City subdivision moves forward in approval process Total of 246 housing units planned for Frontier Village

WINNEMUCCA - City officials rezoned a 52-acre parcel of land between Great Basin Avenue and Highland Drive that allows the proposed Frontier Village subdivision to move forward in the approval process.

The zoning change basically allows the developer to pursue a mixed-housing development without having to adhere to the lot sizes of the previous zoning. The developer still has to submit final subdivision maps to the planning commission and receive final approval from the city council.

The plans for Frontier Village call for 110 single-family homes surrounding 136 townhomes. Two rows of single-family lots will buffer the townhomes from neighboring residences. The lots range in size from a minimum of 8,000 square feet to 33,000 square feet and average 9,700 square feet, which exceeds the present zoning of 9,000 square feet lots.

City officials said July 10 at a public hearing on the rezoning request that it's been more than a decade since a planned subdivision was proposed in the city. Much of the residential development that's take place over the past few years has been done by parcel map.

"It's nice to see a total plan thought all the way through and not being tweaked later because of changes and stuff like that," council member Rich Stone said. "I think this is a good thing for the city of Winnemucca."

Alan Means, the project manager and representative of developer RJB Partnership, said the development uses innovative planning methods to create mixed-use housing that's sensitive to neighborhood property rights and the environment by directing development to a site that has existing sewer, water utilities and schools.

The subdivision is considered an infill development because it's surrounded by existing residential development. It comes close to achieving the desired density of five units per acre as outlined in the county's master plan by clustering townhomes, creating a density of 4.7 units per acre.

Les Boni, a resident of Offenhauser Drive, said the area around the existing Offenhauser subdivision has developed over the years with homes on larger lots that average 12,000 square feet in size. Frontier Village, when built out, will increase traffic and change the character of the area, he said.

"We are losing the nature of the way that area was developing before," he said.

A breakdown of land use in the 52-acre proposed Frontier Village subdivision shows single-family homes would occupy 24.9 acres, with residential multi-family housing units constructed on another 6.3 acres. About 9.3 acres would be dedicated to open space and streets and rights of way would take up 11.6 acres.

Means said the need for housing is directly tied to the growth in the region's mining industry. He said the Winnemucca BLM district is reviewing 10 environment impact statements for new mining-based activity. For every new job that's directly related to mining, there are three ancillary jobs created. He used the figure of 500 new jobs added to the mining workforce in the region, which will require housing for up to 2,000 new residents.

"That is the driver of this," he said.

During the public hearing on the rezoning, discussion shifted to the potential traffic that might be generated by the subdivision. In documents filed with city and county planners, the developers said the streets serving the location are not at capacity as far as traffic and won't be when the subdivision is built out.

"Obviously, when you create 246 new homes anywhere people drive cars," Means said. You've got to have new traffic. There's no way out of it."

The subdivision will be served by five existing roadways. The completion of Schreiner Drive will be important to the traffic flow in and out of the subdivision because it creates an additional 60-foot-wide east-west collector street between Great Basin Avenue and Highland Drive. Means said traffic will be spread out and Offenhauser Drive will have minimal increased traffic based on his experience.

Developers hope to begin construction on offsite utilities and streets in September. Actual home construction is anticipated to start in November, with the first phase consisting of 40 single-family lots and 84 townhomes. The developer also plans to build a model home and model townhomes.

City Manager Steve West estimated that 80 percent of the traffic will use Schreiner Drive to access Highland Drive in the first phase of the subdivision's development. He said the west end of Offenhauser Drive could see an increase in traffic when other phases of the subdivision are built out.

West said the developers are not to the point where they have supplied the city with full construction drawings of the subdivision, but city officials have started to look at what will be required to provide services.

West said the city won't have any problem supplying the subdivision with water service, nor will the development affect anyone else's water pressure. The city's sewer infrastructure will need upgrades to handle a development of this size, he said. A pump station that moves sewage to the treatment plant will require more capacity to accommodate Frontier Village and any other future development in the area.

"In combination with maybe other future development, we need to look long term in what we do to that station, and we are currently researching those options," West said.

He said the developers of Frontier Village will be responsible for some, but not all, of the costs to upgrade the pump station.

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