Regional plan housekeeping approved; staff reports on schools, trails and data centers

The Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Commission voted to sponsor and adopt a set of primarily housekeeping amendments to the 2024 regional plan at its meeting, approving the staff recommendation to update policy citations, mapping references and data layers. The motion to sponsor the amendment (case RPA25-003) and adopt RPC resolution 25-003 passed by voice vote after a brief presentation by regional planner Shawnee Souza.

Souza told the commission the amendments are mostly annual corrections following the larger five‑year update adopted Dec. 12, 2024. The most substantive change updates policy NR4 to reference improved endangered- and threatened-species data in the Natural Resource Consideration Areas (NRCA) layer; policy NR11 was updated to move the Truckee Meadows Regional Trails Plan link and stewardship reference to TeamRPA; RC2 corrects a map reference; and the energy and resiliency section received a wording correction and an added reference to a UNR heat‑mapping project and recently passed 2025 legislation on heat mitigation measures.

Jeremy Smith, regional planning staff, reported on related items. He said staff is developing a memorandum of understanding with the State Public Charter School Authority to improve information-sharing — noting the charter authority is not an “affected entity” under state law — and is drafting an enhanced regional plan policy (Public Facility Policy 8) to clarify expectations for locating and conditioning new schools with attention to traffic, co-location and safety. Smith said, “we are independently developing a relationship, and we’re gonna be talking like twice a year and sharing information.”

On Stonegate, Smith summarized the procedural status: the City of Reno declined to object to the RPC’s August nonconformance finding and the developer has appealed; staff will present a truncated Cold Springs briefing to the Regional Planning Governing Board before an October 9 appeal hearing. Depending on the governing board’s action, the project-of-regional-significance (PRS) portion of Stonegate may return to the RPC at its November meeting for further consideration.

Staff also reported they have taken over stewardship of the Truckee Meadows trails dataset from the Truckee Meadows Parks Foundation and plan to act as a fiscal agent for a working group that will seek funding for a part-time coordinator and an independent contractor to manage trails coordination. Jeremy Smith said they have hired an intern to assist with trail data cleanup and mapping.

On the topic of data centers, Smith said staff is continuing outreach and research and that he will present on high-energy users and data centers at the American Planning Association conference Oct. 23. He encouraged commissioners and the public to review the project’s webpage and an open survey on data-center community effects.

The commission adopted the regional-plan housekeeping amendments by motion and voice vote. No public comment was offered on the amendments. Commissioners also requested a future agenda item to convene a regional coordination subcommittee to review regional coordination policies.