Planning Commission approves conditional use permit for manufactured home dealer at Whitaker Road

The Sparks Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit to allow the construction and operation of a manufactured home dealer on a 1.61-acre site at 4620 Whitaker Road.

Planner Kobi Guano summarized the project and reminded commissioners that the City Council in March 2025 amended the Sparks Municipal Code to permit manufactured home dealers in additional zoning districts, including the Professional Office (PO) district, subject to a conditional use permit. "According to the trip generation letter submitted by the applicant, the manufactured home dealer would generate a total of 40 gross average weekday trips," Guano said.

Guano told the commission the proposal includes a primary access from Whitaker Road, a secondary one-way drive on the northern portion of the site for deliveries and emergency access that will be inaccessible to the public, and a proposed sidewalk within the Whitaker Road right-of-way to connect the site to existing pedestrian facilities. He said a sidewalk adjacent to North McCarran Boulevard was not proposed because the Regional Transportation Commission (RTC) has identified that corridor for a road-widening project and a sidewalk would not connect to existing infrastructure.

Guano said required landscaping for the PO district is 20% of the site and the applicant’s preliminary plan exceeds that by nine percentage points. Sparks code requires a minimum of 36 trees; the planner said two trees currently exist on the site, so the applicant would be required to plant 34 additional trees. The staff report said the manufactured home dealer is estimated to have lower peak-hour trip generation than previously approved car-wash proposals for the site.

Applicant John Kropotek, representing the project team, said the site’s prior approvals for car washes did not proceed because of NDOT permitting and access issues and that the current use appears compatible with surrounding land uses. "So, you know, 40 trips a day, a single point of access ... it seems very manageable," Kropotek said.

Public notice was sent to 139 property owners and published in the Reno Gazette Journal on June 3 as prescribed by Nevada Revised Statutes and Sparks Municipal Code; staff reported it had received no public comments as of the hearing. Commissioner Niebuhrlin moved to approve the conditional use permit; Commissioner Reid seconded and the motion passed. The approval is subject to the 12 conditions listed in the staff report, including construction of curb-and-gutter and sidewalk improvements and submission of a final landscaping plan prior to building permits.