Sparks seeks new jobs closer to home

The statistics never are far from the mind of Randy Mellinger: A corporate office park will create at least 40 good-paying jobs an acre and sometimes far, far more.

A distribution center such as those that account for many of the jobs in Sparks, however, generate a mere 10 to 12 jobs per acre and a lot of those positions don't pay enough to allow a family to live in one of Sparks' fast-growing neighborhoods.

"Right now, there are no options," says Mellinger, the assistant city manager who oversees community development.

"If you live in Sparks, you commute."

Reversing the trend is one of the priorities for the Sparks city government, but no one pretends that righting the balance between jobs and housing will be easy or quick.

In fact, the city government may find itself more closely aligned with developers of office parks as it continues its effort to create more good-paying jobs in Sparks.

The effects of the imbalance are clear at 7 a.m.

every day.Traffic streams down Vista Boulevard, Sparks Boulevard and Pyramid Highway, carrying commuters to jobs that often are in south Reno.

The morning rush headed out of northern Sparks and nearby communities in Spanish Springs is heavy enough that commuters share stories about the differences in their travel time that result if they leave home just a couple of minutes late.

"If they don't work in Sparks before they get on the freeway, then they'll need to get on the freeway," says Mellinger.

The results are apparent: Traffic congestion.

Deteriorating air quality as more cars spend more time on the road.

New roads that fill almost as quickly as they're built.

The social costs when parents aren't home with their families while they're stuck in traffic.

The costs are felt, too, by the Sparks city government.

A study it commissioned found that new homes Sparks expects to build another 18,000 of them in the next 10 years don't pay for themselves.

They don't generate a lot in the way of tax revenue, and homeowners need a lot of expensive services such as parks, fire and police.

Office parks, on the other hand, generate lots of tax revenue without placing similar demands on municipal services.

The city's emphasis, Mellinger says, is on office parks rather than more of the industrial and distribution space that dominates the areas along Interstate 80.

Big-box warehouses don't generate a lot of jobs, and the $15 or $16 earned by many warehouse workers won't cover the mortgage in many new neighborhoods.

Three office parks are on the maps for future development in Sparks Kiley North at Sparks Boulevard and Pyramid Highway, Pioneer Meadows between Kiley North and Wingfield Springs and the Copper Canyon project nestled in the hills at the east edge of the city.

Farther north, outside the city's boundaries, Hawco Properties is developing the 411-acre Spanish Springs Business Center, and demand has been strong at the first significant center of employment in area.

Jesse Haw, the company's president and chief operating officer, says no space remains for lease in the first 450,000 square feet built in the project, and construction is about to begin on two more buildings.

Part of the appeal of the property to tenants, Haw says, is the nearby availability of a good labor force some 27,000 people who live in the neighborhood, many of whom are eager to stop commuting elsewhere in the metropolitan area.

Interest is coming, too, from business owners who are looking to buy a home in the area and plan to move their businesses nearby, Haw says.

Similar interest could follow development of office parks, says Stan Thomas, who woos new companies to town in his role as manager of economic development for Sierra Pacific Power.

A likely target for Sparks, Thomas says, is small to mid-sized California companies looking to move their headquarters out of the Golden State.

"To get the great big ones, it's going to be a little harder," he says.

Even though Sparks is known largely for residential development, Thomas says the city's plans to create jobs near those homes is reasonable.

"It is definitely possible," he says.

"Sparks has a real great reputation as a business-friendly city."

Mellinger, meanwhile, says the city government believes its plans will require close work with developers.

"We don't have a lot of business-park developers here," he says.

The city's executive staff is developing contacts with investment firms in California that have both the money and the relationships with office developers to get the ball rolling, and Mellinger says other tactics are under study to provide a bigger role for the city government in development of new jobs in Sparks.

Among the early stages of the work: Research conducted by graduate students at the University of Nevada, Reno, to analyze the city's strengths and weaknesses in the eyes of office-park developers.

And while those relationships are building, Mellinger says the city government is aware it needs protect the areas it designated as business parks from efforts to change their zoning to generate a faster return for developers.

"When we designate a business park," he says, "we have to have the political will to keep it that way."