds it's instead the developer benefiting from the recapturing a portion of those incremental property taxes that are created because of the Project's new construction and new investment what happens if the developer does not build out other phases so if they only build out phase one and not phases two or three well then they would not receive any benefit from that additional value ad because there would be no increase or increment in property taxes without the new development why is Reno considering this structure so the extension and adjustment aim to ensure the Project's Financial feasibility attract further private investment and create that long-term economic benefit for Reno so we'll get into some of the um overall again methodology and understanding what that value really is from a quantitative perspective um and will is going to take you through the next three slides here okay so looking at the big picture and what this project will do for the City of Reno the first thing we're looking at here is that net new direct spitting to the city so this is spinning that would not have happened but for the project so looking at down at if the project is not developed of course zero dollar net new spending is generated with the uh project being developed and using that Tiff we see from the start of construction through 2055 a total of $2.6 billion of net new spending that would happen in the City of Reno and again this is only but for the project being developed so looking at the main component of this project is that 10,000 seat of Reena and we spoke with UNR and they are very interested in being attended at this facility and we believe that will create around 17 events a year there's also a strong potential for a minor league hockey team creating around 39 events and then when you add those concerts and rentals and banquets at stabilization we expect this Arena to have around 95 events a year and bring around 500,000 people each year as well so finally looking at the summary that impacts through 2055 as we saw earlier that net new direct spending of 2.6 billion when you include the indirect and induc that total is around 4 billion in net new spending terms of earning 1.1 billion net earnings equate to 671 full-time equivalent jobs with this project will also create around 17 A5 million in terms of Reno's portion of the SE tax and 5.2 million in the city run tax or 22.7 total over those uh 28 years and then that table on the right kind of breaks it down on average per year great so now we can uh open it up to questions Mike anything to add before we open it up to questions here no I I guess the the the thing that I would want to make sure that we we we we keep in context a couple of things that if the council in their wisdom decides to to move forward um as we convert about either the Gap analysis or the but for analysis and then at the same time have a conversation about is there an arena negotiation and what role would the city play any any chat that we have in this open meeting will be um something that clearly the the developer or GSR would would would obviously see the see the direction either that the that Rena wants to go or or or things that they would want to do which which may not be able to help us get the best deal but I leave that to you and your wisdom to decide how openly we want to talk about anything within the potential but to have an opportunity similar to what you see at the University of Texas and the Moody Center in terms of private development and the willingness for private development um is unique it's Unique with within the country it's Unique within Nevada we don't need to talk about the Raiders and we don't need to talk about the A's and those are those are numbers that are are astronomical um but between but within Reno um this is obviously an economic development project and a quality of life project um so just uh it's it's Unique that to have the opportunity hear from what we see throughout the country that doesn't mean it's the right thing to do it's just unique that's all yes all right go right ahead thank you Madame mayor for my part I sort of wanted to start at the beginning and for the benefit of um myself I went back and looked at my time on the council so 7 years ago when I joined the council I attended my first Redevelopment agency meeting I didn't know what it was wasn't really sure what it existed to do I didn't really understand its parallel life to R city council and it was true at that time and it has been true for almost the entirety of the time on Council that both RDA 1 and rda2 had no money in them uh there came a time then when that sort of Switched a little bit and the RDA had money in it it started to loan some money the other RDA which was a float and basically that was where we were with the RDA it did nothing it had no real purpose other than it had long been dormant um but it was in that same six or sevene period that I think some forward-looking folks in the city started to say hey if you're paying attention to the success of Reno long term you Devon have got a key in on what an RDA is and you got to go educate yourself and say what is an RDA what can can it do what is its future because at some Future Point not now the RDA is going to have resources in it and those resources could be put to a transformational use and so I just start with that because we're now at that point we didn't arrive here by accident it hasn't been something that anyone sprung upon us or it was hidden from us and now we jumped out of the Shadows to launch some effort but it's really been a multi-year program and of course my colleagues to my left and and to my right have been on the council longer than I have and may have larger and longer perspective I simply believe that as it relates to this project or any other that might become before us about Redevelopment we have to think about the goals what are the goals that we're trying to seek to use this transformational thing to do and for my part uh man this is checking a lot of boxes when I look at this very specific proposal but it still goes back to some very basic fundamentals I want to make sure of course and why we've hired Hunden is to have the best Partners intellectually to review the projects that come before us we set up the Redevelopment agency board to have people who would look at it and give a set of eyes to it that would be critical um that would not be elected so that they wouldn't have some of the same pressures the elected persons do and so I see us as being able to now take all the steps affirmatively that would allow us to utilize what the benefits of Redevelopment can throw off if in fact we go forward with having a bold vision for Reno's growth trajectory um I think what we're seeing in our budgetary process is a lot of pain related to a lack of growth um and also just uh sort of a flattening of the economy I think if we're going to get through the next 10year phase of Reno's history we're going to have to build our way out because no one's coming to rescue us from the national economy or even some of the economic factors that we don't carry so I want to start out with some very general things and in round two I might have additional or different kinds of questions okay thank you so much Council dur yeah thank you let just pull excuse I had a good opportunity to uh delve into the project read the project memos and the cover sheet of the project was a little confusing to me and that's why I asked my previous question about the buff four test it implied in the memo all the boxes were checked this is eligible the but four test has happened and it's just up to us to decide today what parameters we want to give our staff to go negotiate a deal although they did mention a gap analysis which the term I wasn't that familiar with and I didn't know what happened in a g Gap analysis so I did a little more research and um I found out and the answer just came too from Mike that um we still haven't completed this bu four test that's where the area I had the most question um and and my my question was driven by a previous presentation where we were informed that the project was about a billion dollars they had uh commitments or or expectations of approximately $900 million to help meet that $1 billion but they still would need $100 million to finish it off and that's where we came in but then it was presented to us that we're going to take this in phases and the first phase would be this Arena and the arena not a billion dollar but $380 million uh but still the number ,000 was on the table although in the memo it mentions 89 I'm sorry not um 100,000 100 million was on the table in the memo it mentions 89 million so something less but where I'm struggling is um the question was asked earlier what would happen if we made a decision I I mean what would happen if they didn't move on to Future phases build the affordable housing the ice rink the parking garage the tower Etc um and and the reason I have that question is that if I move forward with this my expect is the full project and the full price the 89 million that they've requested but if they only do the first phase the 380 but we are still talking about pledging 89 million that goes from a 10% of a project down up to like a 25 or 30% of a project and so what I want to know from I guess our staff is with a smaller project is there a smaller ask like 38 million 10% of this number uh Brian mararo ation manager you're exactly correct it's usually about 10% is the max you would typically see in a tiff deal and so if they build a $380 million project it would reasonbly be assumed that they would get okay at the at the top end $38 million back okay so I'd like to know from our Consultants how they if it sounds like they're not hired to do this yet but if they were hired to do this next step um how would they go about this but for test what do they look at uh because it seems to me that there's a lot of interest in the project uh regionally I mean CommunityWide regionally and it sounds like uh funding wise you know investment wise so what would they do and I guess it's to you Mike during this but four test and then what kind of answer would you come back to us [Music] with my mic you're muted I'm sorry councilwoman thank you very much for the question um I think that's I think that's an excellent place to start um so I think there's two things well we would first start with what the proposal would be from GSR related to the development itself and what those Capital costs are what will this cost and the way we've seen the markets and conversations with tariffs and everything else I would be willing to bet that the $389 million is not a a a viable number today with everything that's going on politically that the other councilman me mentioned about the volatility of the economy and everything else then you match that up against the money that the building would generate or its operational cash flow and is that financeable in most cases Arenas are not cash flow positive and they need to be financed or they need to have some type of an incentive or a subsidy that can come in many different forms in some cases in the University setting it's a donor base or it's a major gift that lowers the amount that has to be financing in some cases it's potentially a ticket tax or a user tax or some things like that that is generated by the fans and it's a user uh a user tax meaning that the arena patrons pay that to make up that operational deficiency so those are the two first two places that we've go to we've got to highlight is what's the actual number that we're now looking to shoot to from an arena cost project what are the financial numbers on an annual basis that the arena would do I think will went over and showed that there was the potential for for 95 different events and the rough attendance number we then marry that up to what is the projected per cap and a uh which is the amount of average per person for the soft drinks and popcorn and merchandise and tickets and all that and then we analyze what that Gap is if that Gap means that there's not enough to cover any kind of a financing that's where the conversation of the butt for and the Gap is and that's where we would come back and say we believe there's I'm just going to P out a number here because we don't know there's a six % there's a 12% there's a 14% difference between what it can generate and what it needs to be viable and those are the conversations we would have um with the council or with Brian so just to wrap oh I'm sorry you haven't finished I was just gonna say I I want to make sure that I didn't say something inappropriate um earlier because as a former investment banker and a bond person sometimes people always view that people that are involved in projects have the vested interest in in in the success so we are we are not paid if this project goes or if this project doesn't go we we just had a very tough conversation with a client in Texas last week where we said you should not do this project it is too much financially at risk to you and the economic benefits are not there so we don't get a bonus we don't do underwriting in bonds we sit either at the table or over your shoulder with your general Council and provide expertise of seeing right now we're working working on three NBA NHL Arenas which have magnitudes of billion plus dollars um couple with publicly traded companies couple with families um so we're seeing everything that's contemporary within that space and we want to bring that to you so if if you don't move forward this project you're still paying us and we're still giving you the great advice if you do move forward in this project we make sure that you have the most contemporary upto-date real numbers that the marketplace sees so just W didn't speak I'm just trying to be sensitive to the time here well you're three minutes over I know well he's I I finished I I wasted that I apologize I I finished in my time but I just that's why I let it go he was speaking so go ahead yeah I just want to wrap wrap this up so what you're just to my mind so what you're saying is the but four test still needs to be addressed you would do the analysis you would come back to us as I understand and say yes or no they don't meet that and here's why and then if they do meet it we have a decision point point where we can say go or no go cuz now the criteria are met is that correct that's correct I would not want you to bate the deal because if we're not getting contemporary up-to-date information to them then we're not going to be able to give you good guidance what do you mean by for Kate I don't know meaning that I would not do the butt for test and then try to do a negotiation later because if we are not getting their most updated information or their holding something back we're not going to be able to give you good guidance on the butt for so we have to kind of be all in to sit with GSR to make sure that they're working towards the end goal and giving us their most estimates and their most Financial projections not waiting until the secondary phase okay more to come okay okay um any anyone else go ahead vice mayor oh thank you madam mayor I have a lot of questions and what you just said brought up more questions for me but I wanted to follow up on what you said with the arena um you said Arenas usually operate at a deficiency so when you're looking at this project in the butt four when you're doing the analysis are you just looking at the arena or are you looking at Grand Sierra as a whole because it's not just an arena it's part of the Grand Sierra Resort so are you going to be looking at gaming numbers and revenue or is it just strictly the arena and then my second question is one of the slides that was provided in a previous um presentation it had the hotel and the office space not as necessarily being viable as Market needs so I would imagine that Those portions would be taken out of the deal or taken out of the total project cost at least well we're going to do we're going to look at this an individual project so the first thing we're going to look at is the arena I don't think we've been asked to see if this will have an effect on gsrs Gross Gaming revenue or the flow through that so we're going to look this as the arena project as a standalone and does this fit within what would be beneficial within RDA 2 so that's seems like how you can make the butt for work because if you look at GSR and their earnings or whatever you can't include that into their Reven like I go to buy a house right they're going to ask me for all my sources of income and then um you're going to do the same thing with this Arena but the grand s Resort portion is not included in that Revenue stack that's that is not what we've been asked to do yes okay and then my question is for staff too uh Hunden Partners how did we select Hunden partners and the reason why I'm going to ask this is because I want to be fully transparent in this process and the City of Tempe worked with I believe Hundai Hunden Partners in their coyotes deal which is connected with some Corporation of Alex Morello so if we could just get that on the record that this is a completely transparent process and they are the most qualified and how we came up with them that would be great sure Brian MCC for the record uh revitalization manager so we did an RFQ request for qualifications amongst multiple types of Consultants that do this type of work and we did receive a few responses back and we've sort of preempted future um agreements with them so we can work with multiple vendors for future projects hunen specifically is a great resource for this type of project uh they've done multiple projects uh Across the Nation when it comes to destination entertainment convention centers Arenas this type of work I don't think there's anyone better to review so they are specifically expert in this Arena so to speak and then my other question that I'm going to ask later as you can think about is the gap analysis and the deal negotiating going together hand inand I know that's the recommendation but it's hard for me to separate not having the Gap analysis number and moving into a negotiation so I'll pass my time on council member Anderson take it away okay I think Mike this is a question for you so currently in this RDA we have 10 years left correct yes ma'am however all of the numbers that have been presented here today is the earnings over 30 years um as if there is the additional 20-year extension why was that decision made to give us a 30-year projection when we're really what is real here is 10 years in this RDA that's my first question the second question well I'll let you answer the first question okay um we have a projection that we can show you um with the tenure as well if that was if if you would like to see that um we wanted to be brief in our presentation but if you'll look to the screen we'll put we'll show up the generation of the 10-year window within the arena that we've talked about today yeah that 10-year projection is in the full report um we don't have it in this specific presentation but I believe the full report was provided um in addition to what is being shown on the screen as well okay so the second question is when you if today we vote to put you through the but four test are are you applying it to a 10-year test or a 30-year test are you coming back to us with a but for this project wouldn't pencil over 10 years or a but for over 30 years well we would have to do the 10 year because it it doesn't make sense to project something over 30 because it's not in place it takes legislative approval and that's too many variables for us to come back to you as your consultant and say that's the that's the wink and the nod take the 30-year w you don't even know if you have that so you have to take what you can in the deal which is the 10-year deal so we would be talking about a 10year window until that is done and that doesn't appear that that will be done in this legislative session so everything we come to you will be within that 10-year window okay thank you for clearing that confusion for you all right council member Martinez thanks so much Madam mayor and thank you for the information um I think my question stems a little bit with some of the process um that has gone through since the announcement um that the GSR made and I I'm I'm trying to understand some of the projections that were included not just in the Hunden report but also in the staff report so this may be a question for both Hunden and for staff um when you calculate the what would be generated over the next 30 Years so I'm looking at the project could generate 3409 million in incremental property tax over the next 30 Years is that tied into the the construction phase that we just heard about in this or does it assume that from day one we're already generating what's what hasn't been built yet so I think that's where part of my confusion is coming from that these numbers may not necessarily tie into to reality and just wanted to demystify and break that down a little bit if you could for me yeah yeah go ahead well I would I hope you or Lucas would take this because I want to make sure that you know that we had several conversations with the assessor and how those valuations took place and how they would be buil and and will and Lucas can address that because that is a great question yeah so to break down that 34 or 341.50 starting from 2028 when the uh completion of the first phase is done all the way through 2055 so that averages to around 10 million you know 14 million a year so that when it's sorry it's starting in that that first phase you're averaging around 6 million per year phase two completion bumps it up to around 8 million 8 million a year in incremental property tax with the completion of phase three it bumps up to about 12 so when you bring all those together over the 30 years that's that 3041.5 million so the new increment will not start until the final building is not not the final building but the building in each phase is completed and the assessor can put a value on that new development so it doesn't take into account those construction period impacts that I think you were asking about okay yeah that makes sense and I think just based on from my understanding you correct me can correct me if I'm wrong but it usually takes one to two years I think for those property taxes to get evaluated and updated from the assessors uh Brian McCardle revalation manager for the record uh we've seen the assessor's office actually be a little bit quicker but traditionally a year to sort of capture it assess it uh and then start the property tax process to be paid uh they've been a little bit faster than that in previous projects let me dispel some confusion is I think this analysis is essentially saying if they were to build a billion dollar project over the next um 10 years as proposed looking out 30 years this would be the total economic impact that is what this analysis has done um as well as you know each one of those phases are going to have their own incremental increment for each phase when we go into doing a phase one Tiff agreement it might include the ability to negotiate and do the Gap analysis on additional phases so this won't because it by 2032 the cost to build the second project are going to be totally different than what we can predict today and so it's likely that we're going to have to revisit this when phase two gets going when phase three gets going because the cost structure will change interest rates will change cost structure will change um and so the deal if it if it goes through today when we start to look at the Gap it'll likely be specifically to phase one and council member Anderson to your question anytime you do a Redevelopment project whether the Redevelopment agency is living 3 years 10 years 30 years you're going to extrapolate the next most 20 to 30 years on the total economic impact of that project so it's independent of how long the Redevelopment area lives it really is if you funded this project it gets built what would be the long-term economic impact and you push that out 20 or 30 years um so I don't know if I confused you more answered some of the questions I think I'm good I'm over my time so I want to be respectful of that all right um Council Ebert so I don't can I just get a little more clarification as to is this moving forward as a potentially 10year project or are we adding another 20 years on like I know there's been discussion about different um estimates but what are we really looking at right now likely after it goes today the Gap analysis and the deal negotiations will be primarily centered on phase one okay there will probably be some language in there that with the ability to start the process of negotiating or discussing phase two when they're prepared to do that okay but it will Prim primarily be phase one I also imagine that there might be some language in there that says if and this is an if if rda2 were to ever get extended it allows us the ability to somehow um pivot to where rather than pay the full load over 10 years we can pay 25% over over 30 years um with some ability to address that if it gets passed but primarily what what the next step would be is specifically to drill down on what are the true costs to build out phase one and what is the true Gap needed to get phase one finished um with the ability to continue the conversation for future phases okay so if it's closed in 10 years and they're not done with the project will they be able to complete the project if there's not an extension we don't know the answer yet okay yeah what we're saying is that by phase three when phase three gets finished the Redevelopment District would be sunset by then and so there wouldn't be much increment available or we wouldn't have the ability to give increment for phase three so there's the potential where if rda2 is not extended phase three will will never occur because the Gap may be too big to to Greenlight the project you often hear developers say we'd love to do this project it just doesn't pencil right and what they're saying is that the cost to build the project versus how much money they can make make off of the project just isn't financially feasible and that is what the Gap analysis does is as Mike has mentioned uh this project looked great looks great everyone wants it but the cost to build it and the amount of money you're going to make from it just isn't financially feasible regardless of how much resources we have uh and so that is where the Gap comes in and supports these projects okay and can you please remind me what's in phase three phase three is the uh Workforce housing okay so we could potentially end up with a stadium and no new new hotel Tower and new hotel garage is the phase three so that says in 2036 rda1 RDA 2 currently ends in 2035 okay and the the housing is in phase two um which is 2032 it just wouldn't have it would only have that three-year period my apologize the uh phase three is the hotel Tower phase two is Apartments okay um I have one more question um UNR doesn't pay property taxes correct correct UNR does UNR the city and churches and nonprofits do not pay property tax okay um if UNR starts having games at the stadium does that have any implications for adjusting their property taxes at that Arena it would not they would be a tenant of this facility and I can um have you refer to the applicant on the deal between the university uh we have both the university here and the applicant here uh they can talk about that deal but it would be independent of what we're looking at today okay thank you okay uh go ahead Council M do her yeah thank you uh just a few follow-up questions on the buff for test I don't know who I'm talking to maybe Al Ashley on the buff for test um who decides that that is met is it is it our Consultants is it the staff is it the council who who decides that that box gets to check off sorry I can answer this question um Brian mararo rization manager uh obviously there would be a gap so when we when they do the financial analysis the feasibility and show that there is a gap this project will never occur and so that's why I I would suggest and I think Mike had mentioned this before is dealing with The Gap analysis and the deal negotiations in tandem not breaking those out uh because if there's no Gap then there's no deals it doesn't move on but who decides that there's a gap uh that is what we're uh taking on Hunden to do Hunden will through decide that's what I'm asking not you they would okay so I asked them this question earlier but I think it's worth revisiting which is um if you can raise $900 million I I don't get why you can't raise some more money to do this project and especially because your tenants as you call them although I thought they were events that would probably pay rental on the arena would be paying rental on the arena they they're investing too they're paying you know to play there or show there have a concert there so and I'm sure that goes into it as well right like what's the revenue from this Arena and Mike said well they they probably won't meet all the people paying rent won't meet like whatever they have to pay on bonds or loans or what is that right he's saying there'll be a shortfall yes ma'am and so let's just real quick and I don't want to burn your time because I know that's important if a concert promoter comes in and has an event and they do $100 in ticket Revenue in all likelihood the amount of money that would stay within the building is probably $10 yeah and the $90 goes to the promoter and the Artist as they move on down the road so you're you you look like you made 100 but you really only made 10 and then you have expenses on top of that so you may put a couple dollars in your pocket but I understand but the bottom line is already having worked on these before you can anticipate a shortfall which is why we're almost there you've already said it can't pay for itself so it needs public financing in this method Tiff which is pay as you go uh you know uh that kind of thing we're not loaning them money we're not giving them money they're earning the money right that's the idea yes so just one follow up on that so we just mentioned and in your report you mentioned 95 different events that might occur I was surprised to not see women's basketball from UNR we got we're all talking about the men's basketball and that's the whole kind of pretex or or reason to do it but I mean to the women go live in Lawler where it was built in the 80s it's not good enough for the men I'm sorry everyone but it's good enough for them to keep operating in there why can't they also come over here and [Music] play or who precluded from doing that I sorry yeah that's probably a question you'll want to ask for the GSR here and the and the university our provos is here it may not be economically viable to have them because if they don't have the attendance and the arena cost whether there's 10 people or 10,000 people sometimes they don't change that's the well I'd love to hear from Jeff himself okay um our provos thank you and the men's basketballs we're talking about like 17 games a year is okay well that's what I'm asking is it three games a year for the women and 17 for the men uh so for the record Jeff Thompson Executive Vice President provos at the University thank you for the question uh the arrange is that we will be paying uh per game for the cost that it is uh the cost that is to put on the game okay um with the attendance at the men's games we can afford to do that with the women's games and their attendance at the moment we cannot afford to do that could you just share what that is I mean is it like a 100 people come here and three people come there or something on average 7,000 for the men and a few hundred for the women's games okay all right um we will have the opportunity put on um uh multi- events so you know having having a women's tournament or something before where we think we can generate the income um also have the opportunity to look at having um uh Conference playoffs and things like that there also um where we think we can generate the income to to pay for using the facility Well if public financing is being tapped I know Equity is something that we're very concerned about we've got a majority woman city council we've got a majority woman you know legislature we we care about women's sports too and if there's public financing maybe that's something and that leads me to I guess our staff when when are we supposed to presuming this butt four test is made when are we supposed to put in some requests that we're we're that we would like to see negotiated in the deal what what time is that is that Brian mccal revitalization manager um as Mike alluded to earlier now would be the time to mention some things that you would like to see uh and so the process going forward is um hundon would go on uh do get all the costs associated with this project the potential revenues identify a gap if there is a gap and would start to put a deal together that says based on the Gap the mechanics of the financing and they would bring that back to say based on the Gap that we have identified and the mechanics of the deal this is how we propose the city engage and do this increment financing that go to the Redevelopment board first and then come to us or to us it would go to the Redevelopment Advisory Board just to see the numbers and and give it their blessing and then we come back to the Redevelopment agency board yourselves to get final approval of that deal thank you thank you madam mayor for my part um I I suppose I don't want to be the one deciding who plays there what events I think we have a special uh opportunity to uh improve Lawler Event Center in the old Virginia Street gymnasium to some extent uh for uh other teams that play there and I think that that's probably what they would like is to have very specific facilities where they can build their fan base um so I don't have concerns there um I am wanting to make sure that I am very clear on something you know Tiff the way it operates as I understand it is you build a thing and then from that thing you have built you take the increment that it generates so that means if they only I I get it we see a pretty picture here and we are all imagining we get to get all of it tomorrow I I just don't think it works that way so it sounds like we're going to get some phased approach and that phased approach necessarily means that the Tiff comes also in phases as a payo approach uh so that if the first phase is is the arena the stadium and the aqua golf and that cost we'll just play Devil's Advocate it costs 400 million and they get 10% of it that means we're committing $40 million when we get to that point we're not doing that today but I understand how Tiff works so I don't have concerns about that I suppose for my part what I am hoping accomplishes in this part of town and this area if we get all the things that we want or I'd like to see us address some River path improvements behind this particular piece of property uh the mayor has had a vision for 10 years of improving our River path from the border at California to the waso county exit and I think there are a lot of things that are driving in that direction including some work that we're also doing at the RTC some issues that we're doing and work with the partnership with the wasel county but I think there are river path improvements that could be done along this SP so that's one thing second is of course I am uh certainly interested in whatever can be done about our temporary fire station that is located here in this same area I don't know if that means we need to build a new one if we need to stop paying lease payment on it I don't ultimately no it's just again something that needs to be discussed with our partners um uh and with hun in Partners rather um and then uh I am certainly interested in uh sort of a broader uh economic redevelop impact to this area so I'm I want to know are there opportunities for profit sharing that are involved with the things that happen there perhaps that's a way to help us all uh become Partners together um I also think I want to make sure there's a long-term commitment to the university so if we're going to go out and do this project and the underlying core assumption is I want to benefit the University of Nevada Reno I want to make sure that those Agreements are reflected in whatever we have going on so that it's not just a 10y year agre agreement but perhaps it's a 99y year agreement right we talk about that a lot as lawyers so it's a lawyer joke for John and and uh Mr Shipman and Mr Hall but a longer agreement for the University and make sure that the university is well taken care of in that agreement um and I think those are the primary things that I'm thinking about for this particular go around and and perhaps the other thing I should say is I don't think you want all of us making all the deal points I think Hunden needs to help us to say here are the kinds of deal points you might expect to to be a part of this we do this all the day everywhere across the country and here's what people ask for because asking a lawyer you know a a business owner a geologist to figure out all the deal points probably is not going to get us the best deal we hired Hunden to help us figure out the best deal points they need to give us some leadership and direction in that regard too okay I believe we on our last round y okay go right ahead vice mayor thank you madam mayor um I I agree with my colleague on the deal negotiating points but I just have concern and not understanding what the Gap analysis is or how it's going to be done and then working on a deal towards that um my other question or comment is when we talk about risk I don't think it's necessarily the risk in not building something or building something the risk comes to the city and when it is built what we aren't going to be getting in property tax or what we will be getting in property tax or what isn't going to be going to the general fund so those are some of the questions that I want to understand a little bit more um you know if there's $300 million in property tax over 30 years and we're going to fund let's say 100 million that's 33% and I want to understand that there really is a need and I don't know if those are real numbers that that Gap is met the other question I have is on property tax I'm not an expert but it's a parcel right you you are tax by parcel so when we look at the parcel for the Grand sier Resort it's one parcel right so the arena will sit within that parcel to not consider part of the Grand Sierra Resort in the Gap analysis it just doesn't make sense to me or we should just Abate maybe that portion of the parcel for the property tax and I can be worked and you know I can be explained something else um it just and I apologize to the Grand Seer Resort because you guys are the first one that are going through this and we have a lot of questions and you know you asked for it so you get it um I am totally okay with saying let's go forward and look at the Gap analysis but I do have some serious questions moving forward that need to be answered so if we're just saying today yeah go forward and look at that that's fine but I do have concerns on the deal points and I don't want to get them to a point where we can't go back thank you madam mayor all right anyone else then we're going to wrap it up go right ahead councilwoman Eber um I guess I'm just having a little bit of trouble talking about doing this financing for a stadium that's not going to be cash positive it's a lot of money a lot of time we might not have enough time for phase two or three um so we're putting all of this you know effort into a stadium that's kind of not self-sufficient um so I'm just wondering you what is an analysis on this to say that this is still going to be a net positive when it's all said and done um it just feels like kind of a flawed business model to um put a lot of effort into something that's not cash positive I mean I understand that it's a it's it will be a big area there's the GSR there and everything but um you know the stadium itself doesn't sound like it's going to be self-sufficient that's that's correct let let let me make sure I add something if if to the provos this point that they go out and they get the the conference tournament or they go out and they get a number of concerts and there's outside people that are coming in while the arena the arena may not be cash flow positive from a business venture the economic impact to the outside people the taxes the meals The Gaming revenue not only at the Grand sier Resort but any of the other gaming venues that are within the greater Reno and County area there will be a benefit right now you're not getting any of that incremental tourism Revenue that you would have with potential new Arena uh but all of that um business to the surrounding area that's in the RDA we're not getting additional tax benefit from that correct it would just be like the sales tax or whatever because we're still in the RDA tax amount yes it would stay within the RDA yes ma'am okay but I guess what I'm saying is would it increase the property taxes of surrounding areas in the RDA like those are going to remain the same correct that's that's the question that you'll need to ask the assessor because I know that you guys have a very detailed um assessment of existing buildings versus new buildings and how much they can grow per year and uh and what that growth rate is per year and it and it is pretty detailed out okay has there been any analysis too or forgive me if I've missed it between um whether or not this will create new um events or will it be drawing from other areas in the city like the convention center the ballroom will this cause um shortfalls in other areas well in the conversations early on and when we look at the market you currently don't have the minor league hockey so those are new events you're going to have a venue that's going to be up to date from a technological perspective and that should allow you to have different concerts and family shows so those should be net new events so it should be net new event positive for the greater Reno area okay and one last question have you worked with this um group before in other projects in terms of they have theyve hired us no they have not thank you councilman Martinez has a question and I don't believe you've had or maybe this is your second round this is my second round thank you so much um yeah I think I wanted to ask um if this Tiff funding does go through is prevailing wage part of this and I just want to make sure we get that on the record Brian mcaro revitalization manager yes part of uh State Statute says that anytime you get uh public financing assistance over $100,000 the project must be prevailing wage okay and then in terms of deal negotiations I understand we probably shouldn't get all the deal points up here but I just wanted to Echo some of the ones that were brought up in terms of the fire station which I think uh Mr D and I had discussed in the past uh I know you're working already with the flood Management Authority uh to look at the River Walk and improvements on there but I would also ask if there's any way uh to bring money into Parks as I think we just talked about the impacts to our general fund and that's really where our parks are funded so if there's ways for us to be able to carve out you know a certain percentage to go back to making sure that none of our slides or swings are broken in our Parks surrounding rda2 I'd love for that to see that happen so I just want to to put those things out there thank you council member der I think this is your final final round and then council member ree yep um so I I several people I just want to acknowledge the quality of the conversation Happening Here I had similar questions to miss Anderson about um 30 years but it's only 10 and it was very confusing the way it was presented I'm just being honest I know it was buried in there somewhere about the 10 but here's some final uh uh Mr ree said well we shouldn't be discussing deal points maybe but here's some mine uh but I want to put out that I concur with his I I too have asked about the baseball uh excuse me about the fire station to Mr disc I've asked about the river path because I've been with the flood for like 20 years um the long-term commitment to UNR the parks these are all things that I support as well there's one other and and I mentioned women sports just because it hadn't been mentioned thought it was worth a moment of air time uh but one idea I would love to see if we do more forward with this um in negotiations is that a percent of the income of the RDA will come back to the city so here's going to be a big generator of income and we're saying well we would use that to fund this project the arena and rebate to the Grand Sierra but to to your point um council member Martinez there's a lot of need at the city and I think one of the deal points even a simplifying deal Point could be be to say a percentage of that new income comes to the city to work on these things it may be we build the fire station with that income or we build parks with that income so it's a different way I'm I'm just throwing it out there so while you're discussing this if you are that you're thinking that way I'm not saying a percent of their revenues don't misunderstand me I'm saying if there's more tax generated in the RDA 100% of it should not go to fulfill a commitment and then what is that commitment is it $89 million is it the 38 million we talked about is it a portion of the 38 million let's say 25 million and anything uh or for every dollar that comes in three goes to help the Grand Sierra one goes to help the city I I don't know but I want to make sure that you know we are being very thoughtful if we move forward to think this through about how it would work are we really going to ask the Grands here to go build a fire station or are we going to say we'll tell you how much it it cost and then we want to see that money so we can go build it using our existing pay um core we talked about core uh construction earlier those kind of processes if you see what I mean I'm not sure it's right to put it on Grand Sierra maybe a cleaner deal is we'll give us the money we'll build the fire station but give us the land to build the fire station you know it's it's on your property already so those are some of the things I've been thinking and then finally I have to concur with Miss ebra too in other financing deals like this they end up pulling from existing businesses and moving them to places and I just want to make sure we're not um taking from the convention center the ballroom the event center and then lastly just a note I appreciate the letter we got from all the other casinos if I hear them right uh I hear them right they're saying we do not object to the investment we don't inject to the growth we are concerned whether they qualify right under this blade initiative and they're also saying um is Tiff the right Avenue so I think we oh I know we got a letter saying they were not right we are right but I still feel like it deserves a little public airing with our body you know to to know that it was asked and answered Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record uh to address your last Point council member de the um City staff engaged with outside legal counsel as our City attorney has a conflict on this case uh we have contracted with Kemper crra and their representation has reviewed that public comment and has done a legal analysis and determined that this project is eligible for Tiff funds based off of state law and the RDA program and it doesn't just speak to blight it speaks to Economic Development as well it speaks to Economic Development as well blight as Mr mcardell mentioned earlier is determined at the beginning when the area is established additionally other definitions of blight identify of underutilized property as well uh there is case law that identifies that blight is not specific to a particular parcel but to the area in general that is stated in that letter that has been included in the record today I think Miss attorney though it might be somewhat confusing those are our attorneys the the CER gfor Crow is our City of Reno RDA paid legal council that has done a legal analysis for us yes okay Ma Madame mayor Madam vice mayor I'll be brief um a couple of things first of all I do think the conversation has been very robust and for that I'm very grateful to our colleagues and to Hunden for their participation I think though I still see some disconnects and very fundamental things for example I heard someone talk about whether or not there would be any economic benefit to all these events coming to Reno because they would be in the RDA this is not I think where we should be thinking about if if we land for example the Big Sky tournament the end of the season basketball tournament that determines who's going to go play in the NCAA tournament and we get 16,000 basketball fans here they get hotel rooms at the Atlantis and the Peppermill and they eat at McDonald's we are the beneficiaries in our taxes for SE tax to that these are not abated in any way uh these are part of the economic analysis of the economic impact of what kind of happens when tourism comes here the property tax is abated so if you have a vacant piece of dirt today and it's generating $1,000 a year in property tax but it gets built on it and it generates $4,000 a year in property tax the increment the difference between one and four is three that three is going to go somewhere for some period of time in the Tiff deal it gets sent potentially in part or all to the person who develop it none to the City of Reno right or it can be differently divided and then after the thing ends 10 years from now we get the whole 4,000 so we go from having a property that develops and pays $1,000 in property tax 10 years from now will when developed have 4,000 we are the beneficiaries of our own growth pattern that's I don't understand some of the comments so for my part I think we've got to move forward with The Gap analysis and also working on the deal points I I don't think we'll ink a deal today we certainly are not stylized to do it um and at some point time it'll come back and we'll have to have another round of analysis um but for my part I am very encouraged by what Hunden has said and how they've communicated the information to us I'm thankful that keer croll has provided some additional information legally about what our roles are and and what we're supposed to be doing with the various wording of things this is complicated heady stuff and again I thank my colleagues for the robust conversation and think that it all helps us to get to better projects and better Visions for our community uh I am uh of course most appreciative of anyone who says I want to build in Reno and I want to pitch my tent here and invest a billion dollars in this community I think we have got to be good partners when that is the call and it'll be the case with anything that comes before us as a Redevelopment agency whether it's a apartment complex or parking garage each one must stand and fall on its own merits but we should be thinking about the way that this will alter fundamentally the growth pattern for our community in a very positive way thank you so much all right thank you madam clerk um I believe we are are we exhausted three rounds we have yes we have okay I've two you had two yeah okay I'm going to give you one more okay and then uh we're going to move on all right thank you go ahead um is this the time where I ask when did the discussion about Tiff come into play with this development because I know that there was a big announcement um about plans a long time ago um but I don't recall the the um announcement saying anything about being assisted with tax increment financing like what when this project was being created and designed and all of that were there any conversations about tip at that time or did they make an announcement make all these plans and then realize that they can't afford to do it after the fact and pursue um assistance financially asy attorney assistant city manager for the record well I can't speak to the applicants position at the time of their announcement uh they are here if you'd like to ask them that specifically one thing that I can state is that this Redevelopment agency adopted your participation program in August of 2024 there was not an existing application process or available Tiff for anyone to come in for prior to that date and their announcement jsr's announcement was prior to this body adopting that application and participation program so I can't speak to the specifics of their announcement nuances and their financial component I did just want to put on the record of when this application came forward by this body Madam May Council for the record Andrew D senior vice president and chief strategy officer for morela gaming which operates the Grand Sierra um I think it's only fair that as the applicant I come and address you today and councilwoman Ebert specifically to your question um at our announcement for the project what we talked about financially was the commitment from the University and if you go back and you can watch the tape what Mr Mel said was that he is not asking the university for to contribute a single penny to this project um we had had discussions with President sandal leading up to that it was clear that they wanted to do something to enhance the facilities that they played in for basketball and but he always also made it clear from day one that the university did not have the funds to either refurbish Lawler or to build a new facility on their own so as we moved along in the process and Architects got the work we were able to really start penciling in um the fundamental for what the project was going to cost and architecture is a big piece of that and when they completed their work we went and we realized that there was going to be a gap and um the fact that Tiff is available and that all of you decided to restart the Redevelopment Advisory Board um to vet these projects and to go forward in that process that's when we became the first applicant to go through that process okay so you your organization went through the process of Designing and having these conversations with UNR and establishing all of these things prior to even the notion of RDA funds being available or Tiff being available like I'm just trying to understand how the GSR got that far along in the process without there being any kind of Tiff option available well Andrew just for the record councilwoman we Tiff is existed since 2005 in rda2 so the program has been out there it was just not solvent until the last couple of years um the depressed property tax levels that were brought on during the recession in our screwed up property tax system in this state quite honestly led to a number of years before it was able to climb back to a certain level where rda2 was even producing Tiff yeah I I do understand that I guess my question is just how did you or GSR get that far along in the process to make an announcement um without knowing that you could apply for additional funding would would if we didn't have funds in RDA would you guys just have abandoned the project Andrew just for the right the council it was it was always a consideration as a financing mechanism for the project okay all right thank you okay we're going to move on because we've exhausted our our three rounds um councilman Martinez this is your word um before that though because I'm also you know I've hear heard the comments up here um is that looking at identifying I would say for our team that's really important and probably you Mr disc as well is identifying cbas those Community benefits um you know agreements and one of the things obviously for me cuz it's something that um I watch closely is the fire station has there been you know discussion on that I don't know what that looks like I definitely think that's a something that we need to talk about and um what other cbas can can be um possibly included the community benefit side of things I do want to say and um I appreciate councilman ree talking about uh River improvements and I want to say I've actually worked with the GSR for a few years on you know they've actually been um a really good partner and saying how can we help with the with all that River um cleanup over there because you're next to a state a closed down state hospital that's a really challenging area and so I do think if we could look at how um what you could do in that area as well and anything that you can think of I think we're we're open to that um because you want to make sure that you your community is also being able to enjoy improvements that come to the table I get that you know people um want to have a great entertainment experience but I also think we should come to the table with more um you know Community benefits so all right that being said I'm going to send it down to councilman Martinez thanks so much with the direction provided from Council I move to approve staff recommendations okay I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries okay thanks Madam clerk what was the I'm sorry I was uh typing what was the vote it was unanimous thank you so much so a follow-up question Madam mayor go right ahead when can we next since we've just voted yes I'm going to refer that to that's what I'm asking um Ashley so attorney uh I heard from um Miss T Taylor and myself both of us very concerned about the buff for test and making sure we stepwise will you make sure that you at least inform Us in some way where we are in the process and how long do you expect it to take Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record uh with the motion of council today Hunden will start to engage in that process to understand the financial component for the but for um that process can take anywhere from 2 to 6 weeks depending on the applicants financials and information submitted between them as was discussed that will go back before the Redevelopment Advisory Board before coming to this body uh so we would anticipate that you will see something in front of you either as early as late April to somewhere into late May the summer yep till what did you may so next few months you should expect to see something and we will keep Council apprised as we have information okay sound good councilwoman yeah okay I just wanted to know what you know what we're expecting all right let me look at this we are now on item D1 that's the RTC interlocal agreement Madam mayor can we go to Charlie one in the Redevelopment agency oh sorry Charlie one our board in comments I don't have any okay good thank you so much for keeping me on track I forgot we got to close that um no comments no comments anyone else no okay um uh well we oh you have Redevelopment agency comments do I do um I just want to say that um I think it's great to do um improvements and use whatever means we can but I just want to express my concern about not putting that in directly into maybe something like the housing component first I know that that won't be considered as exciting might not bring as much revenue to the surrounding areas but considering we do only have 10 years on it currently um I'm concerned that those projects won't um won't happen and housing um is something we need particularly Workforce housing um so I'm just want to make sure that we also um find ways to do those kinds of projects through tax increment or Redevelopment funds so that's it okay thank you so much all right moving along I'm Senate you want to give me a motion um Madame mayor if there's no public comment Madam clerk I assume there isn't then I'll move for adjournment of the rment agcy I didn't realize she had gone yep so i' moved for adjournment of the Redevelopment agency second I have a motion at second all those in favor say I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously and Madame mayor for my benefit I'm so sorry I'm just lost in where we are on the um agenda tell me where we are and where we're headed I apologize I was supposed to do this after we got back from lunch we're going to go into item D dog one then D2 so D1 next then D2 followed by C Charlie 1 then D6 E1 G1 through six then we will do pulled consent items followed by Council comments so virtually back on track just a little bit almost thank you so much oops okay um this has been like we've been all over the place today um okay wait I'm so sorry I don't know her name uh Lauren Morris Chief Deputy city clerk Lauren nice to see you we don't get to see you that often okay do you have any public comment uh we have no public comment registered for this item and we haven't received any correspondents okay thank you so much hello um okay take it away item D1 RTC interlocal agreement good afternoon afternoon mayor and council members khil Wilson the assistant director of public works for the record um I'm pleased today to bring this item before you to seek approval for the RTC fisc year 2026 interlocal Cooperative agreement so these exciting projects can move and advance to design and construction here with me today is Mr Dale kellerer um the director of engineering for the Regional Transportation Commission so I thought we'd first start with uh looking at how rtc's project implementation process works uh this graphic help uh visualize how projects progress through rtc's planning design and into construction all projects are included in rtc's Regional Transportation plan this 20-year guiding document that includes the short-term and long-term strategies to develop safe and efficient multimodal Transportation Systems an update to the RT update for this plan was was approved by RTC board and February this year next progressing from the the RTP is into the um the 5-year Regional Transportation Improvement plan rtip this is developed from the short-term project list and then funding is identified this up this R rtip is updated every two years the next step in the process is where we are today is the approval of the interlocal coopera gement so these projects can move to design and construction what does this I do since RTC does not own any roads the IC is required to give them the authorization to act as the city's agent to bring the projects forward to design and construction this agreement also outlines a responsibility for the delivery of these identified projects within the city's jurisdiction and allows them to use imminent domain if if necessary what does it include so this there's more detail on what it includes on the left hand side there is the F divided into four different categories excuse me on the left is the pavement preservation projects the goal of these projects within this category is to keep the regional roadways in good condition this category includes a preventative maintenance projects such as surface treatments and Road rehabilitation moving from left to right are traffic signals and intelligent Transportation Systems this includes your intersection designs improvements new traffic signals and fiber optic connections between signals for improved signal timing the next category is active Transportation this is a new category I'll provide a little more information on the following slides the last category is roadway projects there are four major projects in this year's IA they include the wakin road pedestrian improvements Boomtown garon Road inter interchange improvements Rio Wrangler Parkway improvements and University area roadway improvements active Transportation just a little more detail on what active transportation is and the focus of the active Transportation plan is to create a network of safe comfortable act active Transportation facilities to provide an ongoing education and engagement opportunities and a streamline the process for efficient design and implementation RTC completed an extensive public engagement process in which 12 neighborhoods in the region were data analyzed and ranked this IC includes the Central and Midtown areas the top neighborhoods to move forward to design and implementation roadway projects i' like to highlight each of these roadway projects in the I the first is the wakin road pedestrian improvements this $3 million project will install sidewalk along wedin Road from lond Lane to Su Sullivan Lane this is a high pedestrian and high bus ridership and pedestrian facilities are much in need environmental review and design is scheduled to begin in 25 and Construction in 27 the next project is the Boomtown Garson interchange improvements RTC is investing $2 million for roadway widening for this multi and a multimetal connection in ver in the verd ey area this project will add a travel lane from the I80 off rampa boot town across the freeway overpass to boo Herring Circle this project will also include a separated shared use path along this alignment project will begin in 25 and is scheduled to our design begin in 25 and schedule to begin Construction in in 2028 Rio Wrangler roadway improvements this 4 $4.5 million project will improve traffic circulation in the Rio Wrangler and Steamboat Parkway which includes a roundabout at the intersection of re Rio Wrangler and Steamboat RTC will also provide a traffic impact and scoping study on real Wrangler Parkway from Steamboat to mcau Ranch design is scheduled for 2025 and construction for 2028 the last the final roadway project is the univers university area roadway improvements phase one the goal of this project is to improve traffic circulation and safety in the university area of 9th Street Valley Road and Evans Avenue this project highlights include the realignment of nin street from Lake Street over to Evans Avenue including the realignment of Ninth Street along horse Pit Row in front of uh Evans Park the blue line on the screen there on the right hand side of the exhibit shows the extension of 9th Street from Valley Road over to Wells Avenue this project will also include 8 and multimodal improvements along 9th Street as well design for this project is scheduled for 25 and Construction in 2028 you'll also see there on the screen on the bottom left hand corner of the exhibit in addition to the roadway improvements the RTC is looking is working with the university on a pedestrian bridge over I80 to provide safe connectivity south of the freeway to the university the first step of this plan is to develop Concepts that are in alignment with the roadway connectivity funding for this connection has not yet been identified and the university would be would take on the responsibilities of the connection here is our recommended motion and I answer any questions you may have all right C good job okay Council neber um I don't have anything yet thank you okay thank you councilwoman all right nope okay I do um unless Miguel you good okay uh thank you so much Dale for being here this is one of those areas where I really want to get some clarity and figure out um you know what the responsibility is because there have been many times that I have gone to RTC and then they say it's the City of Reno and the City of Reno turns around said no that's not it's like this so how do we figure out who responsibility it is um to mitigate you know um um I guess some of the traffic issues like let's just say Midtown for instance um clearly and I and I want to believe Carrie refresh my memory it wasn't too long ago that you did some updates in Midtown correct yeah like recently just recently yeah it was recently so how does that come to fruition and like is that the City of Reno or is that in conjunction with RTC like how how does that come to fruition and what I guess prompted that yeah thanks for that question so um so that one came to fruition is was from RTC um and it would be in that uh the the bucket of traffic uh improvements and operations and so that one in particular we we had uh some uh some safety concerns around the the roundabout uh we did some some improvements at the roundabout in that area and also added in some RFB Crossings at that location as well so we put in uh some um um some uh concrete um uh safety barriers on the outside in order for erant vehicles going around the corner to not run into buildings okay and so that was RTC that RTC initiated it initiated they coordinate they coordinate directly with our staff our staff reviews the plans and works with them makes comments on it we we you know we work with our um our traffic group that will'll also look at um um our our surface Quest that we have other surface quests in the area that have some safety concerns provide that feedback back to RTC we go back and forth a few times with our with our plan check com and then they put out the bid and they administer the project on behalf of the city well one thing I do love I I think you have a great working relationship with our departments which is super helpful I guess I I want I would like to figure out more clarity um on the sense of like how can you identify hey when it's this Lane it's the city when it's this Lane it's RTC they pay for it is there some way we can figure out what what that is because it's hard for us to do our job because as you guys know you a big part of what we do is um hearing feedback from community members and a lot of it e is either infrastructure or traffic speed whatever that looks like and then we're like hey yes we can jump right in and fix that and then I sometimes it'll say no that's over on RTC or you know we don't pay for that and so I think I don't know about the rest of the council members but that's where I would get a little bit frustrated to try to figure out where am I supposed to go navigate uh director Public Works K kosy that that's a a great question and I think that my best answer to you is the regional transportation plan is basically the document that we use for identifying the projects and we utilize all of the information that we gather from this body um from Ser like service requests from other agencies constituents We Gather all that information and we we the city take that responsibility to carry that message to the RTC that work goes into that plan and that's where the projects are developed and I think the next item that we have here I'm going to clarify um okay good that's a good answer I guess what I'm asking Carrie is like the projects that all of a sudden become a problem not projects let's say not projects let's say yeah um well no pothole I assume is definitely Reno I know that perf fact but um let's just say someone um like you know there's something that's causing uh line of sight impact yes right and it's on the roadway yes right and that just pops up there's an issue that pops up and it happens sometimes we're not aware of it and all of a sudden someone will come and alert us that it's a major problem all all roads are city-owned roads so we as your city staff takes that information first and then we look at it and just and we determine is there an evaluation that needs to be done if there is we often times do that in evaluations inhouse with our own team okay um we get about 900 of those to a thousand of those requests a year then we we depending on the level of improvements needed we would if it's an a regional road we could Elevate that up to the RTP or to thec yes but if they're Reno roads then um typically it's on us those Reno okay yes maybe that's a little more helpful Reno roads yes Reno roads yes all right thanks Carrie you bet all right anything else go right ahead council could you uh roll scroll back in this I had a few questions one on Rio anger so thrilled to see it on the list obviously is my award for last 10 years um however what I don't see is the roundabout that you were planning in front of the school dman Ranch High School is that off the list is that where does that live it's not it's not off the list that's the the the second uh the part that we're going to do a u a scoping study in this Corridor of Rio Wrangler from Steamboat all the way down to mcau Ranch Road and kind of and look at um the type of facility improvements that we we could utilize at that at that intersection so that is included in this yes is that what you're saying yes it it didn't show on the map so I thought maybe you decided we're not doing that no the blue yeah the blue I know it's kind of hard to see there but it does go all the way down to that intersection it does yes okay well the thing is that you know there's a lawsuit going on because we approved a permit for a school at the church and we're very concerned about the traffic impacts and but but and I thought that would be the next thing I guess because of I guess because at the time our two colleagues that are at RTC made a commitment to prioritize that project so is that part of this project I just want to ask again yes it is okay because I I just I'm a map person and I don't see another roundabout or I don't see the intersection on this map but it's there it is there okay could you scroll to another one um I had a question another one you had which one um well first of all I love this Pro is this the project that we're crossing the freeway yes okay making like now right now it's two lanes there's really no pedestrian correct so there will be pedestrian bu multim path along the alignment as well as an additional Lane when they're doing this it seems like a perfect time to also be looking at and I've heard talk about it but I don't know about an animal crossing in this area right so we have animals in the north animals on the south I keep hearing maybe you've already done it Dale I don't know but I keep hearing about a need for animal passageway across I80 is that does that stand somewhere is that that one do good afternoon Dale Keller Deputy executive director and director of engineering at RTC so councilwoman deer um I'd have to look back at the Verdi study and one uh what we're doing with City Reno and IND we're partnering together so as I replace this bridge there's a whole slew of bridges along I80 that's being replaced so we can look back coordinate with IND and get you that answer okay cuz I think it's opportune time you're you're you know you're there you're working on the very place that it's probably needed or nearby half mile nor uh East or West um so that's great and then lastly you had a third slide I think and I can come back around if people prefer whin or uh I don't want to talk about weedin uh University so I met with u Carrie about this or she shared about this about this would be a pedestrian Passage across I80 yes from like Lake Street is that right from the end of Lake yes well I I think this has been a needed project for a decade or more uh and that will help get uh University folks down into downtown um I'm glad to see on this map I don't know if that mean last time I saw the map it had his very curvy walkway but it looks like it's straight now is that straight now or yeah what we did is we essentially we're work they're working on this this with would include um concept studies so the one that was showing as you know um going back and forth was one of the concepts so we wanted to kind of simplify and kind of show it up and I love love love where your dotted lines are having some kind of front edge access road from the University East over to 9th Street over to the county oh my gosh I mean now you have to go south to go north you have to come across I80 go this way go back across okay well I'm just saying Kudos glad to see it minuted and I think council member Ebert wants to go sorry so I want to I offered round two instead okay thanks so much go ahead councilwoman great thank you um I do have a question about um you know the identification of these areas because I I receive a lot of um concerns about the um area of Clear Acre getting on and off and around in that area by the 395 um on ramp um I'm curious why that wasn't prioritized in this but the boom toown Lane was like is there more traffic there um so the that the the that Clear Acre McCarron intersection Appo uh right there is prioritized with the McCaron Corridor study so that's already further along than the process than this is right here okay okay all right um and then also I have a question this is for RTC um I have some issues with with um an RTC Road um where I have constituents asking for um updates or improvements to be made on this road they're asking City of Reno City of Reno says it's not our jurisdiction but it's kind of like in this limbo area where it's not getting worked on and I know Military Road is going to get expanded there's going to be a lot of improvements there but in the meantime um I have constituents with concerns about um um just the condition of the road the impact from the big rigs that go on that road um the noise from them driving over these imperfections in the road so their their load is very noisy but um it's made a very frustrating situation for myself and for my constituents to be kind of in this area where um we don't really know who to ask for improvements um people always assume any in Reno is a Reno Road doesn't matter um but is there a way to get some things addressed and worked on prior to this Improvement so is it Military Road you're referring to so Military Road I mean the we we do address uh concerns uh with through our service request and you know if it's if it's a it's a pothole or if it's a you know um some sort of other safety we we'll continue to address those through their service request as rtc's completing their design of the military Road widening that is scheduled to go out to uh bid and construction the end of this year and the beginning of next year okay we'll add uh some uh some great safety improvements for that particular okay I also just wanted to call out we have kind of like a a little water channel on one side of Military Road where we've had several fatalities um due to cars going off um and something that's been requested by my constituents is to have a guard rail there to block off that divot um is there any way to do that now and not have to wait until the rest of the project happens just in the you know concern of public safety director of Public Works K Kowski all of those roadway improvements they tie together so do taking them out of sequence um and and uh would would be impractical right now okay so I would suggest that that those improvements are installed with your RTC project here as it as um that comes to the end of I think fall I think September or October oober yeah okay that's what I would recommend okay well it's difficult to do yeah I understand like trying to save money and not do the work twice and things like that but it's difficult for me to tell my constituents sorry we can't make this area safer and a temporary basis until that this gets improved I'm aware of at least three fatalities in less than two years years on that stretch ofad in fact I think they all happen in a span of 12 months um so I think it poses a real safety um concern legitimate safety concern so I just want you guys to understand that that is very difficult to tell my constituents that we're not able to make this safer because we have a widening project coming on this is not necessarily about the widening it's just a matter of public safety noted we will make it safer with the widening project thank you all right anyone else no okay Madame mayor I move to approve staff recommendation all right I have a motion I have a second all those in favor say I all those opposed motion carries thank you good job oh we have D D2 okay all right here we go um Madam clerk any public comment D2 there's no public comment registered and we have not received any correspondence okay uh planning work program all right uh good afternoon again Madame mayor and council members khil Wilson assistant director of public rord record um I'm please to present this item as well the fiscal year 2627 unified planning work program uh here again with me is um is Dale Keller director of engineering from the RTC and Miss Vanessa laser from the planet director of the RTC as as well so um on January 31st of this year we received a call from RTC to submit proposals for the FY 2627 unified planning work program or upw this short this presentation provides some details on the upw um it's the proposal requirements and the summary of our recommended proposals so what is the upw is the that outlines the transportation planning activities to be undertaken by RTC in a 2-year cycle that will be identify projects to be included into the art the regional transportation plan the upw will fund concept level planning analysis and design initiatives the scoping areas May Encompass specific site Corridor neighborhoods or entire municipalities there are um proposal requirements first off the proposals must demonstrate a regional transportation benefit the pro proposals must also identify how to advance Federal and Regional goals and priorities we can submit multiple proposals but they must be priority ranked by the local agency we're recommending four proposal studies in two categories that would align with the eligibility requirement for the upw the first category will focus on safety and crash analysis and mitigation and the second category will be the development of a regional truck route plan so insurance safety on our all of our roads is a top priority for the city so to prioritize the highest need for the upw study proposal Public Works utilize a data- driven approach so combining the crash data from the Areno police department and traffic volume information from the Nevada apartment of transportation from 2022 to 2024 Public Works developed a model that will assess the crash rate along the roadway corridors in the city this crash rate represents the quantity of crashes relative to the traffic volume on a roadway segment or intersection over a specified time so say for example you have a roadway segment that sees a th000 cars per year with 10 crashes along that Corridor that would be a higher crash rate compared to a second segment with 10 crashes that sees 10,000 vehicles per year this crash R allows us to directly compare roadway segments with varying crash rates and volumes with higher crash rates R ranking higher in priority along with the crash rate data the Public Works gathered and cross reference citizen service requests uh for traffic Sac along the corridors to provide some additional data sets for the for the analysis after the prioritized locations are shown on your screen there on the bottom is Locust Kerman Wells area this area experiences the lowest lower traffic volume with very high number of crashes resulting in the highest crash rate silverada wakin Clear Acre and Sutra area this area has a high crash volume but also experience a high traffic volume so it's a moderate crash rate the SE West 7th Street Kings Row and Keystone with a moderate crash volume and a high traffic volume is the lowest crash rate of the three [Applause] the second priority involves a uh developing a regional truck route plan Reno Sparks and waso County's identified truck routes have remained unchanged for several years needing to uh needing to update to align with regional growth a regional plan would address Freight movement throughout the region it would create objective criteria to designate Regional through truck routes uh maintain infrastructure and good repair address parking on local roadways and also improve multimodal safety and quality of life as part of the upw study the RTC would would lead a process involving local agencies and public engagement to confirm key corridors conform operational truck routes and develop a regional truck route plan that could be adopted by each agency so as mentioned earlier here's our here's our project submittals by rank as mentioned we can submit multiple proposals but they do need to be ranked by the local agency s roadway safety is our top priority so Locust Taylor Kerman Wells is at the top with Silvera wakin Clear Acre area is second uh the West 73 Kings Road Keystone is third and the regional truck route plan wraps up the the fourth one on the list here's a timeline the call for proposal is opened on January 31st of this year uh we are here today Council confirms The Proposal priorities uh our submission date is due to back to RTC by April 4th RTC will provide a selection notification of the studies To Us by April 14th goes to RTC board to uh approval in May and the plotting studies will be programmed to begin in July of this year there's my recommended recommend recommended motion I'm here to answer any questions thank you council member dur oh thank you uh could you go back to your uh slide this one um so I had a chance to preview this before Council and I I really pleased that you guys have focused on this crash analysis um at the same time I asked you and I will ask now uh if if we approve this then you're going to go plan how to deal with the clashes is that right how how to do what ex plan how to deal with crashes yeah yes so essentially we would study these areas in a in a transportation study and the reason why they're grouped together is to is to inorder but one Corridor will affect the other Corridor as far as as far as the stud well you mean if you go to the previous slide um they're grouped together um like this way yeah okay but there's still three distinct areas yes so if you go back to the other slide my recommendation um I have had a lot of complaints about trucks idling all kind of places and residential areas at intersections near industrial and residential areas sleeping overnight simply storing the the truck bay you know if that's what you call it leaving the truck there on the road and each of these creates a um code enforcement kind of issue because you're not supposed to do that but nevertheless they're doing it so we get complaints I don't even know who to call okay call Reno Direct 24 hour 36 hours they might be gone right by the time someone goes out there but it's just I I would like to see the regional truck route plan moved up in this list I I think it's very important I used to get complaints in South Reno about trucks not covering their load even though that's a city requirement and I just really think um not following the you you set out a route but they're not following it you know and there there seems so I guess I'd like to see more attention on the trucks especially with the deliveries the moving I mean we're like a moving Capital everybody's moving all the Distribution Hub trucks I just I think trucks are a pretty big issue for our community I'd like to see a move up on the list if if I I'd probably bump it up at least one maybe even two I understand 28 to 35 crash rate you know per mile or however you do it per whatever uh seems to be a high priority to me and maybe the others are too and maybe leave this but I'm glad to at least see it on the list I'd rather move up on the list thank you thanks council member ree thank you madam vice mayor I appreciate all the work that's gone into it I want to take the opportunity also to thank RTC for the work that goes into it and the collaboration between the two jurisdictions um I think um each one of the presentations both the first one and this one highlight sort of the important role that uh Traffic Safety engineering plays and also just maintenance questions and concerns so I think they're very distinct things for my part these proposal submissions are are how they should be uh in the ranking order that they are I think I prefer the crash mitigation analysis and also think that how you came to these rankings was to look at the data and I think we should be very data driven uh we should think about and prioritize the safety issues over perhaps some of the other issues and not to say that aren all four of these aren't equally important I think they actually all have some importance um but I think the uh folks in those areas very specifically want to see those things addressed so I have no objection to proposed sub missal on the order that they're ranked here council members other questions council member Ebert yeah um how much of this is um being shared with the community and um venues like navs or just any type of communication with um residents in the city of REO so they can kind of know what to expect upcoming projects and areas maybe where they have frustration so they they can know in advance that there are improvements coming I will let Vanessa answer that question good afternoon Vanessa laser director of planning for RTC so um if I hear you correctly you're asking about sort of our public engagement so the public knows what what to expect what what um projects and improvements are coming in the community um so these would be plans so these would be studies and plans so no projects yet from these um but every time we do a big push like with our upw that's our our work program for two years we hold a public hearing um it's part of our um you know board meeting our our board approves it so it is public record it is public information it is a required document um by the federal government as well uh for us to plan what we're doing for the next two years and then the projects themselves that result from these plans uh are funneled into our longrange planning docu document our regional transportation plan and similarly we have public Outreach around that letting the community know here's the draft um what are your comments um so we just went through that process and approved um our uh Regional Transportation plan just this February okay thank you any other questions comments concerns council member ree Madam Vice May I moved to approve submitting the four rank proposals to the Regional Transportation Commission for the unified planning work program fiscal year 2627 okay we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much thank you RTC moving on to item C1 Madame clerk do we have any public comment Madame vice mayor we do not have any public comment registered and have not received any correspondence but proper notice was given on the side okay thank you Mr Foster welcome all right good afternoon um Madame mayor over there members of the council Jeff Foster associate planner for the record bringing you the partial abandonment of record Street ABN 25-2 this is a request for an abandonment of approximately 9,222 Square ft uh of record Street uh about 200 25 ft south of the intersection with Fourth Street north of the uprr tracks and ases Stadium the partial abandonment was anticipated and included as a part of the sale of 315 and 335 record Street Properties which was approved at Council in April of last year to facilitate development of an affordable housing project uh per the purchase and sale agreement a portion of the record Street must be abandoned uh by the city a reversion to acreage must be completed in order for the seller to convey the property to buyer at the close of escrow and the abandonment must be approved by the appropriate governmental entities prior to and as a condition of the close of escrow um as we zoom in here uh you can see that the properties to the uh west and south uh that's the CAC the community Assistance Center um to the this uh East you have the city uprr and Catholic community services of Northern Nevada properties and then to the north you have record Street uh the key issues that we looked at were the abandonment background and financial um turning to the abandonment background uh the area that is proposed to be abandoned was previously converted into the parking lot for the CAC uh it was gated off enclosed to the public and it is currently used for parking for Lake Tahoe aworks um the abandonment will not have a negative impact on the adjacent Street Network or overall traffic circulation in the area and properties affected by the abandonment will continue to have access to East 4th Street um there are five Parcels that are affected you have the CAC parcel here you have two CAC parking area Parcels here uh there's a Remnant uprr parcel adjacent to the railroad tracks there and you have a Catholic community services parcel here um there are some public amenities namely in the form of parking area trees that would be removed with future development but there are no other public amenities that would be impacted by the proposed abandonment uh the abandonment area would be merged with the parcel to the South uh the existing utilities there are existing utilities within the abandonment area namely electric lines and Tuma water man and services the city will retain ownership of the abandonment area initially and no city-owned easements or utilities will be abandoned at this time instead they will be addressed with future mapping and permitting the adjacent Parcels are Zone mixed use downtown Entertainment District and mixed use downtown Innovation District uh the abandonment area will be merged with the parcel to the South so the adjacent mded zoning will be applied to the abandonment area turning to financial the subject area was quick claim to the city and the city now owns the streets and alleys in fee title since the street was not dedicated on the original tract map the abandonment area does not revert back to the center line uh to or sorry revert back to the adjacent properties on either side of the center line as is the case with most abandonments uh the abandonment uh was included in the sale of the of the 315 and 335 record Street Properties and will be paid for upon the close of escrow and the city will benefit from reduced liability and maintenance Associated uh with the uh existing parking area as well as the related sale of the record Street Properties uh in making an abandonment or in approving an abandonment you have one F uh finding to make and that is that approving in approving any abandonment the city council shall find that the public will not be materially injured by the proposed abandonment um other than the parking area trees there are no public amenities no bus stops no benches um and no negative impact on the adjacent Street Network or overall traffic circulation in the area is expected staff can make the recommended finding here's the recommended motion uh the applicants representative will also be making a presentation and I'm available for question questions I forgot to ask if any um council members had disclosures I didn't see any okay thank you Madame vice mayor if no one has questions I'm prepared to make a motion okay what did they want to make a presentation or I don't think we need one so unless unless you want to come up if you have any questions okay okay council member Ebert no uh presentation was [Music] there yes good afternoon thank you for having me uh Gabe whitler with Odyssey engineering if you could bring up my PowerPoint thanks I'd like to thank Jeff for stealing my thunder as well he covered it perfectly um but I'll just go through maybe a couple other little details and give you an update on from the development side of things how how things are going so Jeff covered all the the technical details that I would have covered as well this is the background kind of gives you a history of of why this the streets weren't originally properly dedicated it was an old map and I imagine most of you probably aware that debacle so all this is a current aerial the abandonment area hatched there to the east of the the old Community U Assistance Center um I can't say that demolition plans are in the works as we speak for the two uh older buildings that that comprise the the Assistance Center so you'll you'll be seeing uh bids coming forward uh fairly soon for for actual demolition of those buildings again the abandonment area and the resultant parcel um uh Jeff covered it perfectly in that uh this Z fee simple so it it's not a typical abandonment you might see where it goes to Center Line uh some utility Network in the area there's some public uh City Envy energy and Tumo utilities and those will be handled accordingly as soon as this abandonment is recorded we can proceed with a what's called a merger resub parcel map and that'll create one large parcel for the city to sell to developer and and then there'll be a remainder on a a small leg that runs down the railroad tracks to East at the city will retain this gives you a just a real rough sketch of um what's to come uh it will be an affordable housing project and U I believe the city's already entered into agreements with the current developer this has changed slightly as it's starting to progress into uh into a real design there will be emergency access back to record but no Public Access um but this just gives you an idea of what what we're trying to accomplish here with the abandonment so okay if you have any technical questions or development side questions please council member Ebert or I'm sorry council member you have more uh yeah I just want to ask a few questions so on this design there will only be one primary access point to get in and out with this abandonment corre correct y okay did did it have access through there prior to this uh currently there's a gated access onto Evans and there's a gated access at record so yes and and we've been working with the fire department on prelim plans and discussions and we will be tying in emergency access back to record for emergency only purposes we're we're actually trying to discourage Public Access through record I don't know if you're familiar with record in for street it's bit of a mess intersection so uh we feel it's better to force everybody back to Evans and than toh continue to utilize that that intersection and you kind of touched on Envy energy a little bit does this affect where the power lines are at all will this require them to be shifted I know there was some discussion previously about the cost of moving them yes we will definitely not be moving those that's a major transmission line U you see that dash line says existing power line there's a a substation by the ballpark just to the east of the ballpark it comes overhead onto the site and then that gray Square you see in that landscape Island on site is a large drop pole and so there this is where it goes underground and it runs underground up record and continues to a subst station up off of McCarron and so we will be working around that we've already worked with EnV energy to make sure we're um allotting enough easement so that they're they're happy with the the new alignment um where currently they have RightWay point so okay well thank you I know there's a lot of um public scrutiny over this area and the projects there so I just um appreciate you taking the time to give a a presentation on it thank you yeah council member door yeah I want to compliment you looks like a Creative Design to you I mean this is a tough site and looks like you're coming up with a reasonable design to to make the best of these features so I got to compliment you but on the abandonment I just wanted to get it on the record who owns the area now I there was a lot of um Powerpoints and discussion so I just want to get it really clear who owns it now the city Arena and and who will own it so as soon as so the city arena is requesting abandonment from the City of Reno to that's why I'm confused because I didn't know if it was within some subset of the City of Reno it's not part of a Redevelopment District ownership or no so so could you just explain this just why are we even having to do this like we already own it and we will own it and so what are we exactly doing well it's technically considered a rideway as opposed to um just a a standard parcel and so so who actually owns underlying ground yeah City Areno okay and the easement yeah City Areno yeah I mean this has to be done Jee so I mean but it's going from one Department to could you just quickly explain I I've missed the the key element here so is as Jeff Foster associate planner for the record so because this is in a a ride of way as Gabe said even though it's behind a fence and it's a parking area it's a ride of way yeah and so it has to be abandoned in order to create a parcel we're abandoning the brigh away in the RightWay in order to create a parcel that then gets merged with another parcel and then gets merged with several other Parcels one one big package but it's because it's specifically laid out as RightWay on top of land we own so we're basically dissolving the RightWay is that right you could you could look at it that way yes okay just just sort of trying to get my head straight thank you Madame vice mayor I can find that there will be no material injury to the proposed vacation of the abandonment and approve it subject conditions in staff report and therefore move to approve staff recommendation second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much um let's see we are moving on to item D6 which is the public art master plan Madam clerk do we have any public comment we do not have any public comment registered and haven't received any correspondence okay welcome Megan hello good afternoon Madam vice mayor city council Megan burner arts and culture manager for the record um we are here today to present to you the updated public art master plan for the City of Reno this has been over a year in the works and it's replacing an over 20-year-old public art master plan um we worked with a consultant Todd Bry who also um consulted with two other public art professionals as part of his team um to work on this master plan and he is here today to present to you virtually um and so I'm going to pass it over to him to present he's actually in the audience um and he can do his uh presentation from I think yeah he's on Zoom what was the name yeah so he's going to do a quick overview um and then we'll be here to answer questions and hopefully adopt our new master plan our public art master plan am I um uh can everybody hear me we can can hear you Todd okay Megan will you be um showing the um the presentation while I speak so you're able to share your screen if you want to do it that might what works better on your end it go ahead if you're ready to present it Megan I think he's saying he's not comfortable doing it you just need a minute here do you want me to just do it that's fine maybe easier okay we got it thank you okay there we go all right um well hello everybody uh my name again it's Todd Bry and I am a public art planning consultant based in Philadelphia uh thank you very much for inviting me uh to be here with Megan to present to you the public our Master Plan update uh for uh for REO um I am a u independent consultant I work on my own although as Megan said I worked with two colleagues Jessica kusk from Los Angeles and Amina Cooper from Atlanta who are both uh experienced in the kinds of projects and programs that Reno has um I work across the country with cities with with uh private sector and with nonprofits to help them develop public Arts strategies and was selected for this project through competitive process and so I thank you for putting your trust in me to do this work um next slide I'd like to uh talk briefly today about uh what this uh what the key uh recommendations are in the master plan uh as Megan says uh said this uh update uh this update's a plan that was um adopted more than 20 years ago um the program's been operating under that framework with only modest changes since then uh this process involved the comprehensive review of the program and recommendations for moving forward about how public art should impact the city and outline of the work the program should focus on and proposals for adopting the administration of the program so over the next few minutes I'll walk through two particular areas of highlights uh how the plan helps Focus the program's Direct and what some of the um uh changes are proposed for how the program is administered particularly to improve planning and make sure uh certain processes are more efficient and more clear next slide first um a brief summary of the public engagement that we did it involved reaching out to key stakeholders as well as to people in the city at large our public uh survey which included both multiple choice and open-ended questions which is important it enabled people to tell us anything they wanted to tell us not just answer questions we posed uh was answered by 558 people I've done this in a lot of places and uh and that score Reno was punching above its weight I think we got a big Boost from the TV station which um ran a segment on this and it registered a big tick uptick and responses uh we circulated Focus questionnaires to artists to members of selection panels and commissions um we did sit down and telephone interviews tours of Arts organization facilities uh a tour of the Reno Sparks Indian colony uh it had several roundtables including four for artists and made presentations to most of the neighborhood advisory boards uh the last two months of this process when we had a draft plan on view for people for the public to see uh we we put display boards in various public buildings around the city and received 38 online uh comment forums where people uh responded to the plan next slide so what do we learn from all that well first uh Reno's uh program is well liked by the public and respected by stakeholders the people who work with the public art team Reno's artists want to connect with the public art opportunities uh but don't always understand how to connect the work they do as artist with public art um there's a desire among the public for a project that's I iconic memorable symbolic of the city as well as for projects that talk about Reno's stories its histories its cultural diversity and that create a sense of home for people and there is a uh desire particularly expressed by many of you who we interviewed the council members to ensure that projects are spread throughout all the Ws of the city we also learned Reno's public art ordinance is uh relative to others overly detailed and could be streamlined uh it's public art guidelines should be adopted to give the program flexibility to work more fluidly with the variety of City agencies it works with now and to uh manage the different kinds of projects that it does we also explored about 10 Pier projects uh programs in the region um contacting other public art programs and I'll refer to what we learned from them a few moments later the Master Plan update focuses on three main directions for Reno's public art program the first is that every the next 3 to 5 years the program should plan at least one big project survey response has indicated that people are interested in seeking something bold and ambitious and here are some ideas that emerged from surveys and conversations with stakeholders about what that might be a mural of giant size perhaps a partnership with the private sector to place a mural in one of the large Distribution Center buildings uh in town uh a uh projects related to the river multifaceted partnership with temporary art uh and programming uh light considering the day and nighttime sky of Reno one of its truly remarkable qualities could be an exhibition a recurring project or a permanent project and finally um Land Art a fine tradition in the west uh could be a major integrated artwork in Reno potentially in a future project along the river next Slide the second uh uh area of work is for the public art program to continue to align its projects with the other City agencies looking for opportunities for Mission alignment by doing this among other things the program can accelerate its ability to disperse projects throughout the city with economic development there are opportunities for placemaking uh murals and what I'll talk about in a moment an idea called small walls with parks there opportunities for both in new parks but also retrofitting existing parks with projects such as shade structures or Community focused uh installations uh with public art and RTC we just heard about their uh next round of projects uh there's potential for gateways and roundabouts and the plan uh outlines how working relationships could emerge between uh the public art program and these these uh these collaborating uh agencies next slide finally um the public art program should continue with its own initiatives perhaps adapting them in response to uh what's been learned over the last few years uh the art belongs here program as Illustrated in the lower left uh could become a more intentional program where artists and Community organizations receive capacity building support uh in addition to funds for uh community and artist Le projects uh there is a great desire among people uh who uh responded to our surveys um to revisit the idea of a temporary sculpture exhibition uh they remembered the player art project the arena sculpture Fest and hope to see something like that again uh the idea could be to seed a new exhibition that could ultimately be taken over uh by an independent organization finally expand the signal box and the Lake Street galleries into a small walls program that commissions accessibly scaled by that I mean the size that art emerging artists could work on uh throughout the City downtown Town economic development areas walls and parks that could provide artists with a stepping stone up from the signal boxes and then from there they could develop the skill to do larger murals and overall the program should look at these projects as a way of collecting and presenting artworks that tap into a range of cultural voices and historical narratives that present an Ever evolving story of the city next slide a thread that runs through all of this work as much as possible should be for the program to connect Reno uh the public art program to Reno artists and nonprofits to build their capacity and to create and manage public art projects this would involve pairing artists new to this work with seasoned artists and making sure commissions are available for people at a variety of skill levels for example an artist could start with a signal box move to a small wall move to a mural maybe one day do a giant mural on a distribution center I also like the idea of uh teaming with other cities in the state we learned from our research that uh public art is uh growing vigorously particularly in the South part of the State uh and networking with those other programs to provide professional development and opportunities to apply for projects would benefit uh Reno artists next slide so how would the program accomplish this uh the plan recommends a few changes to how the program is managed the public art coordinator position uh excuse me the uh the the the program should um create a public art coordinator position which has already been uh instituted which relieves the arts and culture manager from the Dual duty of day-to-day responsibility for public art and for the city's overall arts and culture activities and can provide a higher level of capacity this is one of the things we learned from Pier cities uh who almost all in in in the uh mountain region almost all of whom had a a separate public art program leader and arts and culture Department leader uh we're not recommending any changes from the current levels of public art funding right now uh with this update in place we are recommending that the plan that the program plan its work more strategically uh the annual work plan process could take a look three years into the future in order to anticipate future needs for major projects and to make sure there's a good balance of of projects in terms of the locations in this the types of artworks and their budgets and their budget levels and finally we're recommending that the public art committee be replaced with a task force approach which I'll discuss uh further in a moment next [Music] slide uh we me recommending that the public art program now be responsible for maintenance and conservation of artworks previously that was the responsibility of the site agency or the the department where they who was responsible for the site where the art was located and this is possible because the maintenance funding Council now provides to the public art program as well as to the two public art Tech positions uh that are in the arts arts and culture Department uh this is key to ensuring the best care of the city's artworks the plan appendix includes updated guidelines that are related to a variety of administrative procedures providing more detail Clarity criteria uh and and updating them as well with current practices in the field later the program will come back to you with ordinance changes uh that simplify the ordinance and align it with the recommendations in the plan next slide uh finally the plan introduces the concept of a task force and helping to guide public art projects uh and uh to discontinue the public art committee this was another learning from our Research into other public art programs uh none of the programs that we uh contacted had a separate art commission and public art committee Reno was an outlier The Proposal on the plan is for a task force to be specially constituted for each project the task force would include uh uh project and Community stakeholders as well as our commission members and others experienced in public art the task force role would be to help establish the scope of the project advise on artist selection advise on the artist concept and advise on community engagement its recommendations would go to the the arts and culture commission the main reason for this is to improve community and stakeholder involvement in the public art process more voices can be involved in processes this way and they will also be able to have more of an impact on more of the decisions that are made about the project also the task could potentially reduce and it would certainly optimize staff workload since there will no longer be the need for a monthly public art committee meeting uh those the highlights of the plan that I wanted to present to you today uh I want to thank you for your attention again thank you uh for the opportunity to work in your community and to get to know you I'm confident that these uh recommendations and the plan will help put the program uh on a firm footing uh for the next 5 years and Beyond uh again thank you for your time today and Megan and I would be happy to answer any questions you might have thank you very much council members questions comments council member member ree thank you madam vice mayor first of all thank you to both of you for the excellent engaged process I enjoyed our conversations around this I think I'll say for everyone's benefit I continue to enjoy the beautiful art that this community produces and think there are so many ways in which um we are so uh grateful Miss burner to you for not only being an artist in your own right but also supporting the art that happens here locally um I I don't that I know enough about all the minute elements of what he spoke of and so I don't think you're looking for us to like say I like this piece of it but not that uh but for my part um H how do we move forward to assist you in the work that you're doing I I think the uh art plan is great I hope that we'll be able to carry out every element of it I am so very worried with our financial uh picture currently regionally about what we can really marginally or reasonably do how do you want us to take it how do you wish us to see the adoption of such a plan so the plan itself thank you um Megan burner arts and culture manager for the record um the plan itself actually is not making any recommendations on funding and our funding level currently I don't want to say this disparagingly but it's not a ton of money and most of it comes from our room tax budget um and so we do a lot with that we can continue to do these things um with the current allocations that we have um and most of these things even if we potentially you know due to the current climate you know if we lost some of those revenues um we're still able to move forward and I think this this in itself just provides a very clear sort of map for our strategies for the next 5 years or so and Miss burner to be clear I I think you're very undervalued and appreciated you do make a lot with very little all those things are true um but there's recommendations here and things like adding persons and I I I take it you're not asking for that today what you're saying is here's this master plan it sets out a better vision for Arts community and how we can support it and over the next 10 years while we have this master plan in place I hope that we'll be able to undertake efforts that are consistent with this planning document is that a fair way to assess it okay thank you so very much I just didn't want any anyone to be confused council member Anderson I just wanted to compliment you and your team um in the couple of meetings that I've had the privilege of sitting in with the Arts um commission and committee I'll get all of that straight eventually um it has really been eye opening to me about really the depth of conversation and engagement and thoughtful planning that goes into each and every one of these these um pieces and so I just wanted to appreciate you I don't know that um that I ever really appreciated how many people in the community have a voice in how you move forward with public Arts so thank you for that thank [Music] you I was um meeting with a constituent the other day and they talked about how the Arts actually have the economic benefit and I don't know what it was for $1 $7 come back and I think I wish yes councilman re said I wish we had more money to invest in this and I appreciate everything that you do with such a small budget um council member do did you have any comments um yeah I just you know I served as the lison for arts and culture for eight years so I got a very in-depth view of what they do and I think it is remarkable what Megan on her own does I mean over the years they've had you know some people that work very hard to to both put up exhibits take down exhibits store our setup events was in your group as well I mean it's just a very um complex area and um it brings us a lot of recognition to your point earlier um I think it is something like 7 to1 um economic benefit Edon actually did a study on this and and touted the results of the study so it shows that it pays for itself just like parking meters enforcement you know you invest and you get things back plus we live in a more beautiful fantastic city as a result of it um I had a chance to go over the plan it looked like the recommendations were good it is going to take some time I mean we're bringing a new plan at a time that we have down revenues and a difficulty meeting it we have one Revenue source which is the room tax um and and even that we're talking about moving around in some ways so it's not a perfect timing for art right now it isn't it's Heyday per se but I think this does lay out a road map on um you know how to make some improvements and really um I guess fulfill the dream that we've had of Reno and the Arts so appreciate all the effort that's gone into it I appreciate a person from Philadelphia I grew up 20 miles from Philadelphia um they have a very vibrant Arts culture I know I have artist friends that live in Philadelphia um so anyway I appreciate it Kudos thank you council member Anderson do you want to make the motion I have a comment oh sorry council member e um and forgive me if if this was already mentioned um I had to go to the back for a second but um there was some artwork in there that looked like shade structures are you partnering with um parks and recx at all to um maybe hire artists to do shade around play equipment and things like that I know that um we need shade structures we like having art maybe those two can kind of come together we could you know hire artists and um get some interesting kind of so that that is one of the recommendations in the plan on okay great yeah awesome okay that was it thank you make a motion to accept the updated City of Reno public art master plan okay we have a motion of second all those in favor I all those opposed motion passes unanimously thank you Meg and thank you for everything that you do thank you okay Madam clerk it looks like we are moving on to our ordinances um introduction which is item E1 and I'll ask somebody from our thank you Madame vice mayor ordinance introduction bill number 7295 an ordinance amending Reno Municipal Code title 12 Public Works and utilities chapter 12.16 Sewer Service Article 2 Section 12.16.17 5 titled sewer connection fee credit policy to delete the expiration date for the connection fee credits amending section 12.16 420 titled sewer user fees when vacant fire damaged or demolished and amending section 12.16 430 titled termination of charges to remove the provisions regarding demolished properties together with matters properly relating there to thank you do you have any public comment Madam clerk we have no public comment registered and have not received any correspondence okay council members um I don't it doesn't look like there's a presentation but do we have some questions or comments council member dur yeah thank you and I think there was a correspondence on this um actually uh you might want to check it came in late maybe um but I um the first I learned about this topic was when I received the agenda and in light of all the other big things on the agenda it kind of escaped my attention um my concern is and and I've sent a little update to our staff that we're working on this and I would I would prefer to not consider this today frankly and here's why usually um when we are amending ordinances we've established a policy of getting a presentation about why the ordinance change is needed what's contemplated in it some conversation um we did not have that so I do not know until um you know I read the memo and I got a little chance to speak with Ashley in the back but I I really didn't know what was driving this or why we would do it and I think that the ordinance that we have is pretty good and is well intentioned um she mentioned a case that um as having problem meeting the our current ordinance and I get that that's a problem um usually that's where a waiver or a variance or something can come into play we don't generally change an entire ordinance to satisfy one one group or one development no matter how good they are which it sounds like it's a it's a apartment complex always good to have more housing but um and what I what I mentioned is that having a expiration date on a credit in my mind should spur development and in my 10 years on Council I've only received that I can recall especially one downtown one request to extend the time frame uh for the the credits and I I am concerned that if we do what is contemplated here and again we we didn't never have a chance to discuss this as a group we we didn't have a chance to discuss this in our policy briefings I mean I I have not talked to any single staff person about this prior to this moment uh or earlier today so the idea of the credits expiring is that they expire so that um if a property comes back 10 years from now um fees have changed they would pay a new fee now miss miss attorney explained to me they still contemplate them paying the new fee just but also getting a credit for the fee that was already paid and what I'm concerned about is that this is supposed to work as an incentive to develop sooner rather than later but the argument in this this memo is that it's a disincentive and that the new incentive is to not have a time frame to just leave it wide open and that in my mind that means there's we've lost any incentive to develop and in fact I thought we were discussing at Council the need to uh require people that left their properties vacant to actually have some penalty for doing that whether it's a tax penalty property uh an override a something that says you can't just sit here with moldering buildings things falling down forever and not do something so um you know I'm concerned I don't want to vote no on this but I don't know enough about it and I would at least like to get some kind of briefing with our staff to better understand it and always with something like this there's unintended consequence I want to make sure we've just thought it all through and that we're just like we don't do what we call spot zoning like just one person wants one thing so we'll wave everything we don't generally change rules unless we've had a thoughtful process where staff have come and said this is a problem this is how we propose to fix it so I admire and acknowledge your effort to address something Miss turny but I I don't feel prepared to vote on it and if forced to vote on it I'm afraid I might have to vote no and I would just rather have a little more time so that's that's where I am thank you council member ree thank you madam vice mayor Miss attorney a couple of things I'm rather agnostic I I I don't know that I know enough yet about it but let me see if I can connect a few dots first am I correct that Regional Road impact fees and police facility impact fees is run with the land and forever at no expiration Ashley attorney assistant city manager for the record that is correct so it is not uncommon for impact fees like sewer impact fees uh Road or police ones to just run with the land in perpetuity correct so there's no uh disincentive to those things to be building they continue into perpetuity what what is the impetus for this particular one is there a particular um development that right now is just itching to go but they find themselves with as holders of some expired credit or about to expire yes this has been a conversation that staff has been having for well over a year as identification of additional Tools in your tool as City Council Members to help spur development particularly as it relates to housing which we know we are in dire need of um what's in front of you today is to remove what we believe a policy that had intention 14 years ago however has not panned out the way that we wish that it would um and the example is we do have one particular project that is in the downtown core that is an estimated 300 apartments in our downtown area that but for these expired credits their deal would pencil and they would would be ready to move forward with finishing their due diligence period and to start construction so as to that specific one why can't they just come in and ask us and say hey we're here we need some waiver whatever misser characterize it as and let us do that and we could vote individually on that one is that not a possibility it is not a possibility because their credits have expired and the way that our ordinance is written which is a law does not allow us to do spot instances uh staff has identified we estimate that there's a potential of 92 Parcels that this would apply to uh which is not nothing uh but however it's not a substantial amount but we do believe that it is an additional tool that can come in and to be clear if they own the parcel and it had expired credits they'd still have to pay the current rate for connecting meaning we don't lose anything it's just that they get credit for whatever the historical payment was that is correct they would come in at today's sewer hookup fees and this is just a credit for what has already been paid so if the sewer credit connection excuse me the sewer connection fees were a million dollar and their previous credits were 400,000 they would pay that Delta of 600,000 and is there anything today that is so pressing that if we don't move this for today some fabulous deal that we would otherwise want collapses and it cannot be done meaning Miss derer May seek a motion to continue and generally my preference is to support my colleagues when they do that because it's at their prerogative to request such a continuance but I don't want to do it to the detriment of anyone uh it's expensive out there in the world the price of steel goes up every time um the White House makes a different policy statement I I just don't want to delay things unnecessarily if we're going to get to the same outcome two weeks from now there is at least one parcel potentially two in the downtown core that is in their due diligence phase and if they do not have their sewer credits extended to them then their due diligence period expires in May and they will not proceed with the development so that is part of the pressing timing for this particular instance and Madam vice mayor if I may just one last question um I've gone over time but I wanted to just ask is there any evidence that suggests that making them expire Spurs development I mean there was a public comment or came in in an email and a letter to us all um someone who you know is challenges all the decisions we we do and I want to make sure that giving a good um opportunity for those people to redress their government is there anything like that in staff's analysis we do not believe that this has spurred the development that was the original intent part of this was passed in 2011 and this Council may remember we were still in the depths of the recession and property had not rebounded this was seen as twofold one to help folks who' experienced a fire so that way they didn't have to pay all of the fees they'd already paid uh the secondary one was to Spur development and to prevent land speculation and from people from sitting on their property um this council is very familiar with I speak to our downtown cor specifically but we see this in other areas anything that we're looking for density and we've not seen that development that we would hope um it is more expensive to build in our core as we know and that is something that is aligned with the master plan is looking for density and this is just an additional incentive to help with that oh sorry um I have a quick question did you get your question answer C memories so I'm not necessarily in favor of doing one-offs for projects or whatever but as a policy it sounds like this is a policy decision that helps it's encouraging Property Owners to clean up blighted property while also incent incentivizing development so as a policy decision this sounds like something that's very positive moving forward specifically for the downtown court is that accurate that is correct well we have mentioned one particular property that has requested this or started the conversation again this has been a bigger conversation for about a year from a policy decision of was the original intent 14 years ago did it fulfill the need and from what we've seen from development in our core areas it didn't meet that need so this is a policy conversation in front of you today is we try to thing we are not seeing the outcome that we would have hoped from that thing so this is an opportunity to change that and I guess for my position I I appreciate council member doer conversation but I feel comfortable moving a little bit faster in this space especially if it's an opportunity to help somebody um not just to help somebody but as a policy decision to maybe get more units downtown or more units in the region so council member um Ebert thank you um I just want to say you know thank you for all your work on this um I agree with council member der on this I think that this is something we can use as a tool to motivate people to move forward um I also think that you know we've had some comments in the past about the cost of doing business and I feel like this is the cost of doing business um we have expiration dates they were're put in to help kind of fight against um vacant properties and things like that and I think that we're taking that tool away um so I I agree with council member derer I don't necessarily want to say no on this but maybe if we could have more information about the potential impacts of this but just um in general I'm not in favor of this because it is quite literally the cost of doing business and I'm not sure um after a long amount of time what kind of changes Could Happen along the way and maybe it's not even appropriate for them to have that um credit anymore so um I don't at this time support this as a as a change for one off and and and if we do then where is that line drawn are are you know expiration dates do they even matter should we just get rid of all of them um and I appreciate that there might be a couple jobs that would benefit from this but um you know this is this is an ordinance Citywide this is not something to just be changed as projects come in so those are my comments thank you council members um council member Reese or council member dur yeah I have one followup um I want to be really c um I support all the tools in the toolbox to support development where where I'm breaking down and and this is really I know that this is really a comment for Miss Bryan so when she's done um but we have a process to do ordinance development and I just want us to follow that process I want to learn about it I want you to explain why this is a good thing I want to look at the numbers like how many people have maybe I don't know all the people that have asked all I know is that when when has come up we've we have done a development agreement I was at the Leading Edge I'm the one who helped um make the motion to do the development agreement to extend the sewer Credit Now the person that came in on that one wanted a 20-year extension on the sewer credit we all agreed that 20 years was too long and and you remember you were here council member of East we decided on five-year extension we didn't ex we didn't say forever we weren't comfortable with that 20 or 30 years or forever we said said you know what we'll extend it for 5 years we still wanted to incentivize the people to come and do a development so I don't want this to be misconstrued I want to learn about your ideas I want to be persuaded by them uh you told me there may be a a carrot and a stick involved there may be this could be a carrot but there could be some other sticks to get invol I'd like to see what that is so it's it's really to you about process and so if I vote no um if there's a motion to approve it I'm not going to step in the way of it but um in the intervening time because this has to come back a second time I would hope somebody would get with me talk me through it if you've been working on this for a year I'm sorry you said struggling for a year several times it seems like in that year we could have become part of knowledge about the problem and be aware that you're moving towards a fix so that that's my probably bigger issue right at the moment and and I don't have in this sort amount of time and a couple three minute question to fully understand the implications and so I'm just not ready to vote Yes so today I might vote no but that doesn't mean when the ordinance adoption comes I might have a different opinion because I'll learn more okay okay thank you for that uh council member dur and we hear you we'll make sure that someone gets with you yeah and it sounds like maybe council member Ebert I don't know Madame vice mayor I mooved to refer the bill for a second reading and adoption I had my hand raised for a second okay can we we'll do that under discussion I have a motion do we have a second my hand was raised before the motion I mean if you just tell me we're just going to have a motion we're going to have a second and then we're going to get to discussion you can have your time I just have a question on procedure if my hand is raised before a motion is made and I don't know if I'm supposed to raise my hand or put my hand up on the screen okay we have a motion in a second now we'll move into discussion so council member e sounds like you have some questions or discussion go ahead yeah and who knows if it would have affected a motion at all correct anyhow um yeah again I just think that we shouldn't be changing things for one or two developments um I don't know if these uh developments are in RDA area and maybe they could apply for Tiff and there's other tools available to help them complete their project you mentioned at least one of them was in the downtown Corridor um I just think that it is a a good way to motivate um potential developers to council member doers point about a project that went in an extension for 20 years um and no yeah Council supported not allowing that um I I just sometimes wonder like what the motivation is for this kind of thing you know I I have people that call me and tell me they can't afford CPI to go up on their sewer bill they they can't afford an increase on that but Council does not consider things like pausing CPI increases on sewer bills so I I'm just from the again point of cost of doing business I don't think that this is a wise move in a business sense to do this so those are my comments thank you thank you we have a motion and a second I'm going to ask the clerk to do a roll call vote on this one please vice mayor Taylor yes council member Durer no council member Martinez yes council member Ebert no council member Reese yes council member Anderson yes 42 pass vote passes okay thank you very much it looks like we are moving on to I want to make sure um the G items which is city clerk and these are the um appointment items so G1 is the knob appointments for Ward one I would like to uh do we have any public comment madam clerk there's no public comment registered and we haven't received any correspondence okay thank you I would make a motion to um appoint Claudia Davis Brian Harvey Maya Johnson Raymond Sherwood and Antonio tayor second we have a motion in a second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries uh item number G2 Madam vice mayor um this this is Ward five um I don't believe there's any public comment um but I will uh move in alphabetic order to appoint Kathleen a Hearns Kayla Bailey Jessica Bullard Nolan Lindsay Darrow Megan Deton mayor mumi Doyama Corey Fredericks Camy lore Denzel marale and Steven York second we have a motion in a second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously um item G3 this is for the ward 6 Advisory Board do we have any public comment uh there's no public comment and um sorry no correspondence okay I would like to appoint Sarah Collins Elina Johnson Julia Moreno Fritz and William Newman Jr second although we have a motion and a second although those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously item G4 do we have any public comment Madam clerk there's no public comment registered and we haven't received any correspondence Madame vice mayor I'll move to appoint Cody Shadel which is a reappointment we have a motion in a second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously item G5 do we have any public comment there's no public comment registered and we haven't received any correspondence okay Madam manager thank you very much I I recommend uh vice mayor Kathleen Taylor as the reappointment by motion we have a motion and second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much Council item let's see G6 G6 [Applause] this is back to you Madame manager thank you I recommend Mark Sullivan reappointment that would be my motion second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously um we are moving to the consent items that were pulled and I believe those are B 8 9 and 10 and council member IA I believe you pulled these yes thank you hi hi so for item B8 um can you just talk briefly about what this agreement entails um you know what what um is going to go into this project with this is this the agreement for the actual construction or is this just an agreement to come up with the design can you just kind of explain what this is yep uh Eric Miller associate civil engineer with U ility Services for the record uh this agreement is to um finalize the design of the and then do the construction management of it so we haven't quite awarded the construction of it yet um but this is going to transfer into the um I guess sub mittle reviews and inspection of the project to make sure that we're getting the best product that we can okay so not any part of the construction just a design piece and the management of the project it be the management of the construction okay so once once the construction happens this will be yeah the submittal review the uh while the the contractor's actually out there digging we'll have an inspector out there and testing and everything else that is needed but not the actual construction yet okay and do we have an idea of what the actual construction is going to cost or is that something that'll come to council later uh it will come to council later we don't have an actual we have an estimate on it but we don't have a hard cost from the contractor yet okay and do we know about the timeline for this to begin um we are hoping that uh probably June we'll get it approved the the construction portion of it um electrical items for Lift stations we have been seen taking about N9 months to a year to be procured and fabricated um so some of these lift stations do have some large electrical will work on it um some may not so some of this work could be done early it's going to be we're really going to let it be up to the contractor um somewhat to dictate when they want and can do the work what's going to be work best for um their okay schedule will this um affect any capacity at all like for instance flow shave or or um ability to uh move forward with any development in some of these wards we don't have them completed lift stations completed NOP these are strictly just maintenance items that uh we're having failing infrastructure that we're trying just to repair okay all right but during the construction time there won't be an any adverse impact n of of the okay thank you um any other questions it doesn't look like it do you want to do a motion sure I'll make a motion to approve second all those in favor I I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you item B9 hi hello um I I don't know if you have a presentation but I just have some questions okay so this is about the approval of an amendment to the franchise agreement for shared Mobility between Birds uh scooters and the City of Reno to extend the term of the agreement until April 2027 does this agreement have any modifications um any any additional services that bird is to um provide to the City of Reno so Suzanne graman uh with my new title environmental services manager um for the record and no it does not make any other changes other than extending the current agreement in its current form okay has there been any discussions with bird um in regards to potential Ada um issues if a bird scooter is blocking um maybe a corner where there's a ramp for a wheelchair or scooters on sidewalks and and things like that um there have so uh Suzanne grman again for the record we have a regular check-in call with bird um and that has been a topic of conversation and that has um greatly improved with their new Fleet Management program and their new operations team um if you if you would like specific excuse me specifics uh Kylie with bird is here and can answer those questions specifically what they're doing operationally if you're interested yeah I am curious what what they're doing to improve that all right I'm gonna have Kylie come up okay thanks Kylie fman with bird for the record um hi so the question is what we're doing operationally to address ad concerns and so like Suzanne mentioned um I well some background I came into the pro into overseeing the program in September so since then um we've upped our kpis for our Fleet managers um one of those core pieces being our 311 response time so within that SLA ensuring that if there are any violations um we are hitting them Ada priority um but within that 2hour time frame as for outside of that Riders are really the ones that are leaving them there right we do not deploy anywhere where we're not allowed I promise you that we would not have a fleet manager still operating with us if we did um and so we ramped up our warning and fine structure as well so Within report that we give to Suzanne and her team it includes the number of warnings and fines that we give out so that's an escalating fine structure uh it'll start with the warning 515 $25 uh it can go to suspending the writers or Banning the writers as well and that those fines are incurred by the riter not anybody that's charged with picking them up and moving them correct correct okay thank you um my time is pretty much up so I don't know if anybody else had anything I will have a couple more questions go ahead I don't see other questions so um what is the trend that we're seeing with usage of these are is it kind of tapering off is it I know we have kind of Peaks and valleys throughout the different seasons but overall what kind of Trends are we seeing with usage um Suzanne grman for the record again so we see consistent us usage uh when Birds first launched of course it was new it was cool we saw very high numbers I would say it's been steady in the last year and a half we do have those um declines with weather but people even Rite them when it's snowing um and raining and windy and we we actually don't see huge dips and the reason that you see some of the more significant dips in the winter is bird actually removes some of the fleet we have a a fluctuating Fleet between about 500 and 1,000 scooters so they'll actually remove some which can also impact numbers but but if you look at it overall you don't see a huge decrease even with the changes in weather okay um just one more quick question I some I'm in the North Valleys I sometimes see bird scooters out in the North Valleys do we know how they're getting out there like are people driving them out there or riding them like what um what's being done with bird to kind of keep them in the areas that they're supposed to be in I'll probably pass that one back to Kylie to to answer why they might see them in outlying areas great thank you Kylie with word for the record yes that would mean that someone actually did ride that home we uh don't typically deploy out in areas where we're not seeing high demand so if you do see a vehicle out there it means someone ended their ride okay all right but it's legal correct I've also heard that some scooters after they're like done with their life cycle with bird that they're sold is that true that's not correct okay okay thank you other questions concerns okay all right okay I will go ahead and make a motion to approve second you have a motion in a second all those in favor all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much thank you and we our last consent item is H B10 did you have any kind of presentation or anything no I did not Cory fer housing manager for the record great thank you um so this is the acceptance of the US Department housing of Urban Development and older adult home modification Grant to the City of Reno um and neighborhood Development Department in the amount of $1,230 th000 is this um in alignment with what we were expecting to receive yes um they they fulfilled our entire um ask so we asked for 1.23 million and that is what we we got great great and was this fulfilled under the current executive Administration or um from prior yeah great question um we applied and re and technically got um notification with the previous um Administration but since then have been in movement with the current Administration and everything seems to be moving okay well so um will do you expect that we'll cons continue to receive this funding from the Federal Federal level at this point um specific to this grant I I do that's the clarification we've received from HUD is that this grant is is good we all are going to have signed um hopefully after today signed contracts and so everything is kind of moving on their end we have trainings that are scheduled um in the next couple of months so everything seems to be moving well and the HUD representatives are are are positive great and is this something that you um apply for annually this is um this was just kind of a one-off they they have they have given the opportunity to apply it's like three years ago and then another year before that it seems kind of like when they have the funding available they open up applications um but we're we're hopeful that we can continue to move forward it is a three-year Grant I will say so um the funding that we received will be put into the community Through the next three years okay and is this something that we share with the region or is it strictly for City of Reno this specific Grant is um within the City of Reno limits um just based off of the grant uh parameters and Rebuilding Together Northern Nevada will will handle kind of the application process on that and work with us to figure out who's eligible great thank you that was it for me all right I'll go ahead and make a motion to approve then second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously and we are on to um Council comments council member Anderson counc member okay thank you council member ree council member D council member Ebert yeah just real quick um I know that um Financial issues are kind of front and center for us right now so um I just wanted to comment I know that we've already voted on this item but as we look for ways to um increase revenue and help with our um kind of budget shortfalls I um I think it's prudent for us to not wave things like expiration dat regarding fees and things like that as we look for ways to um pay for the things that the City of Reno needs um Services salaries um potholes you name it I think that we should continue to um use those tools that we have in place to collect Revenue where we can um and apply that um you know equally across um not just the constituents but also at the business level so those are my comments thank you great thank you very much and we are looking for a motion to adjourn oh sorry recess we will see you back at 6 o'clock e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e e [Music] Madam clerk are we ready watch did she hear you are we ready are we ready okay good evening everyone we're going to go ahead and get started with our public hearing tonight we're going to open um the public hearing and let the record reflect that council is opening item one I point1 uh was proper notice given and any correspondents received Madam clerk um for the record proper notice was given and we did did receive correspondence which has been distributed as one letter in favor 10 letters in opposition and one letter of concern and uh for the record council members Martinez and der are absent at this time okay I believe we have Madame mayor on line yes we do sorry and mayor sheb is on Zoom okay do council members do we have any disclosures I do not see any so we will move right into um the staff presentation is there a staff presentation Mr Foster welcome Jeff Foster associate planner for the record uh tonight I am bringing you the appeal of the Aidan 5 megawatt data center case LD C 25-22 this is a public hearing to consider an appeal of the January 15th Planning Commission uh denial of a conditional use permit to allow for a data center with 24-hour operations in the industrial commercial Zone the Planning Commission voted 42 to deny the request based on the availability of public services and Facilities to serve the project as well as granting the conditional use permit not being materially detrimental to the public health safety or welfare the applicant appealed the uh decision on on the basis of the planning commission's decision being arbitrary and capricious while failing to adhere to established criteria and findings required under the Reno Municipal Code a bit about the project uh it's about a 7 Acre Site located on the north side of North Virginia Street about 2500 ft east of its intersection with stead Boulevard near the recently approved web data center shown here what gets reviewed in a conditional use permit well staff typically looks at a wide variety of issues ranging from compatibility with surrounding land uses residential adjacency noise traffic uh Landscaping hydrology slopes uh availability of Public Utilities and services master plan conformance as well as several other topics that are shown on the screen what were the key considerations for this particular project well in light of the fact that there is a non-conforming mobile home park adjacent to the project site shown here staff focused on three key issues land use compatibility noise and screening and we also looked at sustainability which I'll touch on more here in a minute on the topic of noise uh a noise study was prepared to address the potential impacts on the mobile home park recommended mitigation measures were included as conditions of approval and please note that the updated code allows us to require additional measures if noise thresholds are exceeded in the future back on the topic of sustainability there are several recommended conditions of approve approval uh that are addressed sustainability among them of which is one that requires the entire roof structure to be designed to support photovoltaic arrays as well as another one requiring the installation of approximately 5,500 squ ft of photovoltaic arrays on the rooftop turning to a comparison of the various data centers that have come before the city in the last several months on the table here you can see the approved web Data Center and Keystone Data Center as well as the subject op Adan Project tonight uh the square footages range from about 61,500 ft up to about 91,000 Square ft you can see the number of estimated employees the estimated annual water usage in acre feet per year and the estimated power usage in megawatts and all of this data was provided by the applicants turn into uh a comparison of the typical water usage for a variety of types of development you can see that a casino might use somewhere in the order of 300 acre feet per year a hospital maybe 100 Acre feet per year a recently approved affordable housing project in the downtown area would use approximately 23 acre feet per year Aidan which uses evaporative cooling for its technology would use approximately 8 acre feet per year and I would like to draw your attention to the bottom of the table where a standard standard single family home would use approximately half an acre foot to an acre foot of water per year it's worth noting that Toma requires board approval for any single project using more than 100 Acre feet of water per year which would place it near the top of this chart here it's also worth noting again that Tuma data suggests the average single family home uses approximately one acre foot of water per year which means that opidn would use the equivalent to annual water usage of about eight single family homes turning to the comparison of the typical power usage various data centers out in Story County might use somewhere in the neighborhood of 65 megawatt up to north of a th000 megawatt a data center in Washo County would use 360 megawatt opan 8 megawatts the uh master plan land use for the site is industrial and here are seven goals and policies um that support the proposed request and no doubt the master plan has additional policies that support the request um here are the three potential motions that the council may make tonight a motion to affirm the Planning Commission to decision a motion to modify the Planning Commission decision or a motion to reverse the Planning Commission decision that's all I have at this point and I'm available for questions thank you Jeff we'll have the appellant presentation please thank you Madame vice mayor perfect for the record G Gordon Tonight representing the appellant uh opan in regards to the Reno data center I have a few representatives from the appellant with me tonight if you have any specific questions so a little background uh as staff mentioned 7 Acre Site up in the North Valleys it's Zone industrial it's master plan industrial it certainly falls into those two categories of industrial um zoning and master plan we're not asking for any changes of land use tonight just a use permit for one the use as a Data Center and two 24-hour operation I think this picture gives a good context of the site you can see it lies um right in the center uh of this graphic uh right along North Virginia Street and just completely surrounded by manufacturing and Industrial uh node um as you heard from staff to the west of us is some non-conforming residential uh but we've certainly built in some mitigations and screening and response to not only some NAB comments um just the fact that there's residential there and we want to obviously be a good neighbor the site plan um as you heard from staff about a 60,000 ft data center there'll be 6 to8 full-time staff 247 security uh secure facility uh Office Space over 8,000 square ft uh the remainder is that server storage for the data center 19 parking stalls certainly I've been before you on some manufacturing projects industrial projects with a lot more parking a lot more traffic uh certainly with the low number of employees there's not much traffic at all uh We've coordinated with RTC in regards to entrances and driveways on North Virginia Street everyone's comfortable with that front uh Security Fence um around the property I'll address that in a minute in response to some comments we got from the NAB and then certainly storm water management that absolutely complies with Reno code landscape plan 50 trees over 250 shrubs we meet the front yard landscaping um some nice new Big 12 evergreen trees on uh almost 140 shrubs in the front yard um another 22 on the street another five on the parking lot we went to the NAB I think this is always important when we go through this process right and I'm going to hit this a couple times I love working on applications where the application is submitted then changes are made by staff conditions are added by staff we go to the NAB get input from the NAB add some conditions from the NAB and of course work with council members hear council members input and add some addition conditions to make the project better so where we started with and where we ended tonight I think the Project's a lot better and I'm going to hit on some of those aspects including the NAB said in regards to that non-conforming residential on the West Side let's put some more trees there so you can see we're adding six more trees to the Westside property line to help with that screening and buffering to that residential even though it's zoned industrial you can see the existing site on the left kind of beat property not too um you know not too beautiful at thep at the moment on the right hand side certainly a big Redevelopment uh of the site with trees buildings and certainly will add to the community um of the area you can see some more pictures what the Landscaping will look like what the building will look like the front entrance will look like this is also interesting on the left hand side this is what's currently approved on the site so you have almost 150,00 000 ft building that could be built today by wri and by W but a user could come in and construct or operate manufacturing industrial and I would argue some of those uses would probably use a lot more water than we would by right it would never even come before this body it would just go right to building permit to be constructed what we're proposing tonight you can see is a lot smaller building footprint a lot more landscaping and I would say less impactful um to this area traffic Planning Commission didn't have any issues with traffic obviously because it's a low number of employees um six Peak trips doesn't even um trigger a traffic letter so the NAB as I mentioned earlier went to the Nab in December and got some great feedback so number one the NAB said guys you're screening from the adjacent residences to the west and you can see on the left hand side there that was the original fencing as proposed with the top curve U on the top of the fence basically they said I think council member Ebert was there it looks like a prison and let's do something a little different so the client went back to the drawing board worked with their F fence consultant and their uh team and came up with that on the right a security fence that gets rid of those antil climb features they're obviously there for a reason for security but we get the visual impact of it so it's now just straight polls in addition the screening panels were added which I think also does um uh some good work on the screening side and then two NAB input we wanted some residential I wanted some more residential screening on the west um side of the property adding six trees there certainly helps with the buffering um as well and then not only am I saying we'll do this but I put the condition in there that staff put in in response to the NAB that we need to eliminate the curved anti-climb feature number two and we'll hit on this a little bit um sustainability elements uh NAB also said where's the rooftop solar let's have some solar can you add some solar so we went back to the drawing board and agreed to put over 5,000 square ft of rooftop solar on the building um you can see conditions 13 and 14 deal with that and I can say that rooftop solar will power the administrative areas of the building certainly that amount of so rooftop solar will not power the data center you need 40 acres of solar to do that boost by putting this on top of the building we'll get some power to the administrative areas and I think we can certainly um check that box for a great sustainability element so legal findings why did the Planning Commission deny this they focus focused on two findings number one that public services and Facilities they questions questioned if those were available for the project and two somehow that if you serve the project with Power and Water it' be detrimental to Public Health number one are there services available to this property from a power perspective absolutely yes there's a will serve letter on the left- hand side of the screen NV Energy will serve this applicant will pay for 100% of all costs related to it to its power service there was some testimony to the Planning Commission that somehow the public would have to pay or the or the neighborhood would have to pay absolutely not development pays for development just like our data center on there the 8 megawatts we have to pay for our development the web data center above us which is using over 28 megaw they have to pay for theirs and water you can see as as Jeff mentioned 8 acre feet of water um about 16 homes absolutely can be served by Tuma we have an annexation agreement that says they will provide water service to the property the question Al also came up well with your 8 acre feet are you draining all the Water Supplies out of the North Valleys there's a letter on the record from bidler water that says there are over 12,000 acre feet of water rights available to meet the future needs of the City of Reno and wo County specifically in the North Valleys 12,000 acre feet we're asking for 8 acre feet I would submit to you that finding can absolutely be made the number one these providers will in fact serve this project our our our our power and water service available to the project yes I believe the Planning Commission got it wrong because NV Energy and tomwa both said it can be served there's no evidence to the contrary on the record that that's false and two that serving the project with Power and Water result in a detrimental to public health absolutely not there is no evidence of Public Health detriment if Envy energy and tomwa serve the project because our 8 acre feet not even in a drop in the bucket of the 12,000 acre feet that are available and development pace for development we're paying for 100% of the power certainly you can see web had to do some improvements for their 28 megawatts we have to do a lot smaller project for ours but we 100% pay for it and there is no chance whatsoever that there's any detriment to the public health sustainability let me hit on um a few of these uh this is all voluntary it's not per code But it includes solar as I mentioned it includes using um light cycle assessment environmental products as far as building materials storm water management and I'm running out of time here so let me keep going these are actually in um the conditions of approval so 2in thick fiberglass bat installation on the roof it's voluntary but it's a condition for noise mitigation conditions 13 and 14 deal with solar conditions 15 16 and 17 deal with EEG e e uh EV charging stations 16 deals with lowf flow domestic water fixtures as far as pantries restrooms sustainability elements on that front and number 17 deals with low volatile organic compound materials for the building I appreciate Council giving us some input I appreciate staff giving us some input I appreciate council member Reese's leadership on the number of these elements also appreciate uh this is councilwoman Ebert's District she has two conditions um that she suggested that we think are great and I'm out of time I can hit this or come back up for questions do you have quick quick quick quick quick last slide with Miss Ebert's Direction um she asked could the fluent water be used on this site at this project the answer is from our standpoint yes we love to use of fluent water but as of right now it's just not available it's on the other side of 395 very far away so what we're going to agree to is we're going to do the plumbing for a fluent water so if and when it comes up Virginia Street we can hook into it so I have a draft condition up there that would provide for us um having to do that additional plumbing and two there was a comment of well what about all this furniture and specifically the hardware it gets replaced every 3 to 5 years can it be recycled the answer was yes but let's go ahead and put a condition in to make sure we're complying with it so any furniture any hardware shall be recycled and assessed for uh reuse when it's out of service so there's conditions from staff conditions from NAB conditions from Council appreciate everyone's input and thank you for the additional time thank you Mr Gordon um we will move into public comment and if the public commenters if you hear something that you're you're somebody else has said if you want to say Doo you're more than welcome to if we can get through this but I'll move it over to the clerk for public comment Olivia Tanager followed by Bill Miller followed by Erica Bradley thank you Council um Olivia Tanager for the record I'll be brief so we appreciate the changes that have been made to the data center uh and we weren't able to review the changes that were made prior to this meeting I will say and so we might have some further comments that we'll be in touch about after we have a chance to review what was just presented um but some things that I want to point out so 8 acre feet of water is still a substantial amount of water um I just checked the tall website it looks like about 0.5 acre feet is used per household I think there was a slightly different figure that was presented but that was the figure I just found on the tum wall website um and so 8 acre feet when you compare that to household usage is still a lot of water but the thing that I I really want to focus on is that um if we don't have the the information on the economic impact of this data center and how it's actually going to benefit Reno whites and so if we're continuing to um give data centers tax abatements and I'm not certain that this data center would qualify for a tax abatement but if it would uh then what's the trade-off with our natural resources with water um and with energy and also as they noted for six to eight employees that's a substantial amount of water for very few jobs and so I I think we need to be very judicious in the way in which we're using water and the way in which we're we're using our uh natural resources which is the concern we've been raising time and time again about data centers and uh something that I think you all should consider I know that there was a handout that was passed out I hope you review it about what some other municipalities and localities do across the country uh and some Forward Thinking policies that they've implemented that I think should be implemented and Reno are at least considered for Reno which is also why we supported a moratorium to develop a Forward Thinking policy so that we could answer all of these questions and give Clarity both to developers and to citizens of Reno um the other question that I have and again I'm going to have to go back and review the project but I know that the um the person who was just up here before me noted that they're paying for all of their own energy and while that might be be true in terms of paying for kilowatt hours I am still not clear on if they're paying for the infrastructure to serve the energy to the data center and so that's that's been our biggest concern as it relates to rates and utilities is that the infrastructure associated with data centers is heavier and uh much more use intensive than a lot of other services and so that's what we're seeing across the country right is that they have to build out these transmission lines they have to build out other infrastructure in order to serve data centers and certainly if we're going to have a lot of data centers and that North Valley's area we're going to need more transmission we're going to need more infrastructure and rate payers are going to be on the hook for that unless there is a different requirement either made by the utility by you all um or at the state level and so those are the questions that we're asking because we don't want rate payers to be on the hook for the infrastructure associated with these data centers it's not just Nevada we're seeing it across the country where rates are going up as a result of the infrastructure that needs to serve data centers we appreciate that the roof is uh has the ability to have solar um but I certainly think there are some sustainability requirements that we could beef up and we would like to see put into code thank you Bill Miller followed by Erica Bradley followed by Seth McCoy good evening mayor shivi council staff fellow citizens I'm Bill Miller a Reena resident who is deeply concerned about addressing the global climate crisis in a way that keeps our city not only livable but thriving and vibrant far into the future we are here tonight to consider a pro proposal for a 5 megawatt data center that would provide a mere handful of jobs yet consume copious amounts of our precious fresh water by consume I mean take it in and then make it disappear the propos data centers evaporative cooling system turns water into mist and releases it into the atmosphere gone from Reno forever how much water are we talking about well aladan claims 8 acre feet or 2.6 million gallons a year an online search reveals that the average 5 megawatt data center with evaporative cooling consumes 25 million gallons a year so which is true and how much is 25 million gallons enough to fill 38 olympic size swimming pools or service more than 300 homes with fresh water every year one data center in a desert is it any wonder your own Planning Commission rejected this proposal turns out there is a sensible alternative to evaporative cooling a similar data center using closed loop chilled water system would consume from 1 to 2 million gallons a year approximately 90 to 95% of what is the average of a 5 megawatt facility so did opan offer to resign their Center's cooling system to better fit a desert location no instead they insulted our planning staff calling their ruling arbitrary and capricious me personally I don't respond well to bullying I hope the council feels the same this project the way it is currently designed will do far more harm than good to Reno our resources and our future as a flourishing Desert Oasis so I ask what is a better use of our precious water fresh water supplying 300 plus new homes supporting approximately 1,200 people paying 100% of their property and sales tax or a data center employing less than 12 paying a fraction of theirs please please use your common sense and vote with your own Planning Commission just say no to this request for an unlimited license to waste our most precious resource water thank you for your time Erica Bradley followed by Seth McCoy followed by Lauren Kar good evening my name is Erica Bradley and I'm a constituent from Ward five I'm also a professional environmental consultant and a member of the Reno Sunrise movement which is a local climate advocacy group I'm here tonight to urge you to vote no on agenda item I won the oppidan data center appeal as the previous city council meeting you had the opportunity to initiate a public process to formulate new standards for data centers but it failed in a tie vote by forgoing a formalized public input process you're forcing citizens to come and comment on problematic data centers on a Case by case basis with regard to the opid and data center my primary concerns are its excessive water and power power demands first opan is proposing to use evaporative cooling the least water efficient method of cooling available and one that is banned by the Southern Nevada Water Authority aidence evaporative cooling would demand 8 acre feet of water a year as we just heard or 2.6 million gallons this amount is equivalent to the water consumption of 26 4% households or 100 and two individuals while household waste water is treated and recycled for others to use um opin would lose those 2.6 million gallons of water through evaporation we also heard that this is four times more than the other two data centers that were just approved as the fastest warming city in the country we cannot afford to waste water like this second as an Envy Energy customer who has experienced at least five power attitudes within the past year I'm seriously concerned about the strain that opan will impose on on our power grid as well as subsequent rate paay increases despite its name the opid and 5 5 megawatt data center will actually require 8.5 megawatts of total power from the pine substation which is still under construction half of this substation resources are already allocated for the web data center if opin is constructed what energy resources will be left for Reno residents and for other uses I commend the Developers for installing solar panels on top of the building how they are insufficient for meeting their power needs why should Reno residents suffer the consequences in summary I hope that you will agree that this project will be a detriment to public health safety and Welfare thank you for the opportunity to comment on this item I sincerely to hope hope to see the data center text Amendment on the next agenda thank you Seth McCoy followed by Lauren Kar followed by Jordan deil um hello uh my name is Seth McCoy I'm a graduate student here at UNR studying environmental engineering and I'm also a representative of Rena Sunrise movement and I'm here to speak in opposition of the opin data center appeal uh we're currently in a somewhat unique position to learn from our neighbors about the potential impacts of unregulated data center development as an example the chair of the Santa Clara uh Planning Commission referred to Data Centers as tapeworms which which continuously take resources while providing nothing of value in return um Santa clar became a prime target for data centered development due to their uh cheap energy rates compared to a lot of California just like how we have relatively cheap energy compared to a lot of other desert States um and as a result over 60% of Santa cl's energy grid is now being used solely to power data centers um with that number only increasing data center development in Santa clar resulted in three new Peak energy loads in 2024 and representatives from the utility company uh which is specific to Santa Clara have been attending City Council meetings on their own behalf to let the council know that they're struggling to meet these demands um it should be noted that the Santa Clara Planning Commission has been denying data centers only for them to be appealed and approved by the city council if we allow any data center that looks sustainable to develop in Reno we'll end up facing the same issues as Santa Clara contrary to what some people might tell you this will eventually start to impact uh Reno rape payers with increased costs and even eventual brown outs or blackouts this is in addition to all of the negative environmental impacts which you've heard about extensively and the questionable economic benefits of development uh please consider the well-being of our people and our resources and deny this appeal until we have a more solid framework for how we can maximize the benefits and minimize the risks of data center development in our biggest little city thank you for your time Lauren Kar followed by Jordan deel followed by Zach hooker hi there my name is Lauren Kern I am one of the people here on behalf of Reno Sunrise movement my concerns for this data center are consistent with our planning commission's findings and the original request for conditional use permit on January 15th I'm concerned for a series of reasons all of which have been discussed but I will reiterate as a plead for the council to listen and understand the complexity of the issues surrounding data centers and the importance of more guidance from the city Beyond just a cup process recently the council deliberated the possibility of instating a text Amendment to the Reno code that would clarify some key regulations data centers must incorporate to their planning in order to be compatible with our city and its residents in a split tie the council came to no conclusion um but it was mentioned that the cup process is guidance enough this data center is case of proof going through with an appeal tonight after the Planning Commission had denied the project would not only confuse and upset your constituents but muck up the already gray water that is data center regulation in Reno I'm in opposition to the appeal of the opin data center and its conditional use permit this data data center comes to the council with few amendments to their presentation from the original NAB and minimal effort to appease concern concerned citizens who spoke out in frustration at the Planning Commission meeting with concerns about its cooling system and its use of the web data Center's peine substation that was approved to go towards other projects we have been diligent in voicing our concerns surrounding this data center incom incompatible vegetation massive energy consumption lack of jobs um um and also its evaporative cooling system a system banned in Las Vegas because of its tremendous environmental impacts on a scarce and non-renewable source I encourage the council to do some more research on the varying implications to our city these data centers imposed and to trust your Planning Commission body in the decision that they had made thank you and thank you to everyone who's here today to speak Jordan Dil follow Follow by Zach hooker followed by Henry Dalton hello my name is Jordan D for the record I'm a student at UNR and I'm also here as a representative of Sunrise Reno I'm a resident Bo five um I'm here again not because I want to be but because someone has to stand up and represent the people of reeno cuz sometimes it feels like you guys do not cities all around the nation have already seen the influx of data centers and experience their influence on local power grids and water supply we have a chance to learn from them before it gets out of hand this data center is asking for 8 ft of w water which is 8 to 16 times more than what the average house and Reno needs you know this I read it in the report before it came to this meeting we've been told by multiple people here tonight how does that make sense all for it to just employ 6 to eight people that's nothing 6 to eight people in a house that's like 1 and a half at the most acre feet of water evaporative cooling has already been banned in Las Vegas because of its high water demand they've recognized like we should that in drought prone areas like Reno this cooling method is not feasible if you're looking for direction from the state it's not going to get clearer than that it was also mentioned by someone during a different public comment s session that there's a revolving door of technicians going through the data center and I have few things to say one that man was an a land developer so what would he know about operations after construction is finished and two I work in a lab at UNR with lots of Highly sophisticated Machinery bought from companies that aren't based in Reno we get technicians in for those machines but they come from California they're not Reno locals they're not paying taxes here they're hardly even staying here that more that door may be revolving but I guarantee you that very few of the people will conf forino so how does this help locals economically I'm not even against data centers they're extremely helpful in many ways but we have a responsibility to the land and the rate payers to make sure that only the best products are approved I would also like to say something about the trees that they keep putting at these places especially out in North Valleys you look at any picture of North Valleys beyond what has been developed and there are no trees that is a land for Sage Brush that is a land for wild grasses and these trees are going to speed up the desert desertification of the area especially if there's no plan to water them as they establish Roots the planning commission's ruling was not arbitrary or capricious as the appellant has claimed it was made by prioritizing our people's mine and yours best interest you must deny this appeal as well this project is does not deserve our support and it does not deserve Reno thank you Zack hooker followed by Henry Dalton followed by Kathy Fulkerson hi it's nice to see that most of us could make it um my name is Zach hooker and I am a senior environmental engineering student at UNR I have grown up in Reno my whole life I absolutely love it here and I'm here in opposition of the appeal for the opin data center um conditional use permit I item agenda item i1 this company very clearly does not understand the northern NADA ecosystem and does not grasp how the the design they have chosen for this data center will harm the surrounding environment many of the sustainable practices that the data center claims to employer either standard industry practice such as low flow appliances or even some will degrade the sustainability of the surrounding area specifically planting the 23 trees um supposedly to combat the heat island effect um as Jordan just mentioned these trees will require water and will sap the nutrients of the soil further degrading the um soil there and preventing more plants from going there um and take a look at any other business in the area they do not have as many trees as opin proposes to use um I would also like to reiterate that Reno does not need data centers data centers need Reno they want to use our resources I'm not naive to the fact that data centers will s settle here especially with the city master plan of wanting to turn Reno into in Tech Hub I'm not opposed to Data Centers I am opposed to Data Centers being implemented poorly a POS on improving data centers is so important because when data centers get approved I want to be done equitably sustainably and in a way that benefits Reno urgency should not be a priority a primary principle for development as that leads to oversight and unsustainable development especially with Environmental Protections being stripped back nationally and climate change exasperating strain on natural resources I believe that this is extremely important to move forward especially with us being the um highest heating C City in the nation um and as a city we need to devise a plan to protect our resources so future Generations will be able to enjoy the nature and prosperity that I've been able to know growing up here it is clear that this company calls this Deion decision arbitrary and capricious because they want to approve this plan as soon as possible regardless of environmental and social impact if you look at their initial presentations what they have today their presentation is barely changed since the last time they care about getting this developed as soon as possible so they can line their pockets additionally only employing eight Reena whites is not enough to justify um The Strain that it will put on our resources here um I encourage you all to prioritize sustainable practices for not just the STA Center but all centers you will consider moving forward sustainable practices such as using more solar panels which I applaud them doing um and limiting water usage by using alternative cooling techniques such as air Cooling and geothermal cooling and ensuring landscaping and design that does not work against Natural climate are a must this moratorium isn't just about this one data center it's about developing standards so you don't have to consider each on a case-by Case basis but by moving forward we can ensure that we can um keep our resources uh in our natural environment thank you Henry Dalton followed by Kathy Fulkerson followed by Michael Dorado good evening uh for the record my name is Henry Dalton I am a resident of w one um I'm speaking today in opposition of the appeal for the opid and data Center's conditional use permit um I'm a senior at UNR in computer science and engineering to be clear I am not against data center usage and uh fully understand their necessity in our modern world especially as we continue to modernize um I'm in opposition to this appeal because of a variety of reasons but power usage is what I will mainly discuss tonight uh firstly this data center is still even tonight labeled as the opid in 5 megawatt data center but the application for the data center stipulates that they will use ultimately 8.5 megawatt of power which is is far more for reference 5 megawatt of power is about the same as 3700 homes per year 8.5 is about the same as 6,000 assuming they are storing about 50% of the energy generated which there are no plans indicated for energy storage in the information they shared a 5600 foot uh photov Volta array as proposed would produce less than a quarter of a percent of the 5 megawatts of energy and barely over an eighth of a percent of the actual 88.5 um they use in a year based on some very simplified calculations I would and I think many others would appreciate the develop of this project to provide a method for being energy neutral the other element of energy usage is that during the summer and higher usage energy Peaks um how can we be guaranteed that the combined needs of this and the web data center uh will not cause even more outages than already occur especially in that area during that time of year uh the gentleman mentioned the recycling of materials but recycling has very distinct uh very few distinct legal requirements around it um and less than 10% of recycled materials are actually recycled across the world um so that does not provide me with any confidence on them offsetting any amount of environmental impact they also mention using generators for maintenance but those will not be running regularly I curious as to where those generators will be coming from as uh a huge backlog on generators with even hyperscale data centers run by Google having to wait 6 months to a year for uh generators to uh be placed in their um placed at their data centers and a much longer wait time for Edge data centers like this one um thank you for your time Kathy Fulkerson followed by Michael Dorado followed by Robin Palmer good evening I'm Kathy Fulkerson facilitator of third act Nevada we're an organization a National Organization that empowers seniors to protect the planet I'm here to oppose the aidon 5 megawatt data center appeal and recommend adopting a temporary pause in permitting Data Center ERS while a comprehensive set of standards are developed um I want to point out that the name of this data center is the aidon 5 megawatt data center during the Pres the original presentation they did um concede that perhaps it was more like an 18 megawatt Data Center and now they're saying it's an 8 megawatt data center it would be really good to have a set of standards and ways to measure or estimate that um and when developers bring these projects before the city council so that developers have an expectation of what needs to be brought forward and you have an expectation as to what those numbers mean um in the last few months I know three data centers that have proposed development within the City of Reno one was approved two were denied this is the second denial to appeal 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 oidon data center is unique among the three applications in that it uses evaporative water cooling to manage the huge amounts of heat generated by conservatively 5 to six acres of computers that are operating 247 the Reno Planning Commission denied its application on that basis this was neither arbitrary nor compr capricious not in the fastest warming metropolitan area in the driest state in the nation approving evaporative cooling sets a terrible precedence for the city the City of Reno has an opportunity to take the time to investigate the right way to permit large load data centers the city wants development that's good for the community as well as for developers right now ordinary citizens are paying for the infrastructure for data center energy needs eight full-time staff and 8 Acres of water is not good for the community pause the data center development take the time to determine adequate standards I urge you to deny this appeal and pause until a comprehensive set has been determined thank you thank you for your service Michael Dorado followed by Robin Palmer followed by Christopher Mullen hello I'll keep this brief I work my name is Michael Dorado uh I work as a software engineer in the Reno Nevada area I work heavily in cloud-based architecture uh using things like data centers very often uh it is pertinent to my livelihood and important for my career with that being said I see a constant Trend when it comes to Data Centers and how they handle what we call Big Data uh and it is always more is more as cloud-based storage availability expands so does the consumption this drives efficiency to always be second to cost this is clear when you look at choices like using evaporative co uh cooling over better options like closed loop chilled water systems bringing forth small concessions such as solar panels over actual efficient solutions to the 24-hour cost of data centers only reinforces my concerns over building things like this in our area thank you for your time Robin Palmer followed by Christopher Mullen followed by Sandy Roth could I have the overhead good evening vice mayor Taylor council members staff and attendees I'm Robin Palmer climate and Community Advocate I too appreciate the changes that upan has given to their project to try to be more Community friendly you've heard the concerns about data centers from commenter after commenter after commenter and multiple meetings you've heard from some of us myself included multiple times energy cost cost of energy infrastructure to Nevada Energy rate payers water use noise limited employment opportunities after buildout limited Financial benefit to the city because of property and sales tax abatements an overall benefit to our community you should commend your planning department for their deep dive into the impact of data centers on a community and getting to the heart of the concern about data centers and then incorporating a d data center definition and data center use specific standards into a municipal code by way of administrative interpretation to differentiate a data center from a warehouse snark alert I am of course talking about the number of dock doors data C centers are limited to three dock doors per building by Municipal Code now in your January 8th meeting the planning department rep representative said we quote don't want any confusion between a building that has lots of trucks coming and going versus a data center which has very few trucks there's no chance you're going to build build a Data Center and tell us you're a Data Center and then change it to some kind of distribution use I am so glad I don't have to worry about that never mind energy use never mind cost to Nevada Energy rate payers never mind data center water use never mind limited employment opportunities never mind limited Financial benefit to the community three or few four sorry three or fewer doctors I support the planning commission's denial of opon cup thank you Christopher Mullen followed by Sandy Roth thank you hello I'm Christopher Mullen a mechanical engineer I've been living in the north Valley's area for almost 10 years at this point I'm in opposition for the opin Das Center conditional use program J IEM number i1 I believe we should trust the city's planning commission's decision on this you have appointed them for their expertise in representing the interests of the city and approving of developments that will benefit us all ask what many of the PO e Comics have detailed the developers fantc have yet to demonstrate that they truly understand like the needs of our sa from their questionable sustainability that they've implemented that do not take into account the environment of the North Valleys to their use of evaporative cooling which is has been say like one of the most water intensive processes for cooling of data centers along with general power concerns that dat centers PA it and all this comes down to a point where it's not just opin that is of concern it's the fact that this will set a precedent for going forward towards the future where other cities across nah Santa clar CS example with up to 60% of the power grids use that more and more strain being placed upon the parag grid especially as we gets warmer and warmer or will only strain the amount of resources that we have and it's not just about how much resources we have is how much infrastructure do we have to distribute that resource properly and if there just the wild west out here with that centers then people are just going to be like left in the dust going be left in the dust and they will be the ones that have to shoulder the burden for increased prices in water utilities and generally living ass had point that was mentioned earlier is like a lot of outside expertise is brought in versus training local expertise so I think business is inevitable that is that is in like this is the way things are in the world but we must ensure that business is done with the interest of the people of Reno we are open for business so I say we do good business and make sure that everyone profits Sandy Roth good evening my name is Sandy Roth and I'm a volunteer with the Sierra Club today's data center appeal demonstrates the need for Reno to responsibly plan for the rapid and exponential growth of data centers and for any burdens they place on the Reno Community data centers can vary from each other in multiple ways and planning and rulemaking must take into account a range of factors and their complexities and nuances this includes considering noise and considering any water that will be used for cooling Reno should consider whether evaporative cooling ever should be permitted it here I personally don't think so at a minimum it should be explored carefully the city also should examine energy consumption not just by one particular data center but by all the data centers collectively that may result from the city's plan and rules or lack thereof even data centers that are not hyperscale can consume as much energy as 10 tens of thousands of homes the city should ask whether the data centers will provide the energy needs themselves by bringing in adequate renewable energy or will they merely put an insufficient number of panels on their roofs such as the case here they say that their solar panels will serve their administrative operations which apparently are minuscule because they hardly have any employees they concede that it would take 40 acres of solar panels to operate the data center and their solar pan panels will not do that other places for example Google claims that is arranging for clean geothermal solar and wind energy to run their data centers in story story County Southern Nevada and other parts of the country without imposing cost on rate paays please consider what impact your policies or lack thereof will have unrate payers wise and responsible planning require the city council to work with the Planning Commission to understand and consider all of these issues and act by establishing appropriate responsible mechanisms and roles also will provide Clarity to the data centers who wish to locate here I urge you to do this and to reject the appeal thank you Bob Blackstock good even evening Council um my wife and I live in West Reno um w 5 um and we've lived there for the Last 5 Years uh she's has family here in Reno we've been coming to reeno from Southern California for some years uh prior to that we lived in Silicon Valley um I was am a uh formerly a Silicon Valley engineer so I feel like I know uh some things about this particular technology in this general area uh I also uh am a businessman and in ENT I have two patents in fluid mechanics I have small business in the uh in the Bay Area using those patents um and uh I am also a former venture capitalist uh studying uh doing various deep Dives and Renewable Energy Technologies of various kinds photo voltaics storage Technologies and so forth um let me sort of use that as a introduction on this um Intel Corporation several years ago um decided the best plan for them was to squeeze their suppliers as much as possible and the idea is that uh to to harvest those profits that would have been made by those suppliers and use that internally to to Intel well Intel soon found out that squeezing their suppliers was not a good plan but because because it drove those suppliers into bankruptcy and so that meant that Intel had to go back through the loop work with other suppliers to develop their Technologies um and I think we have have a somewhat similar situation here with this and the tax abatement that's been allowed to these developers um and that is it's producing a significant financial squeeze to the local governments and the state government um and um let me transition from that uh in the interest of time and that is uh about uh uh some proponents of these data centers uh hear the word technology hear the word job and somehow make the conclusion that the combination of the two is a benefit to the economy both locally and uh Statewide and uh I really don't see that happening here with these data centers uh certainly low produced jobs these jobs are not uh high-tech jobs these are maintenance jobs and there are only six jobs for this particular facility so I think on the whole uh data centers um let me back up and fill up another piece on this one of the pieces that was presented by the promoter here um uh was about uh Envy energy um Supply them working with Envy energy to supply their electrical power needs what I did not hear on that was the carbon impact carbon carbon foot footprint impact of those Technologies there was of the power that was supposedly going to be provided by the energy so I think as a whole uh data centers are not a good idea uh if they're being rejected by Silicon Valley why should we take the drags of Cali here in N thank you there's no one else registered to speak okay thank you we're going to close the public hearing and I believe Madame mayor had something that she wanted to put on the record before we go into questions yeah thank you so much um just a couple of things here um first of all I want to say thank you to everyone in public comment I thought it was very very thoughtful and informative um well don't love um seeing more data centers in the pipeline right now um I know that councilman Reese worked with the applicant on some standards and benchmarks um that I think are probably you know good ones I think that we need to look probably at others Olivia made a comment um one of them was fiscal impacts which I think are really wise as well um and so you know as I think we look at the possibility of more and more um we really should well not should councilman ree actually requested a joint meeting with the Planning Commission city council and stakeholders in the coming weeks so we can put in benchmarks um which I do think is is smart um I understand obviously we have uh this one before us but after this I think it's probably wise um to get those standards and benchmarks in Council women do probably agree in the sense you know we've looked at things like this before I always say horses but um you know and not to mention I think environmentally you know I wish more people understood where you know this becomes incredibly problematic so again I'm really grateful for the public comment but um I just want everyone to put that on their schedules so we will get it on the agenda um fairly soon so just you know put it in your your calendars that we're going to request a meeting and I hope that everyone can attend so thank you so much thank you I will um it looks like council member ree do you have your hand up thank you Madame vice mayor yes a couple things thank you Madame mayor for teeing up the conversation tonight first of all I want to say thank you to all the folks who came out uh for this meeting I was out of town last week I was in Washington DC as the head of the District Board of Health arguing for uh saving Medicaid in Nevada so um while I was not here I was able to watch the meeting and many of you were there and spoke at it I think for my part I am interested to hold the joint meeting which Madame mayor thank you so much for um saying that that would be a path to pursue in order that we have some conversations about what I think are inevitable concerns that we all share I think everyone in this room has said except maybe with the exception of one member um that data centers are uh an inevitable part of an emerging technological society and what we want are good data centers not bad data centers uh and so ultimately I think if we can get some expertise or outside information what I don't like doing is like this basic my decisions on anecdotal evidence uh even miss Tanager you submitted this um list of things here about cities that were doing things and I reviewed some of them as I was sitting here trying to prepare for the meeting and most of these things on this list are are not accurate and so I want to just have accurate information I want to be able to know that when someone says a a place like Santa CLA requires 100% carbon neutrality that that's true and why um that's being challenged in the Court's currently and I want us to make sure that what we do is legal and supported by the state of Nevada um I've had the privilege of meeting with a number of folks over the last couple weeks who have raised these great concerns about how do we protect our environment and I think part of the issue is um everybody is also all over the map on that so I just want us to be evidence-based practice let science dictate what we choose to do uh and ultimately I think we can do that together so thank you Madame mayor for uh your leadership in that area and for allowing me to play a small role um I with regard to tonight I do have a a question that's uh related to some of the concerns about the economic impact of it and I don't know who is in a position to speak to that I don't know if that's you Mr Gordon um I understand that the state of Nevada when it um was seeking um switch to come into Story County and some other large-scale data users there were abatements put into place for those users I don't know whether and to what extent those have trickled down into to our city the city of Reno has no abatement Authority we don't tax and we certainly don't Abate so whatever has been done has been done to us by the state of Nevada I don't believe we can Abate property taxes that is not the purview of the state I certainly think there are costs that go into building such a data center um that are not abated but I just don't know what the abatement issue is that we keep hearing about thank you councilman re for the record Garett Gordon so there is an abatement process through the state that the batement process um could trigger eligibility for personal property taxes and potentially sales taxes but it definitely doesn't carve it carves out any sales taxes still go to go to the schools as far as this project there's been no applications filed we have a tenant our tenant could file an application not sure what they would request or if they would be eligible but I can say as far as my client who would own the land own the property they would pay millions of dollars in property taxes for over the balance of this project property taxes are not eligible for abatement and that would go into the system and trickle down to your to your general fund I also note we project about a $65 million investment in hard cost for the materials and construction workers and you know probably between 150 and 200 construction workers on this project um that would be an investment in this community as well Council Council me council member Ebert yeah thank you um so I wanted to thank the applicants representative and the applicant also for um making some changes or agreeing to make some changes that I requested um one of them being um the use of solar um as much as possible um people don't know that there's some other issues that arise if you um incorporate too much solar NV Energy only allows you to provide some a certain amount of your own power and then otherwise you have to sign a contract to become um an additional utility company so it gets complicated after a certain amount of um uh solar power I found this out um in the process of asking data centers if they could use more solar panels so that was my starting point that said um I appreciate their willingness to use um over 5,000 square foot of um roof space to install solar and to use that power for the admin space in the building um I also appreciate the additional Landscaping that is something else that I requested due to the low tree canopy in W for the lowest of the City of Reno I'm always looking for ways to increase our tree canopy um I'm sure the applicant would also be open to discussion about maybe potentially changing the type of vegetation to something that's more native but I appreciate their willingness to put more trees in um also living in that area I can tell you the soil is pretty poor right now it's kind of a lake bed area it's very much clay if you want to dig a hole in it you need to like a crew and some heavy equipment it's very bad soil right now so I know anything that goes in out there um will require irrigation I presume that your plans include irrigation um but I'm not sure because I'm not an arborist or a botanist um if the trees recommended or brought forward now would have a detrimental effect on the soil but if if that's something that we could look into putting native vegetation there you know I would be curious to see what your thoughts were on that um the other piece that I asked for was the effluent water usage um in the North Valleys we have another particular set of issues where we have a sewer treatment plant we have um two natural lakes one of them um there is an agreement to put in a certain amount of um treated water into the lake annually and this is um due to some um agreements we have for um migratory Birds to continue to use that lake so we have to keep it you know a functioning Lake for these birds to use as part of their migration path and also um nesting and things like that beyond that allowed amount of water we sometimes have more water than we have places to put it we had flooding in Swan Lake in 2017 that lasted a long amount of time City of Reno had to um settle some lawsuits out of that resulting flood so that request to use effluent was a way for me to try and kill two birds with one stone as the representative for that Ward um unfortunately we don't have the infrastructure yet to connect um to the data center for affluent I know that um trick has started that process of putting purple pipe in to use F1 up there so I think it's something that we could um potentially see um but I am curious to hear if there's any possibility of using um air Cooling and if that's the case then I think that the um uh additional Plumbing to accommodate effluent at some point likely wouldn't be necessary so are you open to air cooling is that something that's possible hello good evening uh Dylan Rusk for the record I'm the uh the applicant so we did analyze the use of mechanical Cooling and the the water consumption from a mechanical system is still close to 3 and A2 um acre feet per year and it's mainly just due to the amount of equipment that's required in order to cool a facility of this size um and kind of the counter to that is that if we were to use a mechanical system it would increase our power consumption as we discussed and that's where I think um one of the um members of the of the community that spoke got the 18 megawatt number that is actually the um power consumption that would be um air cooled an air cooled system okay so it's you know it's still close to you know I guess it's double the amount of water with evaporative but you know less than half of the power consumption okay okay so that's a a tradeoff there then okay um I will council member Eber do you mind if I go to council member uh der and then we'll get back to you okay sure um well thank you everyone for being here and I want to thank the applicant for making changes to your project plan after hearing from our residents and from your council member um it's very important to be willing to uh negotiate and come to a better project I mean that's what we all want for our community and I have to commend the environmental Community that's come out tonight spending their time to continue to advocate for an important change to our regulations they feel strongly they are going to keep showing up until we pay attention and uh to that end I'm really glad to hear from both the mayor and uh council member ree that they are willing to have a further conversation about this because I want to bifurcate the issues on this one is about the instant application in front of us and does does it or does it not meet our master plan and all of the findings that we have to make and the other is much bigger than the instant case and that's this entire issue of data centers um I was deeply disappointed where when we um failed to be willing as a body to lead on this issue and to address issues before they're out of control but on the other hand I'm inspired by the willingness now to take a step forward and maybe enact a reasonable uh and more comprehensive framework for evaluating data centers um the situation we have right now is uncertainty it leads to uncertainty for the applicant is every application for a data center going to be appealed that's not good for business doing business in Nevada or in Reno it also puts an incredible burden on our community to constantly show up and say are you hearing us we're concerned pay attention at least acknowledge and validate what we're saying and so this is not good uh we don't have a good regulatory framework right now we have a start with a cup but we've put we've hung nothing on it and what that leads to is it leads to each of us having to make an independent decision is this too much energy is that too much water I don't know is this problematic is it okay we I mean and so I'm a scientist I've done the best I can to make my own decision and we'll hear about that probably in round two but um but each of us has to come at this different ly so we have seven people with seven different ideas of what it takes we have the audience with with both pro and con for the data center and I don't think we're doing our job you know if we leave it like this and continue to have it like this um so um we could avoid a meeting like this by providing clear guidance to our staff and the Planning Commission and that's what I just want to kind of end this section on our Planning Commission has asked us to provide guidance and in the absence of that guidance guidence they've taken matters into their own hand we may or may not like what they've decided but they have nothing else to go on we've left it up to each of those individual seven people we've not none of us have stepped up the up to this position so I like the idea of a joint meeting I love the idea of hearing from them hearing from our publics and being able to move forward and to set some reasonable guidance so I thank everyone for being here today and the changes that have been made um and a a more Rosy future and I'll have more comments on the specific application round two council member Anderson thank you I was just hoping we could um clear up a question that continues to come up and it's confusing to me because I hear that the applicants have gone to NV Energy and have paid for the infrastructure to bring this power to not only the substation but also to their property but we continue to hear from public comment so I just want to make sure that I'm understanding what is actually happening here correctly we continue to hear from public comment that ordinary citizens are paying for the data center infrastructure please clear that up for me um for the record Garr Gordon thank you for the question um council member I can say emphatically that the applicant is paying 100% of the costs for the power that's the power itself that's any improvements that may or may not be needed that Pine substation that's the conduit or infrastructure from the station to the property all completely some of it even built by the applicant and their contractor other has to other components have to be constructed by EnV energy but it's fully reimbursed for us 100% council member ree thank you so much and and part of my comments are to have a conversation with my colleagues who have been very thoughtful on this issue as well so some of them are addressed to them but I I want to maybe start with this question about what the Planning Commission did in this specific case so I went back and watched the Planning Commission it was a 4-2 decision two folks were clearly against this particular project two of the planning Commissioners were uh for it um so two and two and then two basically said we don't know what the city council wants us to do we're neither for it or against it and so I I want to make sure that we're being very clear I I have pre previously said the CU PR process is not broken right I think that if we want to have the joint meeting which I have asked the mayor to do it's so that we can figure that out I I think what you're going to find is that um different communities across the country have different standards we are not going to be able to I don't think figure out what each one of those ones is doing best and create the best one of them we're going to do our best to look at those kind of standards and hopefully give some guidance but the cup process and its in is designed for us at this policy level to pick and choose which one of those things that we think are better and for my part uh because I I do know that we have had a couple of data centers come through and now this one I I really do want us to focus on the ones that are in front of us I think there are legal things to work out and when we get to that point we will do that um and I think as Miss dur you said there were going to be some discussion about those things for my part I look at this particular site location and say it already has an approved um byright approval for something which is equally um environmentally unfriendly if that's the right word because it's a much larger footprint uh much more difficult use much more truck traffic heavy which creates other environmental concerns so I like that it's a a different kind of project it's shrunken the site footprint for it and is less intensive on the car uses and truck traffic in that area because I think we do have a lot of trucks up in that area uh the second thing is is I think about the um the concerns that Miss Anderson has raised about who pays for it my understanding too and having spoken to the applicant I wanted to wrap my head around 5 megawatts 8 megawatts 8 and a half megawatts it sounds like on day one as you open maybe you've got enough uh servers or server Farm Technology to support one megawatt so maybe in year one that's what they're using in year two they're expanding right and so I'm not sure we're going to be using all that power consumption and then of course my hope is that as technology improves someone figures out that these incredible uses of energy have got to have a more sustainable environmental path and that they will figure that out in that process but on day one it will not have anywhere near the power consumption and then the last thing Miss Anderson which you reminded me of and I too wanted to figure out who was paying for it my understanding is that web data centers has already agreed to pay for the infrastructure needed to hook into uh the uh the megawatt or the substation and that you all will be hooking into that and paying some proportional share of that and so maybe that also helps to explain how the increased usage is paid for by the developer I think always development should pay for development was that me I I don't is your hand up I don't see it yeah uh just okay yeah I guess so coun me derer and then council member Ebert okay um so I just want to deal with the instant case in front of us uh first I want to address this issue of who pays so I believe Mr Gordon gave part of the answer which is that they will pay for the power they use and they will pay to upgrade the substation which is what Envy energy is requiring a substation moves power from one to another place it does not make power and so when you hear this dichotomy what the people are talking about is that you got to make more power to provide the 5 megawatt 8 or 18 or 30 for the webs okay and when an MV energy has to go build another Power Station that falls to the rape payers to pay not not this company or the web company okay and it's it's rates end up having to go up they're already talking about coming back to raise rates they just had a rate case we beat back those increase in rates this Council took a stand and said listen to your residents and they did and they um only went up $2 so the point is um he is correct but is not the whole story so we can talk offline later but just understand there's two parts of it making more energy and moving the energy okay so let's talk about water for a minute um I could as a former state water planner for seven years I could never support evaporative cooling for anything if you can do something else that is a waste of water that we have alternates to to fit the need and it's not just an electrical alternate um it could be um a mix of um alternate sustainable uses um Case by case what's available it could be wind it could be solar in some place could be geothermal um it just doesn't have to be a gas fir fired plant which is what the new plants are um so but that said 8 acre feet is not a lot of water in my world I was a state water planner we're talking about you know thousands and thousands and thousands of acre feet available in the North Valleys but I have to also caveat that with this just because you have a lot of water available doesn't mean you should waste water that is an inconsistency um you know we have water at the moment we don't have water forever that is why we're investing so much money in the advanced purified water system in North Valleys because one we have to get rid of uh sewage water but two we expect to not have enough water we expect to that's why Tom my right now is planning that's why this Council we're all putting a lot of money into creating more water in North Valleys we're saying 7,000 is not enough and then I'll speak to the solar for a minute um just you know we've heard this word arbitrary and capricious well in my mind it's rather arbitrary to take a 6 thou uh sorry 60,000 foot building and put 5,000 squ foot of solar you know it's just like pick a number out of the air I would hope in a conversation that we could set some standard s about what's appropriate um that is about what 8% of the of the surface I don't even know what it translates into kilowatts so I mean you're asking us to approve like uh we don't know how efficient we don't know what kind of solar that is we don't know how much kilowatts it's going to make and so that is another thing um I'm out of time but I'll just leave two issues um noise I have heard nothing about noise maybe this is the most silent data center but I am concerned that there are people in Mobile Homes who are not insulated generally very well for heat energy anything especially for noise I haven't heard anything about it and apparently they're right on the border I don't know what what's happening I read all the conditions to mitigate for the impacts on the neighbors and so um that's what I have to say what I I will say this I'm planning to support this application that may be disappointing to some but I had to make a personal decision 8 acre feet of water isn't a lot they are making an attempt to do something else to my mind a fairly modest attempt and sometimes the word greenwashing comes to mind meeting we're sort of doing something it's not a full something but we're making an attempt okay I can buy that I am notc me finish my last statement I'm not going to vote no to protest where we are today but I am going to vociferously protest where we are today not with my vote but with my voice perfect council member Ebert yeah um so I forgot to mention earlier because I just have so much I want to go through um and so little time that um I forgot to thank everybody for coming and giving their public comment I really appreciate it thank you for taking the time out of your day to come down here I know it's not really fun to do this but I appreciate all your efforts and you continuing to come I recognize those green shirts you know um but um forgive me for not saying that sooner and uh it's because you guys come and give your comment that these projects can get better um I had a couple more things I want to go through um I agree with council member dur about the water versus the power usage if we condition that a data center needs to use air cooling the power usage goes up like exponentially so we're kind of in the boat of like lesser of two evils and considering the size of this data center and they're willingness to put in uh Plumbing to use effluent in the future I do think in this particular case that it is better to use um water in this situation than the air cooling um I I share council members doers concerns about our rates going up I don't know if you guys are aware but every school in my ward with the exception of the high school the only High School are tile one schools that means that all the families there get breakfast and lunch provided for these kids my mind is always on that aspect of my community these constituents don't deserve their power bills to go up because of velopment I don't think that's right I don't think that's fair so I appreciate the um the um efficiency regarding power to use water in this situation um I also appreciate the applicant's um willingness to work with me and my NAB members that gave feedback um I know that um that metal shielding on the fencing that they showed in that change was to help block the noise and I believe there was some additional um sound instulation added to the um uh roof or ceiling of the building to also help with noise mitigation because I also brought up the concerns about the um mobile home Community there that they should continue to enjoy their quality of life I don't think anybody should have to um feel negatively about development that happens regardless of what type it is um so I I want to say that I'm also going to support this data center because we have parameters that we have to operate in here and I might not think that this is the best use of our resources but the applicant has tried to accommodate everything that I've asked for and has tried to be better um I was also my request that they recycle now I'm not sure this this came to mind when there was other discussion are you providing the um servers or will the tenant be for the record gar Gordon the tenant will provide the servers however they will still be subject to the conditions that are approved tonight under the use permit because that runs with the land okay and really that was one of the main things that I wanted to stress was that the um materials were recycled wherever possible um and that nothing was left behind in a building in case the the use ever Chang es for this facility we're not left with all of this like obsolete equipment to do whatever so at least we have a potential for repurposing in the future because I also don't like to um see a lot of op vacant buildings we have a lot of vacant warehouses in my ward right now and I feel like it's it's a waste of space and resources um so those are my comments like I said I I I have to work in a certain set of parameters um I wish that council could have agreed the last time this came up to set some additional um guidelines in the code I think hopefully that's something that we could work towards to um alleviate some of these issues settle some of these issues universally I think there's absolutely room to come up with with some standards that mitigate some of these issues but at this point in time um I'm aware that this data center is going to be approved regardless of again whether I make a statement with my vote and say no or not um but I do want to set the standard that developers try to work with me and try to listen to what my constituents want and need and listen to ways to be and work with me to be um more en environmentally friendly so for that reason I will support this um again there's just things that we can't say no to just saying I don't want it is not a legitimate legal reason as much as I wish it was sometimes but um council member Ebert uh council member Martinez has his hand up and he hasn't hand around yet okay okay thanks so much M vice mayor thanks to everybody that showed up I really wanted to take a moment and just acknowledge some of the emotion that's also in the room I definitely heard it in your testimony your voices so just know that obviously you're you're being heard and appreciative of uh uh the mayor and council member Reese's leadership and allowing us to continue the conversation where we left off in that tied vote uh during the last meeting and regardless it looks like there is some appetite for us to continue that conversation so hopefully we can continue to work on these things um and push the sustainability sustainability efforts that we're committed to in the city forward and I think um you know I just want to give kudos to council member der you're the natural resource expert I think on our audience so I appreciate you chiming in during your last comments they were uh resounding and I appreciate you sharing that thank you council member Anderson yes so um if I didn't say thank you before thank you for coming out I I want to give kudos to the conditional use um permit process in this in this case because I have had the benefit of being able to hear directly from you instead of Staff going out and doing a six-month process at nabs that I don't attend um so I hope that in each of my comments and each of the questions that I've asked during these three or I think three or four um hearings that I've been a part of that you've heard that I've listened to you and I've gotten clarification on your specific questions so um with that said I just want to say the conditional use permit process in this has been really really helpful in informing all of us directly also really really helpful in informing us that there's not really a formulaic data center that works in every single area that they are permitted in Reno so we learn that effluent could be something that we want to look into for cooling so we're not you know wasting water it's not available in the North in the North Valleys right now so we have the opportunity to look at other options that will make this this project work you know an air cooled facility also uses higher loads of power so finding a good balance I feel like this conditional use permit process although it was a hassle yes people have to come down and talk to us directly but they would have to do that in the six months of this you know looking for a text Amendment anyway so I think that this has been generally very educational for the council and I appreciate all of your efforts and passion um and I just thank you for the process and I just again the conditional use permit process gives us all of the time it gives us 90 days UPF front and gives all of the applicants the ability to make adjustments based on what the community wants project by project and I think that's a really good process although it takes longer and um people have to engage a little bit more often than maybe they want to okay council members um according to our rules we have had two rounds of 3 minutes each a little bit over so we can go one more round of one minute if that's what we want to do council member ree can you please make sure you have the minute timer and then we will move into a motion careful I can speak really quickly I wanted to say thank you to miss Anderson and Miss uh Ebert uh they are making similar points but in a different way about the cup process on one hand if we have rules 1 through 10 and they're Ironclad and some data center knows what they have to shoot for they can do that but at the same time we don't have the process here to try to make the projects better and that's my worry about the cup process being abandoned I do think the cup process has allowed us to get to a better place to have those conversations both with the community and with the developers about what our needs are and to miss Anderson your point each piece of dirt and each data center should rise or fall in its own merits so I I'm not um uh I'm not abandoning the cup process in my mind I'm just saying I think that is an important one and it worked here to our benefit okay I'm going to go to um Madame mayor she has her hand raised and I don't believe she's had around yet okay thank you so much um let's see I um want to sort of clarify you know the last meeting uh I I felt it was really important to go back and sort of I wrote down a lot of questions and a lot of statements that people made and it was really hard for me to decipher what was accurate and so after doing a lot of research you know that was one of the reasons why I thought okay we need to get people in the room that can decipher what is accurate and what is not I think also you know tonight we're looking at a specific project but as we move forward I think we can put in better benchmarks um and requirements so that everyone is clear uh what that sort of looks like so I appreciate that I you know I know that people have alluded to that and I wanted to make it clear that you know it was I think it felt very convoluted and so I wasn't also aware that we would have another data center at our heels um and I wanted to do it quickly so again I appreciate everyone and I appreciate the mitigation efforts by councilman Reese and the applicant um I think you know we would be in a much better place if if more applicants would be amable to make some of these um adjustments so thank you and I appreciate the comments uh from Council as well thanks council member dur one minute sure um I just want to leave for myself on a very positive note as far as the future uh like the mayor just has um moving forward having a dialogue we can set up a framework that there to council member Anderson's Point there's not going to be hard and fast answers on every one of these issues like this is prohibited and this must be encouraged or whatever we're going to identify issues that have to be addressed and we're going to provide uh a framework for addressing those and we're going to provide some policy guidance to our staff about what we want to see and I want to make a note about solar and envy energy Envy energy has consistently made it more difficult for individuals to put solar on the roof the points that council member Ebert was finding out I have known for over 10 years I have solar on my roof 36 panels and they have they don't want individuals to be making their own power they want to be the power supplier um they want to have big power out in the fields and we have a whole bunch of roofs here that could support power so I just want to say I'm hopeful for the future and um we we'll move forward council member Ebert yeah I did want to ask would you agree to the condition to use native vegetation on this project uh in place of those trees I mean it could be trees but yeah we're possible when this issue forther G Gordon thank you for the question um when this isues this come up on conditions before the answer is absolutely yes and we'll work with the urban Forester on what he your city Urban Forester on what he thinks is most appropriate for that site perfect and I know he's got a list of trees that are acceptable okay no problem is that something something that we need to include on the motion okay um and then also just real quick wanted to say there is um sb69 going through the legislative session right now if you guys are not aware of it that is kind of challenging the tax abatements that are being given to Data Centers um um I can't think of the name right now Story County actually is leading the charge on this because of the economic Fallout of giving these tax abatements out um and they only have a population of 4,000 people so they're kind of the canary in the coal mine right now I think that there will be changes but we are working within the parameters we have right now so I just wanted to share that okay do you think um I don't know if it's uh Mr Foster or Garrett can we put the motion up with the conditions that have come yes so yes this would be the one to reverse the Planning Commission decision do we have a list of the conditions that have been agreed to can put up my slide with that last slide with maybe my presentation Madam clerk council member abber we're going to be looking to you for a motion so uh I think there was about four different ones yeah we can get those so here for the record Garett Gordon thank you um for the question council member Taylor the two additional would be the top two there and then whatever condition to work with the urban Forester that confirm native great and please correct me if I do this wrong but um I want to make a motion to approve the um uh openon data center with the additional conditions to use if if um sorry for the record John shipment city attorney's office if we could um put up the yes the motion to reverse the Planning Commission we just want to make sure we're on record with the right motion okay so motion to one sec one second it'll be a motion to modify with yeah the staff report has the motion which Miss do I think has reverse to reverse okay okay so I'd like to make a motion to reverse the Planning Commission decision with the modified um do I have to read all of that if if you could I mean okay um motion to modify the Planning Commission decision affirming the appeal reversing the Planning Commission decision I'm sorry I'm sorry um so we're reversing the Planning Commission decision okay oh sorry reversing the Planning Commission decision regarding the appeal of LDC 25-22 opan 5 megawatt data center based on council's review of the staff report the record on appeal and information presented at the public hearing for this appeal I move to affirm you move to reverse reverse the denial it'sing the okay okay got it move to affirm the appeal and reverse the denial of the conditional use permit by the Planning Commission and modify the decision of the Planning Commission as follows and and that would be the two the three conditions that Mr um Gordon provided on the on the last slide okay so with the conditions of coming okay um additional water connection for industrial use of eth water use pending any future infrastructure improvements installed within the North Virginia Street and satisfactory water quality report will be installed um any movable furniture and Hardware equipment shall be recycled and assessed for use after taken out of service and um use of native vet yeah the use of native vegetation I just didn't see it up here where possible and the um modifications to the fencing and noise abatements that those okay all right um I guess did I do it yeah and then there's just a and I apologize for this there's just a couple other there's another phrase in there if we could just have it do I have to start over no no no you're I can make all the findings okay I can make all the findings thank you is there more you wanted I can make all the findings as listed in staff report oh my gosh okay I can make all the findings where is it it's in the middle sort of as modified I can make all the findings uh as modified I can make all the findings required as listed in the staff report and I move to approve on the conditional use permit subject to conditions stated in the Planning Commission staff report and as Modified by Council the city clerk do I read that part the city clerk um is instructed to prepare and file an order modifications to the conditions of approval outlined in the Planning Commission staff report are the last three that you did so okay again no thank you second okay we have a motion a second all those in favor I all those opposed motion carries unanimously thank you very much yeah Madame clerk we are moving on to to our last public comment uh we have no one registered to speak but for the record we received three comments which were General in nature or not directly associated with an agenda item after 4 P.M yesterday March 11th uh these comments were written correspondents received via our reno.gov online public comment form or by email to our office copies of these comments have been distributed to the Reno city council and are available to the public on the reno.gov meeting portal and it was uh three letters in opposition and we're looking for a motion to adjourn second motion a second all those in favor all those opposed motion carries thank you very much yeah IAL