In her editorial in the RGJ, Councilperson Jardon let slip that Reno is in negotiations with the State of Nevada to purchase the Governor’s Bowl Park for a for a 7.43 acre “super shelter” for the homeless/unhoused. In not unrelated news, the adjacent property owner is suing the City of Reno to stop a proposed (under construction) “temporary” big top tent city shelter on TMWA property in front of his holdings.
Good for you Mr. Peterson! Reno trying to justify their illegal land use activities under the guise of “emergency powers” is specious at best given their call for “transparency” in all dealings.
REreno 
Steve Jobs said:
Great idea there Mike. Much better that all these homeless people sleep under a bridge or next to a business front door. Seriously – what is wrong with you? The homeless situation in Reno and elsewhere is terrible and widespread. Seems like the city was trying to come up with some sort of short-term solution with this idea. Anyone that drives that stretch of 4th Street knows that is a desolate and nearly unpopulated part of town – so why the fuss? I can assure you that if you got up one morning and a bunch of homeless people were camping in your front yard you’d be all for this.
Sue said:
If this compound will have rules…… It will be empty
NJInvestor said:
Tiny housing for the homeless in Seattle works well, it is supervised by the inhabitants and standards are maintained…
There are waiting lists to get in…. most folks like some rules.
David said:
I hope they’re able to build this super shelter as the Governor’s Bowl park. As a society we need to come up with some real solutions to the homeless crisis, and getting them off the streets and away from downtown is a great first step.
geopower said:
I agree with the commenters that think we need this shelter now.
I also agree with what I take to be Mike’s point, which is that if we need this built, we need codes that allow this, and market versions of this to be built. This isn’t Manhattan; land isn’t that costly here. If code allowed building (very small, simple) units that could be rented for profit for $300-400/month then we could rehouse a lot of the people displaced by weekly motel closures without relying on emergency city expenditures. As long as code puts minimum prices on unit development out of the reach of SSDI recipients we will keep having the problem of where they can find housing.
If this is good enough for the city to build to house people, it’s good enough for unrelated nonprofit or profit developers to build to house people. If it isn’t good enough it shouldn’t be done. Laws, and development codes, apply equally to all.
West of Wells is NOT Midtown said:
Another public park gone, even if leased from the State as remnant freeway right of way.