Commission recommends North Virginia zone change, approves outdoor-storage CUP with limits on deviation and altered screening requirement

The Reno Planning Commission on Aug. 5 recommended that City Council approve a zoning-map amendment (case LDC26-00090) converting approximately 16.78 acres along North Virginia Street from Mixed Use Suburban to Mixed Employment to bring the zoning into conformance with the master plan. Nathan Gilbert, principal planner, told commissioners the ME zone better matches the site's mixed-employment designation.

The same applicant sought a conditional use permit and a major deviation (case LDC26-00091) to allow outdoor storage, including a 1.6-acre fenced area for landscape materials and a 5,000-square-foot office building on Parcel 1. Applicant representatives described the materials and operations: "The materials that are gonna be stored on-site are for a landscape business... there's gonna be 12 to 15 pickup trucks and 4 dumpsters that will be stored on-site as well as the materials," said the applicant representative. They also described water-suppression and dust-control measures and proposed solid screening and landscaping.

Commissioners focused on residential-adjacency standards, hillside grading, wetlands mitigation and screening. After discussion and a short recess for the applicant to consult, the applicant agreed to limit the major-deviation relief to Parcel 1 only. The commission approved the CUP and deviations with modifications: the major deviation applies only to Parcel 1, staff-recommended condition 6 (a decorative masonry wall visible from the right-of-way) was struck and screening reverted to the code requirement for a solid fence (allowing alternative solid materials in code), and condition 10 was edited to remove language requiring Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) approval of the wetlands delineation. The motion carried 6-1, with Commissioner McCoy opposed.