Two tough calls

It was one of those days when we're just happy we're not on the Carson City Planning Commission.

Commissioners had tough decisions Wednesday on matters as varied as a downtown warehouse and a Roop Street day care. In the end, they got them both right.

The warehouse was a tricky issue only because it is on state government property. Anybody else's warehouse, we like to believe, would have been slam dunked.

The arguments in the warehouse's favor were that it would be temporary and that the state generally is a good neighbor, represented by Legislative Counsel Bureau Director Lorne Malkiewich.

The arguments against, however, were more compelling. It would be, after all, a warehouse in the middle of downtown Carson City. And "temporary" couldn't be defined, because Malkiewich will have to depend on the Legislature to appropriate money to eventually build an office building on the site.

The guesses range from four to 10 years, and we would put our money on longer rather than shorter. So planning commissioners turned it down on a 5-2 vote. It'll be interesting to see if the state builds it anyway.

As for the day care, we had been skeptical that owner Ron Gutzman would make the improvements that had put the license in doubt at Little Tykes, 2109 S. Roop St.

But he did, leaving planning commissioners little choice but to renew the license for the property.

The problem remains an ongoing dispute between Gutzman, who owns the property, and Carrie Henson, who operates Little Tykes, that could mean Henson's business will be evicted. She wanted to move it into her own home, but it's next door. City code won't allow two day cares so close together.

Try as they might to resolve the situation happily, commissioners had to approve Gutzman's permit and deny Henson's. Commission Chairman Al Christianson has even been out looking for new site for Henson, but so far without success.

While it landed in their laps, the dispute between property owner and business owner isn't the planning commissioners' problem. It would be nice to be able to solve every problem that comes your way, but sometimes you have to be satisfied with just doing your job.