Reno council denies Mount Rose Junction zoning change after neighbors, planners cite missing details

Reno City Council on Sept. 24 voted unanimously to deny a request to reclassify a 0.99-acre parcel on the west side of Plumas Street near Mount Rose from multifamily residential (MF-14) to a Specific Plan District (SPD) that would increase height and density and allow up to 39 units.

The council action upheld the Planning Commission’s earlier technical denial and followed months of neighborhood opposition and repeated staff requests for a more specific plan. Planning Manager Mike Raley told the council that the SPD handbook submitted by the applicant included only a conceptual site plan and did not lock in the details—setbacks, circulation, parking and building placement—that staff and the commission say are required to satisfy the heightened scrutiny an SPD demands.

“That site plan is a concept only,” Raley said. “There is nothing to require that to be developed. The planning commission was not comfortable because of that lack of specificity.”

Brook Oswald, representing Park Real Estate Partners, the project applicant, told the council the site is one of the rare vacant infill acres inside McCarran and argued the project would add housing and support nearby businesses. Oswald said the developer was willing to work with staff on a revised SPD handbook and that the proposed design included increased setbacks along the south property line,…