Kings Canyon proposal just high density housing

I appreciated the article about The Vintage Planned Unit Development. The PUDs’ name is deceptive. There’s no immediate development planned in Kings Canyon according to the report. This project seems to have been kept pretty hush-hush. Interested in who are the current investors?

The only positive remarks from neighbors we have discovered might have been from the medical groups on located on Mountain Street. The reported home and lot sizes aren’t compatible with current surroundings. Neither are commercial ventures. Hopefully the commercial zoning is still up for debate.

The senior housing and development seems reasonable. But the proposed 175 Single Family Homes portion begs questions and lot sizes the Appeal reported seem weird. I have never seen a 3500 square foot lot for 1400-1900 square foot home and wonder if this small size is even legal in Carson City. The answer to this is these units will have NO yards at all per supervisor records. This appears to be a Projects-Style housing development, at least on paper.

Beside that fact this parcel of land constantly floods, the city’s infrastructure will not bear this high density housing development. Where will the parcel drain? The roads in town are already the pits with no repair in site; The city has summer water restrictions and sewer issues; The sheriff’s department is stretched to the max; School class sizes are large and some structures are in need of repair and the hospital emergency room wait time is often hours.

If Carson City wants another Silver Oak, at least make the homes and lot sizes compatible with existing neighborhoods. No cookie-cutter homes, well of course they will be… unless the lots are made available to multiple builders. So they’re going to have wood siding and stone, these appointments don’t preclude cookie-cutter homes with no yards. Will there be CC&Rs or an HOA to keep this high density housing development in check?

I’m still considered by old-timers as a newbie (only 40 years in Carson City) and as such may be considered short sighted, but I’m sure the powers-that-be don’t really want citizen input. The downtown fiasco comes to mind.

So the Vintage at Kings Canyon is really located, at this point, between Mountain and Ormsby with two outlets on Washington and two on Ormsby. The curve on Ormsby that slows traffic will have to go in order to make the new PUD safe for ingress and egress. Thus, Ormsby will become the next speedway in town.

Reality is there’s new homes and growth, but Lumos and Associates, please don’t insult our intelligence with flowery images. This is a high density housing development with proposed commercial zoning in a mostly rural area. This PUD as reported seems like low income urban sprawl to many of us. We chose to live out here for a reason.

Hopefully this is not a done deal like downtown. Heck, with the planned commercial development slated, who needs downtown?

Come to the meeting at 6 p.m. Thursday at Fritsch Elementary School.

Katherine Yonkers lives on Maison Way in Carson City.