Most residential parcels in Reno would be impacted by changes intended to facilitate the construction of urban infill and affordable housing.

By Alicia Barber

I’d say Happy Spring, but March is being especially March-like out there this weekend. Enjoy what you can of it and let’s hope for warmer temps soon! As usual, be sure to check the City’s Current and Upcoming Meetings web page for meetings of interest in the coming week. The full City of Reno calendar is here.

Reno City Council meets at 10 a.m. on Wednesday, March 27, and you can view the entire agenda here. Today I’m highlighting two agenda items related to housing and Reno’s Land Development Code (Title 18):

• Item C. 2 is listed as an Ordinance Introduction regarding potential changes being proposed under the umbrella of Affordable Housing Initiatives. They involve allowing duplexes, triplexes, and fourplexes in single-family zoned neighborhoods; allowing more multifamily and affordable housing to be constructed “by right”; expediting building permits; and allowing for higher density development in certain cases. More on that below.
• Under Item D. 1, Council will get a staff report on the City’s recent survey regarding Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs) and talk about next steps in a potential ordinance change related to them.

C. 2 Affordable Housing Initiatives

The changes to the City’s development code proposed under Item C. 2 were first introduced to City Council at a workshop last November, with the stated goal of increasing and expediting the construction of affordable housing. I previewed them in my October 30, 2023 edition of the Brief.

These changes are potentially very broad in application and would pertain to both single-family and multifamily zoned neighborhoods throughout the City of Reno.

Councilmembers had a lot of questions during that November workshop, with some asking for more information as well as local examples. In some cases they asked for very specific changes to staff’s suggested language.

Staff returned in December with more information, and the Staff Report for Council’s December 6, 2023 meeting is a very helpful resource, as it summarizes why City staff is making these recommendations and how they would change the current code, with examples of the types of projects they would pertain to. The accompanying powerpoint for that presentation is found here. Staff also held three virtual stakeholder meetings in January where residents could express their ideas and concerns and have their questions answered (around 150 residents participated).

This coming week, City Council will have the option of adopting some or all of staff’s recommended changes if they can agree on desired language for an ordinance amendment. If they do go forward with approving a first reading of the ordinance, then they would only have to approve it a second time for the code to change.

I want to help residents understand what some of these potential changes are, but at the same time I want to express my hope that City Council does not treat this week’s discussion as a first reading of the ordinance, which I think would be premature, for a number of reasons:  

1. I don’t believe that the Reno residents who these changes would affect have been made sufficiently aware of them and their implications for zoning districts throughout the city.
2. A number of requested revisions to the ordinance’s language as previously suggested by City Councilmembers have not been implemented in the current draft, meaning there should be much more discussion of them (and Council does not get much opportunity for discussion during their meetings, just a few rounds of three-minute statements or questions).
3. The Planning Commission voted on February 7 to recommend that Council add additional and substantial changes that would (in the words of the Staff Report) “intensify the housing initiatives even further,” but that the public has not been able to review at all.

Read the rest at The Barber Brief.

The Barber Brief is an independent e-newsletter and blog written by Dr. Alicia Barber on the Substack platform. It is reposted by This Is Reno with her permission.