Regional board directs staff to craft policy and MOU on new-school approvals, aiming for consistent review across jurisdictions

The Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Governing Board unanimously directed staff to work with the three local jurisdictions, affected entities and school stakeholders to craft regional plan policy language and a memorandum of understanding to align the process and requirements for new school approvals.

Jeremy Smith, TMRPA director, reviewed a multi-year effort to determine whether schools should be treated as Projects of Regional Significance (PRS). Smith said the agency convened broad stakeholder meetings — including local elected leadership, regional planning commission leaders, Washoe County School District staff and representatives from charter school organizations — and concluded that applying the PRS mechanism to schools is not workable or appropriate at this time. Reasons cited included lack of empirical traffic data at the necessary granularity, timing issues in the PRS process that could create investment uncertainty, and the variable, often incremental growth patterns of charter schools that make a clean threshold difficult to apply.

Smith said stakeholders reached consensus that a better approach would be to craft regional-plan policy language that asks local jurisdictions to adopt consistent master-plan provisions and review processes for all kinds of schools (district, charter, private) so the approval path is foreseeable and aligned across jurisdictions. Smith said work to memorialize information-sharing with the State Public Charter School Authority is already underway in a proposed MOU, which staff anticipate bringing back to the board for review in June.

Legal counsel Jessica Parenti told the board she was working with the charter school authority’s legal counsel on the MOU language. Board members representing Reno, Sparks and Washoe County said they supported an approach that preserves local zoning and ordinance authority while seeking greater consistency in thresholds and public-review opportunities. Members described past contentious local cases — including a high-profile charter school appeal in Reno — as motivation for improved, predictable review processes.

Member (Chair) Harris moved the directive; an unnamed member seconded. The motion passed unanimously. Staff will continue MOU negotiations and work with jurisdictions and stakeholders to draft policy language for consideration by the board at a future meeting, with an anticipated return in June for the MOU and later amendments to the regional plan if needed.