Washoe County Board of Adjustment denies Sanctuary of God Church special-use permit after residents raise traffic, drainage and neighborhood-character concerns

The Washoe County Board of Adjustment denied a special-use permit request for the proposed Sanctuary of God Church (case WSUP250013) at its Oct. 2, 2025 hearing, citing unresolved traffic, drainage and neighborhood-character concerns.

Eric Young, senior planner with Washoe County Planning (read into the record by staff), described the request as an application to build a 15,000-square-foot, single-story religious assembly building on a five-acre parcel at the terminus of Rolling Ridge Road in the Golden Valley area of the North Valleys. Young said the conceptual plan showed roughly 9,000 square feet of assembly and support functions overall and a worship area used for trip-generation calculations of about 6,498 square feet; the project included a parking area listed in the application as 154 spaces and an estimated 18,000 cubic yards of grading. Young told the board the site would require hookups to the City of Reno water and sewer and additional ingress/egress work as conditions of approval.

Applicant Bob Cotter, president of Sierra Builders, and architect Jason Doerr of KRI Architecture said they revised exterior materials and the site layout following a neighborhood meeting. "We have absolutely no issues with any conditions — none whatsoever," Cotter told the board, adding the design team had adjusted siding, added windows on blank elevations and revised parking islands to meet code. Doerr said materials were changed from a metal look to cementitious fiberboard siding and cultured stone to “soften” the appearance.

County engineering staff and the applicant discussed traffic modeling at length. Janelle Thomas, senior licensed engineer, said the trip-generation analysis followed the International Traffic Engineers (ITE) Trip Generation Manual and that staff required the applicant to address Sunday peak-hour use because religious assembly trips can concentrate on a single day. Thomas said the study used the worship-area square footage to estimate peak-hour trips and that the submitted trip generation estimated roughly 67 peak-hour trips — below Washoe County's 80-trip threshold that triggers a full traffic-impact analysis. "We did require the applicant to address Sunday peak hours due to the primary use occurring during that Sunday peak hour," Thomas said.

Multiple board members and residents questioned whether square-footage–based trip calculations reflect how religious assemblies operate in practice, especially when the application and other exhibits included different attendance estimates. "There is an equivalency that is used to calculate those peak hour trips," Thomas said, noting the county relies on nationally developed tables. Board members pointed to conflicting numbers in the record — testimony and exhibits referenced current attendance numbers of roughly 85–95 people, staff reported an average-attendance figure cited in an exhibit, and residents and applicants referred at various times to projections as high as 364, 400 and 531 in different documents. The board and staff agreed those discrepancies created reasonable uncertainty the board had to weigh.

Technical concerns from the public centered on grading, stormwater and geology. Geologist Elaine Hanford told the board the site lies on rhyolitic tuff that has hydrothermal alteration producing expansive clays that impede infiltration and increase runoff risk. "Those clays are highly expansive," Hanford said, warning that a detention pond shown on preliminary plans was likely undersized for a large storm and that contaminants in runoff could pose risks to nearby domestic wells.

Dozens of neighbors spoke during public comment, repeatedly raising shared concerns: Rolling Ridge Road is a narrow, residential cul‑de‑sac with no sidewalks or streetlights; Golden Valley Road and the Spearhead intersection have limited capacity and documented safety incidents; winter plowing is limited; overflow parking and event-related traffic could impede resident access and emergency response; and the development would change the neighborhood's rural character. David Perdue, a neighbor, said, "I strongly object to a large church in my quiet neighborhood." Several speakers asked how the public would be able to review later hydrology reports and building plans; staff replied that this hearing is the public engagement opportunity for the special-use permit and that detailed engineering, grading and building plans will be reviewed at the building‑permit stage and are subject to county review and code enforcement.

During deliberation several board members said the proposal met certain technical metrics in the staff report but expressed concern about the proposal's visual impact, drainage uncertainties and road safety. Board member Leo moved to deny the special-use permit, noting the board could not make all five required findings under Washoe County Code; Rob seconded the motion. The motion to deny passed 4–1. The chair read the appeal procedure, which allows aggrieved parties to appeal the Board of Adjustment decision to the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners in writing within 10 calendar days.

Outcome and next steps The Board of Adjustment denied WSUP250013. The denial is appealable to the Washoe County Board of County Commissioners; staff said notice will be sent to the same parties notified for this hearing and there will be an opportunity for testimony at the commissioners' hearing. If the applicant seeks to reapply, engineering and planning staff indicated the applicant would need to submit full building plans, a hydrology/hydraulic report, and any additional studies that might be required by conditions adopted on appeal or in a revised application.