Excessive dust, bike path removal and more: Carson City Supervisors discuss Andersen Ranch issues

Many issues were brought up during the review of the final Andersen Ranch subdivision map, including nearby residents who have experienced dust issues from mass grading on the site, the removal of promised bike lanes from the map, and more.

Those same property owners had been inundated with thousands of tumbleweeds from the Andersen property for months, sometimes piling so high in their backyards they covered their roofs as well.

Now, only a few years later, the tumbleweeds have been replaced by gusts of dirt from mass grading as well as huge piles of dirt in the center of the Andersen property.

The Andersen Ranch Estates project is seeking to build a new neighborhood of 203 lots across 48.2 acres located on the property known currently as Andersen Ranch, which is located west of Mountain Street and east of Ormsby Boulevard in west Carson City.

Dust
While there had been a requirement that mass grading not take place on the property unless they were ready to begin construction, staff stated the developers came forward with a permit to begin construction on the entire property as a whole, instead of portion by portion.

“Lots not planned for immediate development shall be left undisturbed, and mass grading and clearing of natural vegetation shall not be allowed,” the condition stated.

The permit was issued in February; however, the developers have 18 months to finish their site improvements, along with the ability to request an extension.

The city required the property to initiate additional waterings of the property, which proved to be unhelpful. Then, they required the developers to apply a dust palliative, which is essentially a glue that holds the dust particles in place.

The palliative appears to have worked; since that time, staff said, only one day with abnormally high winds resulted in additional dust complaints.

Supervisor Stacey Giomi said that the staff report stated that “conditions had been met” regarding the dust issue “totally understates what happened.”

“I think it does a disservice to us and to our community that we’re not at least acknowledging there were issues, that have now been corrected.”

Giomi went on to say that during the weekends, he never saw any trucks watering the several large mounds of dirt in the center of the property, which then caused dust issues, and since it was a weekend, there was no one to complain to, and many complaints may have gone unheard.

“We need to have a discussion about how we allow this to happen in the future,” said Giomi. “There was a lot of acreage that got disturbed, and a lot of natural vegetation removed. Yes, under our code it’s allowable, but we have to think of a way to protect the neighboring residents in the future.”

Supervisor Lisa Schuette asked staff to clarify about the grading requirement, since it is typical for an entire site to be graded for site improvements.

Staff clarified that, within the code, it pertains to if a portion of a site is not going to be developed until a “distant into the future” date, such as the different phases of Schulz Ranch, during which one phase was graded and built at a time.

Supervisor Maurice White stated that the developer knew about the dust but did not mitigate it.

“This developer knew the dust issues,” said White. “This developer, as an experienced developer, knows what it takes to control fugitive dust, and yet they did not until there were multiple incidences. I think you owe this community an apology and an effort to be a good neighbor.”

A representative from Lennar Homes, the project developer, offered his apologies on behalf of the company.

“In regards to the dust, I do apologize,” said Dustin Barker of Lennar Homes. “We want to be good neighbors. (…) When the wind gets over a certain mile-per-hour, it’s tough to mitigate.”

Barker stated that the company had “taken it upon themselves” to clean up the tumbleweeds that plagued the property. The housing project has been under review since July 2019.

“Historically tumbleweeds and brush have been a nuisance on that site, and we took it upon ourselves to do a bunch of clean up with that stuff too.”

Resident Richard Nagel commented his home was inundated with dust.

“I came home one day and there was an inch of dust under my door,” said Nagel. “It’s just a ton of dust. All the window ledges, I have dust.”

Resident Sarah Lamier commented that the wind blows every afternoon.

“That’s a known fact. Every afternoon. They should have known that.

Bike Lane Removal

Originally, the agreement included the development of bike lanes on Mountain Street. Staff determined that, if parking was removed on one side of the street, bike lanes could be added in; however, upon further review after the condition was included, staff determined it was impractical and could create a hazard for bicyclists and motorists.

The developer was then given a condition to include a “share the road” sign.

Giomi asked why the city put a bike lane requirement in, only to determine later on that it couldn’t be done.

Staff stated that it was an oversight. 
“There’s a lot of detail analysis that doesn’t get done until you get to the site improvement plans,” said staff. “It should have been caught.”

Trail Head

Giomi also asked what was happening with the Mountain Street trail head.

“Are we waiting for them to the work in there?” asked Giomi. “It looks really bad. The weeds — it doesn’t look like a trail head. It doesn’t look like it’s been maintained in a long time. It really looks bad.”

Parks and Recreation Superintendent David Navarro Jr. stated they intend to clean the trail head up before handing it over to the developer, and that as a department they have not been able to get to yet.

“It’s on our list,” said Navarro. “We’re about 4-6 months behind maintaining those types of areas. But we’ll get to it.”

Following the discussions, the board voted to approve of the final subdivision map, with Supervisor White voting against.