Changing residential landscape impacts industrial

Knowing the dangers of a potential leak, Advanced Industrial Gas built its Lyon County plant far from everything.

Later, homes and even a school were built near the plant.When the inevitable happened a gas leak the hue and cry drove the plant away.

So says Ray Bacon, executive director of the Nevada Manufacturer's Association, adding,"It's happened multiple places." "It's stupid zoning to put houses next to industry,"he says.

Cities need a consistent policy that says,we need this much space as a buffer zone." Instead,"They roll over and say okay to the developers." It happens, says Bacon,when land developers decide they won't get enough money from selling property for industrial use; they can get more by developing it for residential."So they petition for a zoning change." Planning directors from Lyon and Storey counties, Carson City and Reno all cite master plans that espouse separation of uses to minimize conflict.Yet definitive buffer zones are not mandated.

"Good use planning anticipates conflict," says Steve Hasson, Lyon County planning director." We want gradations between industrial, commercial,multi-family and residential."

He agrees that buffers can help."If residential wants to come in, it must put in landscaping or a berm to mitigate impacts,"he says.

Meanwhile, though, in many areas, through design or history, industry and residential are bumping into each other.

Fairview Drive in south Carson City, developed in the 1950s, has become a mix of industrial, commercial and residential use.

Neighborhoods of single-family homes sprawl around the original industrial sites, creating islands like Source Interlink Companies, a concrete- walled distribution company.

Nearby,Mission Industries, a laundry service built in 1975, is beginning to feel the pinch.

Recently Quail Run, a gated senior resort,was built across the street."It's poor zoning," says Lou Hodorich,Mission's general manager.

Cygnet Stamping and Fabricating left the Fairview Drive area to relocate in California after complaints from residents of a mobile home park, newly zoned and built next to the sheet metal punch press, says Bacon.

By allowing the trailer park, he says,"the city made it untenable for anyone to use that industrial space." Other companies that moved away from the area are Ridgedale Sprinklers and Morton Thiokel.

"We recognized that [encroachment] situation in the early 90s," says Walter Sullivan, director of planning and community development for Carson City,"and looked at it in the update of the 1996 master plan.

The department considers separation and setbacks in its review process and has a master plan update scheduled for 2006.

Douglas County's industrial area lies along Johnson Lane, east of Highway 395."They don't have a clear buffer zone," says Mimi Moss, planning and economic development manager at the Douglas County planning department.

However, industrial parks are surrounded by forest and range or agricultural-zoned parcels that allows one building unit per 19 acres.

Zoning changes in Douglas County are generally within the residential category."The county has a low number of multi-family designations, but it's difficult to ask for those upfront, because nobody wants one near," she says."So commercial property owners ask to rezone to apartments." Meanwhile,Reno city planning follows the new urban pattern of mixed use, says Fred Turnier, planning manager for the City of Reno, which places residential within reasonable distance of commercial services.

Residential tension is apparent near one of Reno's older industrial areas,West Fourth Street.

Cantex Inc., a manufacturer of plastic pipe that operates 24/7 near West Fourth, redirected the yard's night lights when nearby neighbors complained, says Larry Lack, vice president of manufacturing, and stopped leaving them on when they weren't needed.

"The people on the bluff wanted to ban forklifts from being outside at night," says Bacon.

Cantex had purchased new forklifts for its Texas plant, equipped with visual warning lights instead of a sound warning, which still satisfied OSHA safety requirements.

To satisfy residential complaints, the company shipped the audible forklifts to its Texas plant and took delivery of the quieter models at the Reno location, says Bacon.

Evidence of future encroachment is already apparent: On the hill across the street from Cantex, duplexes are going up; while In a nearby bend of the river, houses are sprouting.

In the future, says Bacon,"Noisier plants with 24/7 operations should look to locate at the Reno-Tahoe Industrial Park."