RENO, Nev. (AP) - The Reno City Council plans to revisit its earlier denial of a big housing project after the developer filed a lawsuit and revised the original plan that was rejected partly because it’s in a flood plain.
The project’s master plan is on the council’s agenda for Monday’s regularly scheduled meeting.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports the panel agreed earlier this month to give a modified version of the Daybreak development a second look as part of a court order allowing both parties to try to reach a compromise in the ongoing lawsuit.
If no agreement is reached, the lawsuit is scheduled to go to trial Friday in Washoe County District Court.
The legal battle began after the council voted last year to reject a 4,700-unit development Newport Pacific Land wants to build on 900 acres (360 hectares) bordering wetlands southeast of Reno-Tahoe International Airport.
Flooding and mercury contamination were cited as key concerns by council members who voted against the full project on the former Butler Ranch site. Newport Pacific Land has already been approved for 1,550 homes on the northern portion of the project location.
The Newport Beach, California-based developer responded to the rejection of its larger plan by filing a lawsuit in February accusing the city of basing its decision on politics, not science.
“In short, the city arbitrarily denied Daybreak’s application based solely on politics, ignoring the facts, law and uncontroverted, substantial engineering and technical information in the records which mandated approval,” the lawsuit says. “The city’s actions were arbitrary and capricious, unlawful and in excess of lawful authority, unsupported by substantial evidence, discriminatory and unconstitutional, and must be reversed.”
Since then, Newport Pacific Land says it has made several modifications to the project. They include greater flood mitigation and increased density of the project by including more “missing middle” units - about 2,611 units - such as townhomes and smaller dwellings that should also improve affordability.
“We’ve embraced (density) fully and proposed that 56% of homes are in the missing middle,” said Andrew Durling, vice president of planning for the engineering firm Wood Rodgers helping design the project. “We have minimum density requirements that will force that kind of product.”
Washoe County Second Judicial Court granted a limited remand to allow both parties to reach a potential compromise prior to Sept. 27. The lawsuit seeks more than $50 million in damages and claims developers stand to lose $100 million if the project doesn’t move forward.
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Information from: Reno Gazette-Journal, http://www.rgj.com
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