ADUs

Accessory Dwelling Units are one of Washoe County’s best kept secrets.  Our zoning code allows for a full 2^nd unit including kitchen on all lot sizes of 12,000 or more, as long as certain conditions are met.   Reno and the Reno Sphere of Influence do not.

This is huge.

-        You can flex your large family home for a variety of future uses.

-        You can provide independent living quarter for boomerang kids.

-        You can provide independent living quarters for boomerang parents.

-        You can flex a unit for home office use.

-        You can just build a rental unit.  The rental value in a prime school district like Roy Gomm where housing prices are high can’t be underestimated.

ADUs come in 2 flavors.  An attached ADU is physically part of the primary dwelling.  Access can be through the primary unit or independent of it – they can be 2 physically stand alone units.  The maximum size of an attached ADU is 1000 SF, or 50% of the primary unit’s dwelling area, whichever is less.  NO SPECIAL APPROVALS are required for attached ADUs in zoning districts LDS2 (17,500 SF lot)  or greater.  An Administrative Review is required on MDS (12,000 SF) lots and the maximum ADU size is 800 SF in that district

Detached ADUs all require Administrative Review.  The maximum size of a detached ADU is 1500 SF, or 50% of the SF of the primary dwelling, whichever is less.  Detached ADUs are allowed in LDS2 and greater zoning districts, and require Board of Adjustment approval in the MDS zone.

The Administrative Review process is pretty simple – sort of a streamlines Special Use Permit.  You file an application, neighbors within 500 feet are noticed and have 15 days to comment, and the administrator makes a ruling.  No public hearing is required unless the decision is appealed.  Most neighbors will prefer 2 discrete buildings over one monster house duplex.

Reno allowed ADUs until a 6 month moratorium was imposed in 2005.  This moratorium keeps getting extended and there is no indication it will ever be lifted.  The last time I saw the issue come before the Planning Commission, all sorts of conditions and restrictions on renting out ADUs were being discuss.  Washoe County DOES NOT impose any rental restrictions on ADUs.

Some caveats.  Most HOAs do not allow ADUs, so check out your CCRs.  Reno regulations govern Washoe properties within their SOI.

Once in a while, I get to blatantly advertise my own interests.  I own 3 properties along Mayberry that are golden for ADUs.  They are in Washoe County (15% property tax reduction from Reno), out of the Reno SOI, and in the Roy Gomm elementary school district – a 4 Star school (the Governor’s kids attend there).  If the concept of  building on a property where ADUs are approvable  intrigues you, flip me an email at macmv@charter.net.  Information on the parcels is available at Mayberry Canyon.  .

A Lotta Apples

Having a permit submitted or even approved does not carry the weight of actually having it issued.  Apple has been “approved” for 6 months on their downtown Reno processing facility, but the permit hasn’t been “issued” – actually picked up and paid for.

Last week, Apple was ISSUED permits for their server farm at Reno Technology Center east of Sparks valuing construction at over $16,000,000:

-  $4M Site Improvement Work.

-  $4.6M  for a 38,560 SF Administrative Building with Loading Dock.

-  $6.9M  for 2 Data Processing Cluster Buildings totaling 50,570 SF.

If these new buildings follow the pattern of Apple’s initial server building, additional permits will be pulled nearly doubling the construction cost before occupancy.

You can view the permit reports HERE, along with all the other permits issued in Washoe County last week.

 

The Mirador – One That Got Away

You may know it as the Regency at 1150 W 2nd Street.  But in better times, it was the Motel Mirador, and exquisite stop along the Lincoln Highway.

Look at that heavy Detroit metal in the parking lot!  The Googie canopies extended 16′ over the entries and parking, and love those slanted pipe columns.

Alas, time was not kind to the Mirador, and it became the Regency.  This picture is from 1999, and it looks a lot worse today.

The Mirador / Regency even plays a key role in the Ghost Pools of Reno video.

Purchased for $1.8M in 2008, and then literally abandoned, the Regency went back to the bank in March.  Nevada State Bank never really marketed the property, and quickly sold it to an Arizona fund for $425,000 even though they knew we had a more competitive offer in the works.  So the property will probably be repositioned as another weekly motel and continue to drag down the neighborhood.

What could have been?  My plan was to combine the 55 units to about 25, add a “crystal cube” living room under the canopy for each unit along with private garden spaces, a dog park for the residents shared with a retail coffee shop in the admin building.  HERE is the preliminary site plan, and HERE is what I thought we could do to the existing units to make them relevant in today’s market.

I hope someone with a vision for the West Powning neighborhood ultimately ends up with this property.  If you haven’t been down there lately, you will not believe how far the area has already morphed, and the cool artist community that is taking root on Dickerson.  If I seem a little bitter, it is because I REALLY would have enjoyed producing this project and believe NSB hosed my team (and their stockholders) with an insider deal that will end up being a lowest common denominator Hobotel.  Get on this one, you historic preservation types!

Another one that got away was 7655 Town Square in Somersett.  Anyone interested in what could have been?

Boomtown Truckstop

Quietly making the rounds of the Reno NABs and the Washoe CABs and now scheduled for a Reno Planning Commission hearing on 1 May, the plans for a new / replacement / reinstated truck stop at Boomtown have been announced.  The presentation will be asking to reinstate the former unrestricted nonconforming gaming license from the old truck stop (no hotel rooms), reinstatement of the now expired planning approval for the project, and several variances on site design (interesting – the area north of Cabela’s has been rezoned single family residential from office park as originally approved).  HERE is the presentation package from the project planners, and HERE are the building elevations (including some Golden Arches!).

I am sure there will be some knee-jerk NIMBY chest beating, but this is a great project and deserves support.  There was ALWAYS a truck stop there, it was always planned to be replaced after the Cabela’s construction, and there is a great need for this sort of facility to support our logistics infrastructure.

Is this a STAR Bonds project?  I believe so (correctly me if I’m wrong, Brian Duggan), and it is generally a good use of that financing tool, though the gaming and McDonald’s portions will be a tough sell.

Given the variances, SUPs (special use permits), and STAR bond approvals that will be required for this project, there is some pressure that Reno should exert on the developers to gain a better project.  Specifically, the Garson Road overpass to Boomtown needs to be expanded from its current narrow 2 lane configuration to a more serviceable and safe condition.  This overpass is scheduled to be widened when development in the Garson-Mortensen plan area meets certain thresholds, but is inadequate and unsafe even under today’s traffic loads.  There are no shoulders, no sidewalks or pedestrian accommodations, and no bike lanes for hundreds of cyclists who use the overpass each weekend.  The pavement is destroyed yearly by the chained semis visiting Boomtown and Cabela’s during the winter.

If you are interested, there is an informal session planned to discuss the project set for this Wednesday evening 24 April 2013 at 6 PM at Verdi Elementary School  (AKA Billinghurst West, but that’s grist for another post).  Washoe Commissioner Bonnie Weber and the project planners will be available to answer questions and take comments.

March 2013 FC Action and Tidbits

In a word, UP, UP, UP.  NODs were up 18% to 259 in March, from 212 in February and 236 in January.  NOSs were up 40% to 223 in March from 132 in February and 136 in March, to their highest level in 10 months.  TDs shot up 45% to 93 in March from 52 in February and 71 in January.  The chart is HERE.

3400/3370 Kietzke just sold for $4,500,000.  Old Mervyn’s?  The sale is only part of the shopping center.  I haven’t seen an inner city retail sale of this magnitude in quite a while.

7655 Town Square in Somersett sold for $820,000 or about $45 psf.  The buyer was NOT the same party who bought 7665 Town Square and runs the Grape and the Grain and Babe Matteri’ s (unless there is a straw buyer involved).  I was working with a 4th party on the property, and we found that the only financially viable option was to convert the building from commercial into apartments/condos.  Absolutely no one will drive into Somersett for retail, and the retail center of gravity for Somersett continues to push west as Sierra Canyon expands.  Those residents bypass the Town Center and all the roundabouts and access their homes from the East Verdi Exit.

Apple pulled some PERMITS for 2 new server buildings and an administrative building with a loading dock out at Reno Technology Center.  No word on their commitment to a downtown Reno staging facility.  (Washoe’s permits tend to be chronological, so start at the bottom).

Apple is only a small portion of the Reno Technology Center, and RTC just pulled some monster PERMITS of their own.  $2.7M for a private water distribution system and 2 1M gallon water towers.

Meanwhile, the same ownership group spending millions on infrastructure at the RTC continues to believe that paying property taxes on their Tessera assemblage downtown Reno is an optional expense.  They just went NOD on their property on the north side of 6th Street between NVA and Center Street (you might remember the property as the old Gansta Dairy Queen and parking lot).

UNR Student Housing

Sterling University Housing has just broken ground on a new private student housing project at UNR.  Located at 2399 Valley Road at Enterprise, it is just east of the medical school.

With a construction loan of $26M, the project value is probably closer to $35M.  I heard the term “high-rise” from the construction crew, and a total of 900 beds, mostly in 4 room suites.  That’s pretty dense for an 8 acre site.

Sterling also developed the adjacent Highlands student housing project in 2004, but sold it off to the current owner.  It is somewhere near 800 beds in 24 buildings on a 16 acre site with a LOT of parking.  Some scathing REVIEWS!

Sterling seems to have a nice product, if you look at their portfolio   But yeow, expensive!  About $650 per month for a bedroom in a 4-plex and up to $1100 for a single one bedroom unit.  And that’s on an annual lease, not on a 9 month school schedule.

My only complaint is the site.  It continues the trend of locating the residential core of the university away from the social and commercial core along 9th Street and N Virginia.  It makes the prospect of the Gateway Project between the University and Downtown ever happening pretty grim, and will reduce development pressure to upgrade the West University Neighborhood.  The 2 acre full city block at 6th and Sierra  would have been my ideal site.  But this a private development, UNR had no say in its siting or design.  So welcome to the neighborhood.

Permits / Updates

Some Reno permit updates from the last 2 weeks:

-  TCA Properties, APN 212-112-01.  This is the SW corner of the Robb / I-80 intersection.  A permit valuing Grading and Site Improvements at $1,000,000 has been issued and terraforming has already begun.  You can use the Search This Site field to see all the past posts on TCA.  310,000 SF retail with no announced tenants, filling in an existing major drainage way 120′ deep.

- 236 N Sierra – $10,000 Interior Demolition.  This is the back end of the old Golden Phoenix fronting Sierra that once housed the Vino restaurant.  It is owned by the CommRow / Whitney Peak folks, so maybe they really do intend to improve their super block.

-  10735 and 10791 Double R – 2 new building shells each valued at $354,000.

-  2975 NVA – $100,000 Remodel for the NW section of Rancho San Rafael Park.

-  0 Rio Wrangler APN 141-030-02 – $65,000 Grading permit pulled by the Di Loreto Empire.

-  0 Sugar Creek APN 238-162-05 – $45,000 Subdivision Walls in the first phase of Sierra Canyon II Village 11.  The roads and infrastructure for this phase are now complete.  Sierra Canyon I looks like they only have about 6 lots left until 100% build-out.

-  DR Horton applied for 12 Permits on Bear’s Ranch Drive, property they picked up from Centex in the Cyan project.

Update – Riverwalk Condos.  The Riverwalk HOA received a $2M judgment against the developer for a bit over $2M for a combination of construction defects on a few units and common areas, intentional misrepresentations, and HOA reserve funding issues.  Riverwalk SHOULD be eligible for FHA financing, but it doesn’t seem that they have applied for certification.  More on that in a sec.

-  Riverwalk 2 – Unit 705 was sold in December for $150,000.  It is notable in that it was one of the remaining developer owned units.  similar units were going for over $450K in 2006.

Update Condo Financing – HUD / FHA has pretty strict definitions on condo projects available for their funding programs, and the condos must apply for certification.  Here is a list of condo projects in RENO and SPARKS that have applied for certification and can offer FHA financing.  Note that almost all of the certifications have expired, including the Palladio.

Midtown Zoning

The battle for the soul of Midtown kicks off Wednesday night at 6 PM, when the Planning Commission gets its first presentation of sweeping changes to the Midtown Neighborhood Plan.  You can catch the meeting on Charter 213, stream if from the City of Reno web site, or better yet, attend the meeting at city hall.

Update:  Due to a noticing error, the Midtown Zoning item has been pulled from Wednesday’s Planning Commission meeting, and will be rescheduled at a later date.

Reno establishes base zoning districts, regulating allowed uses, density, lot size, setbacks, and parking requirements.  Superimposed on the base districts are Neighborhood Plans, which alter and generally intensify the uses allowed under the base districts plan.

Reno established the South Virginia Street Transit Oriented Development Corridor base zoning district.  The intent was to allow more dense development along the SVA corridor, increase reliance on public transportation, and spur redevelopment with the density bonuses.  Later, the Midtown Neighborhood plan was overlaid on top of the TOD.  Reno is reevaluation their entire stance on TODs, but the current proposed revision is specific to the Midtown Neighborhood Plan.

The Midtown Plan is divided into 3 zones:

-  The SVA Corridor allows heights up to 75′  and 5 floors for buildings fronting Virginia Street.  The minimum residential density is 18 dwelling units per acre (DUA), above the 14 DUA minimum for the base zoning district.  The maximum density is 45 DUA if you can meet all the other plan requirements.  I don’t have any issues with the proposals for this strip

- The Midtown Commercial zone is generally the areas east of SVA between Center and Holcomb Street, south of Sinclair.  The current maximum density is 45 DUA, and the proposed revisions reduces that to 30 DUA.  Realistically, most single lots can only be developed to about 32 DUA due to setback, parking, landscape and height restrictions.  So not a big change.  Front setbacks are defined as 0′, but new regulations would limit the distance you could build in front of adjacent structures to 5′.  This helps maintain neighborhood character, but at the expense of density.

-  The Midtown Residential zone is defined as the plan Neighborhood Plan area west of SVA to Humboldt in the norther section, Plumas in the southern section, south to Mount Rose Street, and north to Marsh.  The proposed revisions to the Midtown Neighborhood Plan gut the development potential of this portion of the TOD.  The existing underlying allowed density is 14 DUA with a maximum of 45.  Again, other constraints realistically limit what is possible on an individual lot to about 32 DUA, 4-5 units on a standard 50′x140′ 7000 SF lot.  The proposed density is 16 DUA, only 2 units per standard 7000 SF lot.  THIS IS A TRANSIT CORRIDOR.  Though the defined front setback generally stays 0′ from the lot line, a maximum 3′ step up from the adjacent properties is allowed.  Not only does this further reduce density, it starts creating a street wall.

The proposed ordinance to be discussed at the Planning Commission can be found along with the meeting agenda on the City’s web site.  THIS draft document is easier to navigate, as the proposed changes are highlighted.

Why this sucks:  I have a client with a little duplex that also has a 200 SF barely habitable shack on the alley in the Midtown Residential zone..  They would love to tear down the shack and build a new duplex in its place, and the current Midtown Neighborhood Plan and TOD Plan would allow and encourage this.  The incentives to develop underused land is WHY they purchased in this neighborhood to begin with.  If the proposed revisions to the Plan are enacted, it will not be financially feasible, and the shack stays for another generation.  That’s not how to encourage redevelopment of a neighborhood.

So why this overcorrection in the Midtown Residential zone downgrade?  Look no further than Redfield Park at Midtown, originally designed as 54 townhouse units surrounding the historic Redfield Stone House and since reduced to 44 units.  This site should never have been within the TOD, but was included due to pressure exerted by the developers.  It is one of only 2 “assembled” properties in the zone  consisting of former multiple parcels where large scale development is possible.  Instead of reasonable infill housing on existing 7000 SF lots, the neighborhood got slammed with a block long modern development that somehow met all the planning standards.

It is important to encourage redevelopment along the SVA transit corridor.  It is reasonable to accept that some fine tuning of the Midtown Neighborhood plan is justified.  But it is neither reasonable nor acceptable to zone this core urban area to the same density as the Village in Somersett.  So step up and let your City Council representative know how you feel.

Feb 2013 FC Activity

NODs fell to 212 in February from 236 in January but up from 158 in December.  NOSs were pretty unchanged at 132 in February from 136 in January, continuing the downward trend from 145 in December.  TDs Fell to 52 in February, down from 71 in January and 79 in December.  This is the lowest number of Trustee’s Sales in Washoe County since March 2007.  The chart is HERE.  Private parties picked up 17 or nearly 1/3 of all of the TDs.  The banks are definitely sending fewer properties to the courthouse steps.. I think the slack is being picked up in short sale activity.

Bizarre NOD of the month has to be APN 160-040-20  This 3.14 Acre parcel next to Renown’s South Meadows campus sold for $4,000,000 4/1/2008 with a first of $2,900,000 from ELP Capital, a $1,000,000 2nd from the seller, and an additional $1,000,000 3rd from the seller.  ELP refied the deal a couple weeks later for $4.5M, and the 7/12/2012 payment was missed.  On what planet did dirt at $1.5M per acre ever pencil out?

248 W 1st Street aka the Truckee River Lane Building aka Java Jungle finally completed it’s torturous Trustee’s Deed journey, going back to the lender / former owner for the full amount owed ($2M or so).  I would normally be jumping for joy, as this property is a “block tile” for development along the river further west into Powning.  A chance for a fresh start, right?  But the new owner / former owner is our own Dr. John, who is notorious about letting his properties rot.  His great recent improvement is the Wright Way Market across from the new bus station – hobo central.  But a guy can hop that this prime parcel might get some traction.

Copper Canyon

Has it really been 5 years already?  The Copper Canyon development by Suncal in East Sparks was the first major developer default I ever came across.  That led me into my dubious career as a data digger, and the rest is history.

Copper Canyon was an extremely ambitious project, covering over 1500 acres east of Vista and adjacent to D’Andrea.  Plans called for 2109 residential units, a town center retail complex, and a large amount of office and R&D space.  HERE is the site plan.  The Copper Canyon 1 video is fun to watch, too, though there is realtor music in the background.

Suncal missed the July 2007 payment on their $40M loan, and the property went back to the lender in June 2008.  On 15 February 2013, the property was sold to Copper Canyon Partners LLC for $5.5M.  This LLC has the same address and same directors as Mid Valley Engineering out of Stockton, the original land planner on the project.  Mid Valley had been in litigation with Suncal and the subsequent TD owner, but released their Lis Pendens the day before the deal closed.

Is Copper Canyon coming back?  There is no infrastructure in place, so development would be costly.  In fact, Sparks dodged a major bullet when Suncal tanked the project before site work could scar the hillside.  But it is a viable site on major transportation lines and in near proximity to Reno Tahoe Industrial Center (TRIC) and Reno Technology Center (Apple server farm).