Deep Thoughts, Cheap Shots and Bonbons: A Look Back at the Vintage Project

Prior to the 2 pm Vintage Project meeting, I requested that this agenda item be moved to an evening session so that citizens could have a better chance to attend and address the Board.

The Mayor asked for a motion, as usual my fellow Board members all refused to agree with me. Based upon this non-action by the Board, an outside observer might then assume that the Vintage Project could not have any adverse effect on our community whatsoever, because the need to give citizens a better opportunity to have a voice had no merit with Board members Crowell, Abowd and Bagwell.

The broker/developer (Vince Scott) of the Vintage Project has a long history of doing numerous projects with great success. Knowing this, some may wonder why this very successful businessman would need NAI to write the offer to purchase the Anderson property. Well, possibly having a local firm (owned by an elected official) could help Scott connect all the needed dots to get the project approved.

The sale of the Anderson property is rumored to be from 9 million to 15 million dollars. The projected sales commission of 3% to NAI could roughly be $270,000 to $450,000. This is the reason Supervisor Brad Bonkowski had to recuse himself from this agenda item.

It is possible, that prior to the Board meeting Bonkowski might have received everything related to this agenda item that ALL other Board members had received. This procedure or policy should be reviewed, it is quite apparent that a conflict of interest existed well before the meeting even took place.

One of the most amusing moments of the agenda session was when Lori Bagwell volunteered to be the timekeeper. Thereby, monitoring the time citizens could voice their opinion on the Vintage Project. Having the responsibility of telling citizens when they had to shut up, took great courage. You go LB.

At the meeting a large portion of community voiced their disapproval for this project, as did the majority of emails, letters, texts and phone calls that I personally received. It would seem logical that ALL other Board members would have received similar.

During the meeting Mayor Crowell said: “All things being equal, I’d like to see something else developed on this property. But they could do it right now without the congregate care. Personally I’d like to see another use of this property, but it does meet the goal of a diverse range of housing. And the ability to amend (the master plan) is there for a reason”.

To the Mayor I said: “If you want something different built there, then vote NO”.

Abowd and Bagwell together formulated a few tidbits of this and that, in their motion to approve the Vintage Project. Possibly, this was to appease those voicing disapproval of the project and to justify their soon to be YES vote.

Crowell, Abowd and Bagwell voted YES for the Vintage Project.

Abowd - read from what seemed like a prepared statement on why she was voting in favor of the project.

Bagwell – her vote leaves no doubt: A black hole really does exist in the universe.

Crowell – this was deliberately left blank.

My opinion: the majority of the community already knew that Crowell, Abowd and Bagwell would vote YES for this project.

I, Jim Shirk voted NO for the Vintage Project.

This NO vote will most likely go down in history as the last time a Board member voted NO on agenda item of this magnitude.

Regarding the Vintage Project this statement was made at the Planning Commission, and I reiterated it at the Board meeting, as follows:

“The rezoning may provide unjustified special treatment that benefits a particular owner, while undermining the pre-existing rights and uses of adjacent property owners”.

The above statement still holds merit, as does the following statements:

Every Carson City citizen should know this:
1. For the next two years there will be no dissenting voice on the Board.
2. Basically, the prospect that any Board member would vote NO on any major agenda item is highly doubtful ….well truth be known – it ain’t never gonna happen.
3. Citizens can anticipate that at all Board meetings there will be YES votes from all 5 Board members on agenda items.

So knowing this, it seems logical that for the next two years all Board meetings should be canceled and the funding saved from this action should be placed into the street repair budget.