Get the Boys & Girls Club moving

Carson City supervisors should approve a zoning change for the Boys & Girls Club of Western Nevada's property in Silver Oak this week so the club can get on with its work of building a new clubhouse.

The clubhouse itself will be off Lompa Lane, a neighborhood battle the Boys & Girls Club already has overcome. The facility will allow the club to do an even better job of serving hundreds of children every day. It's truly one of the best things in the community, even functioning as it does out of cramped quarters off Stewart Street.

The battle in Silver Oak is over three acres given to the club. The property will be sold and generate not only $800,000 or so toward construction of a new clubhouse but is key to other grants and donations for the project.

The process has dragged on for years now, partly because some Silver Oak residents five years ago raised objections to actually locating the club in their area. The compromise, a good one, was to look for a location on Carson's east side and sell the Silver Oak property to finance construction.

Most residents of Carson City must be wondering why there is any question at all. But some Silver Oak residents have complained the zone change, required so the property can be sold, will have a detrimental effect on their neighborhood.

The property is next to a senior assisted-living center just west of Kmart. It is part of a 13-acre parcel originally intended as a school site, but which will likely end up as a park -- one of the largest in Carson City. It is closer to Kmart than homes.

The neighborhood business zone being proposed would allow a variety of uses on the property, but Boys & Girls Club officials have offered to restrict the deed to eliminate the most potentially undesirable ones, such as a gas station or convenience store. The most likely development of the property would be as doctors' offices, because of the rapidly developing medical-services industry on the north end.

Some of Silver Oak residents' concerns are legitimate -- such as an increase in traffic if Oakridge Drive is extended and becomes a short-cut to College Parkway. But plans for that street have nothing to do with the issue at hand.

If supervisors can keep the discussion focused on the Boys & Girls Club -- the vast amount of benefit this community gets from it, versus the relatively minor disruption a zone change will cause on College Parkway -- they should have an easy decision. Let the club get on with its work.