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Board rejects Village Green grading permit after neighbors and some members raise flood and traffic concerns
Summary
The Board of Adjustment denied a special use permit for major grading at Village Green that would have imported about 60,000 cubic yards of material and disturbed roughly 18.4 acres; board members and multiple neighbors said drainage, detention-pond maintenance and heavy truck traffic were not adequately addressed.
The Washoe County Board of Adjustment on Wednesday denied a special use permit (WSUP25-7) that would have allowed major grading to raise elevations and prepare an 18.4-acre site in the Village Green area for future development and to comply with an approved FEMA conditional letter of map revision (CLOMAR).
County planner Trevor Lloyd described the proposal as excavation of roughly 36,000 cubic yards and import of about 60,000 cubic yards of fill, with regrading across about 18.4 acres to lift part of the site out of the floodplain and tie storm runoff into an existing detention pond. “The proposed grading will mitigate flood risk, improve drainage patterns and ensure compliance with FEMA's regulations,” Lloyd told the board.
Neighbors and multiple board members said the staff presentation and the applicant's plans did not adequately address several local concerns. Dan Engler, a nearby resident, told the board the retention pond that would receive diverted runoff had not been cleaned out following recent flood events and said he feared overflow. “That pond has not been cleaned out in the last two major flood events… With the rise of the retention pond, there's not enough capacity,” Engler said in public comment.
Other speakers raised questions about the CLOMAR mapping and how much of the property actually lies within the mapped floodplain. One resident, Dan Herman, told the board he believed the applicant was treating the whole parcel as floodplain when only a corner was shown on assessor maps. Several commenters worried about truck traffic to bring in tens of thousands of cubic yards of material: the applicant's material estimate would require several thousand dump-truck loads, neighbors said.
County senior licensed engineer Janelle Thomas and the applicant’s engineer explained the drainage approach and said the CLOMAR and drainage proposals were intended to reduce off‑site flooding. Janelle Thomas said the approved CLOMAR informed the grading plan and the county's Truckee Meadows Regional Drainage Manual criteria would govern stormwater control. John Browning of Tectonics Design Group said portions of the site had already been removed from the floodplain by earlier mapping related to adjacent projects and that the proposed grading work and channel would further mitigate flood potential.
Board members split on whether the submittal showed adequate mitigation. Peter Gishon noted the site is zoned industrial and said the entitlement before the board was the grading special use permit, not final site development. Don Christensen said he had “lost confidence in FEMA” and described the project as large in scale and potentially detrimental to nearby new houses; he opposed approval. Kathy Julian said residents’ concerns had not been sufficiently addressed in the staff packet and that traffic and hauling impacts had not been meaningfully analyzed. Gishon said he trusted staff and planned follow-up review at the grading-permit stage; Christensen and Julian said they could not support the item.
Board member Peter Gishon moved to approve the permit; the motion failed when the board recorded two votes in favor and three opposed. The application was denied, and the chair read the appeal procedure for applicants who wish to seek review by the Board of County Commissioners or by judicial review.
