MINUTES. Western Nevada Development District

Transcription

1 MINUTES Board of Directors Meeting & Tour 5:30 p.m., Monday Arario Midtown Restaurant 777 South Center Street. Reno, Nevada MEMBERS PRESENT: Carson City, John Barrette; Churchill County, Nate Strong; Pershing County, Rob McDougal, Heidi Lusby-Angvick; City of Lovelock, Pat Rowe, Mark Hauenstein; Storey County, Austin Osborne; Washoe County, Jenifer Rose, Jeanne Herman; City of Sparks, Ed Lawson, Art Sperber, Jeff Bowling; MEMBERS ABSENT: Douglas County, City of Fallon, Humboldt County, City of Winnemucca, Lyon County, City of Yerington, Mineral County; City of Reno, Fallon Shoshone-Paiute Tribe, Pyramid Lake Tribe, Reno-Sparks Colony, Walker River Paiute, Washoe Tribe, Yerington Paiute Tribe, and Associate Members, and Private Sector Reps STAFF PRESENT: Ron Radil, Executive Director, Sheryl Gonzales, Project Manager, and Diane Heet. Presentation / Approval Update Nevada Department of Transportation Regional Transit Plan Request for Proposal Mr. Lem said NDOT is requesting input from stakeholders regarding the NEVADA DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION REGIONAL TRANSIT PLAN PROPOSAL. He indicated in his presentation that NDOT had presented before the WNDD Board regarding this project previously.. Mr. Lem reported that NDOT has issued an RFP that was due on September 7 th. Four proposals were submitted to NDOT. Mr. Lem invited the Board to ask questions, however, because of NDOT procurement rules, there are certain things he s unable to discuss. NDOT has issued a Notice of Intent letter to all four firms that submitted proposals. This indicates that NDOT has ranked the respondents. NDOT is negotiating with the top ranked firm. Because a contract agreement has not been finalized with the top ranked firm, there s a possibility that this firm may not be selected which would then provide opportunity for the other firms to be considered. Mr. Lem announced his two goals for WNDD with NDOT 1) Invite the WNDD Board to be stakeholders in the project; 2) Be invited back to provide an update on the project. He recommended there be a representative from WNDD to attend meetings and provide input Board Meeting Minutes 1

2 to NDOT and the project contracting consultant. There are some funds for this fiscal year for the project. The intent is to have the Stakeholders group meeting before the end of the year. Next year NDOT has funds dedicated to the project. Lem invited questions at that time. Bus Scharmann, of Churchill County, said Churchill County is looking at a transit system that would include multiple counties that could be modeled after the CART system in Churchill County; that it might expand to include other counties and get to the Tahoe Regional Industrial Park. Scharmann asked if that was what the RFP is looking at, something that would also take in the other end of it, and that would be in the Reno-Sparks area as well as the rural areas? Lem said, The short answer is Yes. He said all of that has been included in the RFP language. He said they had to limit the number of counties, but included five counties: Carson City, Churchill, Lyon, Storey and Washoe. Lem stated one of the questions regarding transit is What s going on in these five counties. Austin Osborne, Storey County representative, asked about the status of expansion of I-80 between Vista Boulevard and Exit 32 (USA Parkway). Mr. Osborne added there are some immediate, critical needs regarding this part of I-80 due to increased traffic, both passenger and freight. Lem said there is an active project under development, for the I-80 corridor. This corridor and region is one of the primary focus areas for NDOT. NDOT is undertaking improvements at the Spaghetti Bowl in Reno. NDOT is doing a traffic analysis for this part of the I-80 corridor. Mr. Osborne responded his biggest concern this traffic analysis is not underway, and potential expansion of this part of I-80 is critical and needs to be completed. Lem said although he doesn t know all the answers, he is willing to take questions and find the answers for Board members. Lawson said they could discuss this further under Inter-jurisdictional Items. He has just talked with EDAWN, and there is not a plan at this point. It is eight hundred million to one billion to add a lane each way, if they could make it happen because of the environmental impact on the river. Lem said it is his understanding that everything is related, except there are the constraints along the I-80 corridor. They are looking at a range of options, including how to divert or Board Meeting Minutes 2

3 redirect traffic. A variety of options are being considered from small vehicles to commuter rail. Lawson said that was part of the discussion, a myriad of things are being investigated from Amtrak to TRIC ending up in Sparks, and putting people on Amtrak. He said there has been a whole lot going on, but they are more interested in the bigger picture. He added it is a big problem for them, but not necessarily a problem for Churchill or Lyon. Radil asked how long it will take to complete this transit study? Lem replied that it is NDOT s goal to complete the first phase without some product by June 30 th, especially some of the early stakeholders work. Lem stated the scoping RFP would be finished by the end of the second year. NDOT s goal would be to have some recommendations that would have the support of the community of stakeholders by the end of this fiscal year. There may be a stakeholder meeting every other month that might be reasonable. In six months that would be only three meetings. The project will take some time, and realistically he feels it will roll into the next fiscal year, if they get some significant products and recommendations. He said it is important to get a consensus, and not create a report that gets put up on a shelf and forgotten about. It is NDOT sr goal to actively involve the stakeholders, and hopefully have WNDD s support and buy-in with the recommendations. Lawson asked if there were any questions. There were none. He thanked Mr. Lem for his presentation. The meeting was adjourned while dinner was served. Following President Lawson called the meeting to order with Roll Call. completion of the meal, Roll Call was completed. A quorum was declared present. Introduction of Guests: Lewis Lem, NDOT, Don Rose, Jim Bradbury, Jim Rowe, Rene Radil and David Heet. President Lawson, referring to the Agenda, stated there would be no Treasurers Report or Board Meeting Minutes, as Secretary-Treasurer Lisa Granahan had not had time to review them. Lawson then called for a motion to approve the Agenda as revised. Accept Agenda Bus Scharmann Moved to accept the Agenda as amended. Jeanne Herman motion. Motion carried unanimously. seconded the Public Comment There was none Board Meeting Minutes 3

4 APPROVAL OF CONSENT CALENDAR Items on the consent calendar may be approved by one motion. Consent items may be pulled at the request of Board Members wishing to have an item further discussed. When pulled for discussion, the item will automatically be placed at the beginning of the Administrative Agenda. The Treasurer s Report was unavailable and there were no items to be discussed under the Consent Agenda. ADMINISTRATIVE AGENDA Presentation / Discussion Update Nevada Department of Transportation. Regional Transit Plan Request For Proposal A representative of the NDOT Multi-Modal Program will provide an update regarding the Regional Transit Plan RFP This item presented as transcribed above. Discussion Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy Update Status of CEDS update for the region. Radil stated Board members were aware that WNDD is going through the update process. Radil has been to Mineral County and the City of Fernley, accompanied by WNDD President Lawson to make presentations and gather input for the CEDS. Lawson and Radil are scheduled to be on the Storey County Commission Agenda on 5 December to make the presentation regarding the CEDS Update and Project List. Radil added the Project Listings should be ed to WNDD by the end of January in order that the draft can be distributed at the February WNDD Board meeting.. Bus Scharmann asked if Radil would come to Churchill County along with the others mentioned? Radil said they have scheduled Churchill and Pershing counties for the 20th of December. Lovelock is scheduled to the 2 nd of January Lawson requested Board members to ensure a presentation has been scheduled for your respective commission or council to promote the importance of the CEDS and for each entity to provide input. Reports and Updates Board Meeting Minutes 4

5 a) WNDD Revolving Loan Fund Update Radil said there is $32,000 available to lend. Currently there are five borrowers, and all are current. b) th Annual Nevada Economic Development Conference Gonzales announced that Jenifer Rose is Chairman of the 2018 Conference. They are looking at the dates for the conference to be August 20, 21 st, and 22 nd, in Reno. Plans are moving forward to to have their first conference planning meeting. The Committee is evaluating facilities and determining a theme for the conference. Facilities being considered is the Atlantis, Reno or the Nugget, Sparks. Each is providing very competitive packages and a selection will be made in January. Jenifer Rose said they were able to get Switch involved in the conference. She said Radil, Gonzales and she went to the Switch facility at TRI for a preliminary planning meeting. The first day of the Conference may be at Switch. Discussion will be about break-out sessions and tours. Rose said she would be happy to bring anyone to Switch for a tour. Gonzales added that on Monday Switch is talking about having a full day workshop out there connecting Nevada to the Economic Vitality Engine. Connecting the rural to the urban community will be a very important part of that discussion. They are also proposing bringing one of their high level executives to be a Keynote speaker for the conference. Rose stated Switch wants to address sustainability. She added that Switch has the single highest award for being the most environmentally sustainable company in the world at 100%. The next highest company is Apple at either 82% or 83%. Facebook is in the sixties, so they are not the leader. Gonzales stated there are still some positions on the Planning Committee needing to be filled. These are: Economic Development Vitality Chair and Manufacturing Chair. The Committee is looking to have a Publicity Chair and a Sponsor Chair. Teri Bath and Clint Koble are the Agri-Business Co- Chairs and Tom Dallaire is the Infrastructure Chair. Tillery Williams is the Workforce Development Chair. Gonzales requested if anyone knows of someone who is interested on serving on the Committee to make these referrals to Gonzales. There will be five tracks instead of the previous seven and there will be an Exhibit Hall, as in previous years. Board Meeting Minutes 5

6 Gonzales said one of the most exciting things that is happening this year, that they anticipate great outcomes to come from, is they are forming a Nevada Economic Development Association (NEDA). The group includes Nate Strong from Churchill County Economic Development Authority, Barbra Coffee, from City of Henderson, Anthony Ruiz, LVGEA, Bob Shriver (Highway 95 RDA), Nancy McCormick, EDAWN, Pam Borda from Northeastern Nevada Economic Development Authority, and Rachel Dahl, Mesquite Regional Business Council, and Rob Hooper from NNDA,. This group has agreed to serve on the Inaugural Board to form the Economic Development Association, a non profit membership association. In the future the Nevada Economic Development Association will present the conference. The goal is to have that occur with the 2019 conference. The Nevada Economic Development Association was in place several years ago. Consequently there are Bylaws and Articles of Incorporation that can be utilized for the newly formed NEDA. c) Member WNDD Board Appointments Radil said the last item under Reports is Board Appointments. He said usually in January of each year the respective County Boards and City Councils appoint their Board members to WNDD. He asked those present to keep that in mind. He will be sending out s, advising everybody of that. Discussion Inter-jurisdictional Issues Discussion only. Lawson asked Austin Osborne, of Storey County, to report on the meeting they had last Thursday with EDAWN, ENDOW & NDOT. Austin Osborne said they talked about Interstate Highway 80 and some of the challenges there. The cost for widening the highway will be two billion dollars and it will be a ten to fifteen year process. There are concerns of what s going to happen in the legislature, and with the Governor. It is possible funds will be distributed mostly to the south which will negatively impact the widening of Hwy 80. Osborne said looking at the CEDSs and everything, they are considering alternative routes; especially alternative routes that don t just travel from one place to another, but maybe build a whole regional route and try to service that area. There s potential for connecting with Sparks, there s potential for connecting with Storey County. Both of them have their benefits; both of them have their pitfalls. Board Meeting Minutes 6

7 Osborne said the goal is you have people out at TRI and Fernley and Sparks that are making $17 to $25 an hour. He said from the study it seems that 75% to 80% of all those people live north of the interstate. Osborne said Storey County has potential housing for that area. In Lockwood they expect an application in the next 60 days for 4800 homes. He said Storey County s Master Plan supports it. It will be multi-family and single family, and all types of housing like you see here in Reno and Sparks. Osborne continued, Sparks and Reno are working on their Master Plan. There are concerns that the master plans can address with regard to transportation. Storey County supports what the region does in that regard. He said as far as housing goes in Storey County, as long as it conforms to their master plan, they re open to it. Osborne said USA Parkway going towards Lyon County (he said he wasn t speaking for Lyon County), there may be water problems in Silver Springs. He said he understood there was about 12,000 acre feet on paper and there are about 6,000 acre feet of water. There s a real problem. Not speaking regionally for, but the potential of the engineer s office of looking at that area as a critical watershed management area will present challenges. He said he understood Lyon County does have a project that has gone through the Planning Commission and is on its way to the Board, a Development Agreement for the Master Plan. Lawson added that it is the same as Storey County s Agreement. Osborne said it is really coming to the table and working as a region to come up with solutions. Lawson said the main discussion was on what they are calling the northeast connector, from USA Parkway and you come up and land in Spanish Springs at La Posada, and eventually carrying that road all the way out to Cold Springs, Golden Valley to alleviate that traffic. Lawson said the Reno City Council is very adamant that they be not on that. He said they are running the Environmental Study through the RTC. They re actually submitting for the grant Friday of this week. Lawson said in Sparks they are hoping 38,000 acres of Industrial which would be a complement to Storey County, and do in 500 acre parcels and smaller. What that does with the new road actually saves 7 ½ miles of travel time. Lawson said if you work out in the park and you live where they say 75% of the people live north of I-80 in Reno-Sparks you are going to save a commute that is just going to be outstanding. Board Meeting Minutes 7

8 Lawson said making Highway 80 wider is near to impossible. If you go towards the river you have all the environmental problems there. You go towards the mountain you ve got more bedrock so the construction costs are astronomical. The guess was $800,000 to one billion dollars to put two lanes; one lane on each side. Once the environmental studies are done, that number could go way up. That s just going to USA Parkway and Vista. It is a very short piece of road. That s where the passenger rail came up. Amtrak has rights to those tracks, so Amtrak could be a commuter type way to get people out to the Park, drop them off in Sparks. That s another mentality change for our population. Although most of us have lived in Nevada our whole life, we value our cars and trucks, and will drive a quarter of a mile to 7-11 to pick up a gallon of milk. There s even some discussion of making that road, coming out of USA into Sparks, a toll road, hiring a toll company similar to what they do in the Denver area, which is very efficient. He said he has to go to Fort Collins a couple times a year, and that toll road works out well. The road is well maintained. He said that may be something in the future. Lawson said the big part is to get the environmental reviews completed. This would be a fast track in that they could actually be building the road within three years. Lawson said they also talked about a road for our community. He said right now Lyon County does have a major water problem in Silver Springs, but they do not have a water problem at all in Smith Valley. He said if Reno and Sparks don t get their stuff together, Yerington could become a viable bedroom community because you re roughly 30 minutes away from the TRI Center. You ve got all the water in the world in Smith Valley. Fernley has a limited amount of water also. Lawson said he was not sure what the water situation is in Fallon or Churchill. Osborne said people don t realize that Tahoe Reno Industrial Center is almost sold out. Most of the companies, especially the Data farms, have bought vast tracks of land, thousands of acres. They want to put their business right in the middle, and have the rest for security and a buffer. The idea of 75,000 acres back to back, looking like Longley Lane, couldn t happen before, and we now know it won t happen, not to say there won t be significant growth. Lawson said from what he understands from Mike Kazmierski TRI is out of land to sell. He added that Lyon County just passed the same development agreement that Storey County has. He said once again you run into the issue of over allocated water. Who gets it? Bus Sharmann said to answer the question about Churchill, they are strongly encouraging any developments to hook up to either City or county water and septic systems, and Board Meeting Minutes 8

9 strongly discouraging separate well and septic tanks. He added that if they stick to that they won t have a water problem. Lawson said if you don t stick to that you ll have the same problem they had at Spanish Springs where the septic tanks were leaching into the fresh water. Lawson said at the first meeting when they got details, he wrote a white paper on the industrial center for Sparks a couple of years ago, and Kazmierski finally picked up on it and came up with a new route, so they haven t gotten that far with the details yet. Lawson said We need a stake in the ground to make something happen. He said that road on I- 580 going out to USA Parkway is an absolute mess. If there s a light dusting of snow or rain that freezes, that place is done, and people won t get to work. Osborne said originally USA Parkway was intended to just access the park. Any thought of more development was maybe in the future. Lawson said Reno can t grow very much more south and only a little bit north. There s no east or west potential because of the mountains in Storey County. Sparks has the potential to grow all the way to Fernley. Lawson asked if there were any more items under Inter-Jurisdictional? There were none Other New Business The next Meeting is scheduled for 9:30 a.m., Monday, 26 February, 2018 at City Hall, Fernley, Nevada. Adjournment President Lawson adjourned the meeting at 7:38 p.m. Respectfully Submitted, Lisa Granahan, Secretary/Treasurer APPROVED: Ed Lawson, President Board Meeting Minutes 9