On October 18, 2004, the City Council approved a tentative development handbook for Kiley Ranch North (KRN). On July 11, 2016, the City Council approved the first amendment to the tentative development handbook (Approved Tentative Handbook). This request (Proposed Tentative Handbook) is to amend the Approved Tentative Handbook.

KRN Entitlement History

In 2004, the Planning Commission approved and the City Council certified a Master Plan Amendment to amend the land use designations for the northern portion of the Kiley Ranch property from Open Space (OS), 3 dwelling units per acres (3 du/ac), 4 dwelling units per acres (4 du/ac), 10 dwelling units per acres (10 du/ac), General Commercial (GC), Business Park (BP), and School/Park; to Low-Medium Residential (LMR 5.0 - 7.9 DU/AC), Medium Residential (MR 6.0 - 11.9 DU/AC), Medium-High Residential (MHR 12.0 - 17.9 DU/AC), High Residential (HR 15.0 - 23.9 DU/AC), Community Commercial (CC), Neighborhood Commercial (NC), Arterial Commercial (AC), Village Center (VC), Office/Business Park (OBP), Business Park (BP), School/Park, Public/Institutional (PI), Neighborhood Park (NP), and Open Space (OS).

In July 2004, the City Council approved a development agreement between the City and Kayfam Corporation, the original master developer for KRN. Pursuant to the Development Agreement, a tentative development handbook would apply to the entire KRN planned development while final development handbooks could be approved and recorded in phases. As noted above, the City Council approved a tentative development handbook for all KRN in October of 2004. In January of 2005, the Regional Planning Commission found the project in conformance with the Regional Plan and approved KRN as a project of regional significance.

Following the sale of KRN, the City Council approved a new development agreement in April 2013 with KM2 Development, Inc. (KM2), as Master Developer, and Rising Tides, LLC, the property owner. The new development agreement also allows final development handbooks for KRN to continue to be reviewed and approved in phases. No development can occur on a site until a final handbook for that site is approved and recorded. To date, final development handbooks have been recorded for nine phases. Approximately 159 acres remain without final handbooks.

As noted above, in 2016, the City Council approved the Approved Tentative Handbook. Prior to that, final handbooks had been approved and recorded for six phases of KRN. The purpose of the Approved Tentative Handbook was to reflect various changes from the original tentative development handbook that were incorporated in those six final handbooks as well as KM2’s evolving plans for future phases of KRN. The changes included amending the boundaries of KRN to add approximately 38 acres, updating the street network, removing the Neighborhood Commercial and Public/Institutional land use designations, combining two neighborhood parks into one community park, identifying Villages 17 and 18 as potential school sites, incorporating development standards adopted in final handbooks, and removing outdated infrastructure phasing provisions.

On January 28, 2019, the City Council certified a Comprehensive Plan Amendment to change land use designations for portions of KRN. The amendment reallocated acreage among land use categories in KRN, including a reduction in the acreage designated for commercial and business park uses. A more detailed discussion of these changes is provided in the Analysis section of this staff report.

Handbooks serve as the zoning document for planned developments. As discussed above, pursuant to the current development agreement, the Approved Tentative Handbook for KRN covers the entire planned development. Approval of the Proposed Tentative Handbook will trigger the need to amend several final recorded handbooks to bring them into conformance with the Proposed Tentative Handbook and Comprehensive Plan Land Use amendments.

On October 3, 2019, the Planning Commission reviewed and recommended approval of the Proposed Tentative Handbook by the City Council.

This request is to amend the Approved Tentative Development Handbook for KRN, which is generally located north of the southern division of Kiley Ranch, east of Pioneer Meadows Planned Development, south of Lazy 5 Regional Park and along Pyramid Highway (Exhibit 1 – Vicinity Map).

Proposed Land Use Changes

The January 2019 Comprehensive Plan amendment for KRN modified land use designations, including the location of and acreage allocated for various land use purposes. The Proposed Tentative Handbook would bring Table 1-1 (Kiley Ranch North Land Use Plan Designations) and Exhibit 1-3 (Kiley Ranch North Land Use Plan) into conformance with the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Amendment. Other proposed changes would revise the Community Vision section of Chapter 1, modify the floor area ratios for the Commercial and Business Park land use designations, change Table 2-1 (Land Use Matrix) to add Warehousing and Distribution as a permitted use in the Business Park land use designation, and update the street network and infrastructure maps to reflect current conditions. (Exhibit 2 – Kiley Ranch North Tentative Development Handbook Amendment).

The following table summarizes the differences between the Approved Tentative Handbook and the Proposed Tentative Handbook in the acreage allocated for different land use designations.

Comparing the acreage allocated to the land use designations in the Approved Tentative Handbook and the Proposed Tentative Handbook reflects the following:  

• Total acreage would not change (874.21 acres).
• Total acreage allocated for residential uses would increase by approximately 20 acres (5.7%).
• The conversion of the Village Center land use designation to Mixed-Use would increase the acreage designated for the latter use by 6.66 acres (25.7%).
• The Arterial Commercial land use designation would increase by 8.89 acres (26.8%).
• Acreage allocated to the Community Commercial designation would decrease by 12.1 acres (-12.4%).
• Business Park acreage would decrease by 46.5 acres (-36.1%).

If the Proposed Tentative Handbook is approved, the amount and location of land allocated to the various land use designations would comply with the City’s Comprehensive Plan as amended in 2019.

Jobs-to-Housing Units Ratio

When the tentative handbook for KRN was originally approved in 2004, the estimated ratio of jobs to housing units was 1.6 to 1.0. The original developer and the City jointly intended for there to be more jobs than housing units within KRN at full buildout.

In accordance with the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Amendment for KRN, the Proposed Tentative Handbook would change the acreage allocated for employment-generating uses. Total area allocated to the Mixed-Use, Arterial Commercial and Community Commercial designations in the Proposed Tentative Handbook would increase to 160.34 acres (2.2%) from 156.91 acres in the Approved Tentative Handbook. The Community Commercial land use designation includes approximately 40.56 acres purchased by Renown Health for a future medical campus, possibly including a hospital.

The Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA) submitted with the Proposed Tentative Handbook estimates KRN will provide 4,279 jobs and will contain 4,198 housing units at buildout. This represents a potential jobs-to-housing ratio of 1.01 to 1.0. However, to compare the potential jobs-to-housing ratio for the Proposed Tentative Handbook to previous approvals, City staff generally applied similar job estimating factors that were used for the original 2004 approval. These factors differ from those used by the author of the FIA. For land designated for commercial uses, employing a factor of 14.3 employees per acre, a figure from the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency, would result in 1,724 jobs. If the 40.56 acres owned by Renown is developed as a medical campus, it could generate 2,850 jobs. This is based on a factor 9.5 employees per each of 300 beds, as indicated in the application for this Proposed Tentative Handbook. The Business Park designation applies to 82.4 acres. Using the Regional Transportation Commission’s factor of 28 employees per acre for this type of land use, the Business Park area would support 2,307 employees. In addition, there will be elementary and middle schools within KRN with an estimated 144 employees.

The total number of projected employees in the areas designated for schools, commercial uses, a medical campus and business park uses is thus 7,025 using the factors described above. If the maximum permitted number of 4,463 housing units is developed, the estimated jobs-to-housing ratio using these factors for the Proposed Tentative Handbook is 1.57 to 1.0. By way of comparison, the Approved Tentative Handbook has an estimated jobs-to-housing ratio of 1.8 to 1.0. While lower than the ratio calculated for the Approved Tentative Handbook, the jobs-to-housing ratio calculated for the Proposed Tentative Handbook nearly equals (1.57 versus 1.6) the estimated ratios for the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Amendment and original 2004 tentative handbook for KRN. In other words, the decrease in the jobs-to-housing ratio is not substantial.

Floor Area Ratio (FAR)

The floor area ratio (FAR) is the relationship between the total amount of usable floor area that a building has or is permitted to have and the total area of the parcel on the which the building stands. This ratio is determined by dividing the total, or gross, floor area of the building by the gross area of the parcel.

The Proposed Tentative Handbook takes a markedly different approach to FAR than the Approved Tentative Handbook. The latter provides maximum FARs for development in each of the non-residential land use designations but does not impose minimum FARs, and thus lacks any mechanism to ensure minimum density. Conversely, the Proposed Tentative Handbook requires minimum FARs (Table 1-1) for each of the non-residential land use designations and does not impose maximum FARs.

The following table compares the FARs provided for non-residential uses in the Approved Tentative Handbook and the Proposed Tentative Handbook.

City staff conducted an analysis of the FARs for existing similar development over approximately the last 30 years in the Truckee Meadows region, including in areas of Sparks. For the developments sampled by City staff, the average FAR is as follows: Commercial – 0.2; Office – 0.27; and, Industrial – 0.4.

At 0.2, the proposed minimum FAR for the Arterial Commercial and Mixed-Use land use designations is typical of commercial development in the region sampled by City staff. The 0.25 minimum FAR for the Community Commercial land use designation is 25 percent higher than the average 0.2 FAR for commercial development due to the potential hospital to be located within this designation. A minimum FAR of 0.3 is proposed for the Business Park land use designation, which permits a mix of primary uses including professional and corporate offices, lodging, manufacturing, service industries and warehousing and distribution. The proposed minimum FAR of 0.3 for the Business Park land use designation is intended to reflect the range of FARs observed for office (0.27) and industrial (0.4) land uses in the region.

The Master Developer was deeply concerned that higher minimum FARs would impair their ability to attract users to KRN. The Master Developer was particularly apprehensive about a minimum FAR in excess of 0.1 for commercial, particularly retail, development. The proposed minimum FARs represent a compromise between the significantly lower minimum FARs initially proposed by the applicant and City staff’s objective of increasing FARs in KRN. To provide the applicant further flexibility, the Proposed Tentative Handbook includes, on page 1-30, criteria for implementing the FARs. These provisions allow development (e.g., on a pad) that does not achieve the minimum FAR for that land use designation if the Master Developer can demonstrate that the overall project or commercial center will meet the required minimum FAR. For uses that do not meet the overall FAR, the Master Developer must provide a phasing plan or overall buildout plan that demonstrates compliance with the minimum FAR for the project area.

Fiscal Impact Analysis (FIA)

The applicant provided an updated FIA dated September 2019, reflecting the FARs in the Proposed Tentative Handbook (Exhibit 3 – Fiscal Impact Analysis). The FIA concludes that development of KRN with the proposed land use plan will generate:

• Estimated revenues to the General Fund of $140.5 million and estimated expenditures totaling $104.6 million to produce a revenue surplus for the City’s General Fund of $35.9 million over the initial 20-year period.
• $13.0 million in revenue for the City’s Road Fund with estimated expenditures totaling $38.1 million, producing an estimated deficit of $25.1 million over the initial 20-year period.
• An overall positive fiscal impact of approximately $10.8 million over the 20-year analysis period between revenue surplus to the City’s General Fund and the deficit in the City’s Road Fund.

Although the Proposed Tentative Handbook would reduce the acreage allocated for Commercial and Business Park land uses, the square footage projected to be developed on those lands remains relatively static. The FARs in the Proposed Tentative Handbook and those used for the September 2019 FIA are also consistent.

Regarding analysis of the FIA, the City contracted with Economic & Planning Systems (EPS) to prepare a methodology to assess the fiscal impact of land use entitlement requests. City staff has received the proposed guidelines and presented them to the Planning Commission and City Council on September 23, 2019. At the time of preparation of this staff report, the City Council will not have adopted the EPS methodology prior to the City Council’s consideration of the Proposed Tentative Handbook. Accordingly, the Master Developer is not obligated to revise the FIA for KRN to reflect the methodology proposed by EPS.

However, based on EPS’s analysis, City staff believes the KRN FIA makes assumptions that result in higher projected General Fund revenues and expenses than EPS recommends and, more substantively, that the KRN FIA estimates a larger net positive fiscal impact than would be produced by the EPS methodology. City staff nevertheless believes that the net fiscal impact of developing KRN based on the Proposed Tentative Handbook will be positive.

The City has also received a report from EPS, entitled Long-Term Fiscal Health Analysis, that the Planning Commission and City Council formally accepted on September 23, 2019. The report is a summary of EPS’s analysis of the long-term fiscal impacts of development based on the City’s approved Comprehensive Plan land use map and how changes to the land use plan may impact City finances. City staff believes several of the findings from the EPS report are useful when considering the Proposed Tentative Handbook. 

EPS has concluded that there is no one land use, at least at suburban densities, that if increased or decreased in a significant amount will greatly change the City’s fiscal condition. The most significant land use change requested by the Proposed Tentative Handbook is a 46.5-acre (36.1%) reduction in the acreage designated as Business Park. A portion of the reallocated acreage has been designated for elementary and middle schools, uses that generate little or no revenue for the General or Road Funds but are important community facilities critically needed in this growing area of Sparks. While the reduction in Business Park acreage represents a significant change, it is not a wholesale change because significant non-residential areas remain within KRN.

Another EPS conclusion is that density is important to improving the City’s fiscal health. At higher development densities, fewer roads are needed to serve the same number of residential units or non-residential square footage, resulting in lower road maintenance costs per unit. In the Proposed Tentative Handbook, the acreage allocated to the Low-Medium Residential (4.0 to 7.9 dwelling units/acre) and High Density (18 to 23.9 dwelling units/acre) land use designations would decrease by 11.5 and 4.9 acres, respectively. Acreage allocated for the Medium-High (12 to 17.9 dwelling units/acre) and Mixed-Use (5.0 to 23.9 dwelling units/acre) designations would increase by 20.66 and 15.98 acres, respectively. While the maximum number of residential units permitted in KRN remains at 4,463, City staff calculates these changes could result in residential densities theoretically increasing, in aggregate, by 11.3 to 11.9 percent for the combination of these four land use designations. For non-residential uses, while the proposed minimum FARS do not exceed typical development in Washoe County, the proposed change requiring minimum average FARs would impose a FAR “floor” to ensure minimum non-residential density.

EPS also advises that a balance between employment-generating land uses and residential development is needed to support fiscal health. As discussed above, City staff has estimated that the Proposed Tentative Handbook provides a jobs-to-housing ratio of 1.57 to 1.0. While this represents an employment reduction relative to the 1.8 to 1.0 ratio calculated for the Approved Tentative Handbook, this figure nearly equals the estimated ratios for the 2019 Comprehensive Plan Amendment and original 2004 tentative handbook for KRN as previously noted.

EPS found that Sparks lacks sufficient land designated for industrial uses to satisfy forecasted demand Sparks over the next 20 years. EPS also found that office (assuming a traditional suburban density) and industrial development provide similar fiscal benefits to the City. Based on these EPS conclusions, City staff concurs with the request from the Master Developer to add Warehousing and Distribution as a permitted use in the Business Park land use designation. This would provide additional land for a type of industrial use in KRN. A footnote in Table 2-1 (Land Use Matrix) of the Proposed Tentative Handbook restricts the maximum size of any building for a Warehousing and Distribution use to 200,000 square feet. Office development would remain a permitted use in the Business Park land use designation and is also a permitted use in the Community Commercial, Arterial Commercial and Mixed-Use land use designations, which apply to 160.34 total acres of KRN.

Other Proposed Changes to the Approved Tentative Handbook

Chapter 1 of the Proposed Tentative Handbook discusses the community vision for KRN. This section of the Proposed Tentative Handbook de-emphasizes jobs-housing balance while retaining its emphasis on efficient land use patterns, economic sustainability, land use diversity and creating a live-work community with a distinct sense of place.

As KRN has developed, there have been changes to the street network, including the nearly complete connection of Lazy Five Parkway to Wingfield Hills Road, which will result in renaming Lazy Five Parkway to Wingfield Hills Road through KRN. In addition, because most of the utilities for KRN have been constructed, maps in the Proposed Tentative Handbook have been updated to reflect the current status of infrastructure.

PLANNED DEVELOPMENT FINDINGS:

PDa:    In what respects the plan is or is not consistent with the statement of objectives of a planned unit development.

The goal of the KRN Proposed Tentative Handbook is to provide for orderly, quality development. The guiding principles are efficient land use patterns, economic sustainability, a distinct sense of place with gathering places, and neighborhood diversity. The plan is consistent with these goals in that it provides for open space, a variety of housing types, and a mix of land uses, including employment-generating uses. This request is to amend the Approved Tentative Handbook. As KRN is built out there will be additional phases; final handbooks will need to be submitted, reviewed, approved and recorded prior to development occurring on land currently lacking a final handbook.

PDb:    The extent to which the plan departs from zoning and subdivision regulations, otherwise applicable to the property, including but not limited to density, bulk and use, and the reason why these departures are or are not deemed to be in the public interest.

At over 874 acres, KRN is a large planned development. It is intended to have a diverse range of housing and non-residential uses with significant areas allocated for mixed-use development. The permitted range of residential densities is 4.0 to 23.9 dwelling units per acre, which is within the range permitted by Title 20 of the Sparks Municipal Code (Zoning Code) for areas not zoned by planned development handbooks. The range of non-residential uses permitted in the Proposed Tentative Handbook is more limited than the Zoning Code if all zoning districts are considered. For example, “heavy industrial” uses and cannabis businesses are not permitted by the Proposed Tentative Handbook, but these limitations are consistent with furthering the community vision for KRN. Development standards such as setbacks are similar to those in the Zoning Code for similar uses. The Community Commercial Medical Campus land use designation allows a maximum height of 170 feet; with the exception of the Downtown/Victorian Square Mixed-Use District, where there is no height limit, the Zoning Code allows a maximum height of 60 feet. The 170-foot height allowance is for future construction of a potential hospital. The Proposed Tentative Handbook would add minimum FARs for all non-residential uses, while the Zoning Code imposes minimum FARs only for development in the Mixed-Use District (MUD).

PDc:     The ratio of residential to nonresidential uses in the planned unit development.

In the Approved Tentative Handbook, residential uses are allocated 354.5 acres (40.6 percent) and non-residential uses other than roads are allocated 432.18 acres (49.4 percent) of KRN’s total area. In the Proposed Tentative Handbook, residential uses are allocated 374.7 acres (42.9 percent) while non-residential uses are designated 413.94 acres (47.3 percent) of KRN. This amendment does not substantially change the ratio between residential and non-residential uses.

PDd:    The purpose, location and amount of the common open space in the planned unit development, the reliability of the proposals for maintenance and conservation of the common open space, and the adequacy of the amount and purpose of the common open space as related to the proposed density and type of residential development.

The Proposed Tentative Handbook slightly increases (by 1.86 acres) the combined acreage (138.1 acres) allocated for a park (9.42 acres) and open space (128.68 acres). This represents approximately 15.8 percent of KRN’s total area. These figures do not include the open space provided for streetscape, the trail network and project landscaping. These areas are anticipated to add at least 6 percent to the open space acreage, which will exceed the minimum requirement of 20 percent dedicated open space for a planned development. 

The Approved Tentative Handbook combined the two neighborhood parks proposed in the original 2004 tentative handbook into one community park. This was done in response to the City’s Comprehensive Parks and Recreation Plan, which favors adding larger community parks over neighborhood parks and includes a goal of having a community park within 1 mile of homes. The proposed community park in KRN will be within a mile of all residential uses. The proposed tentative handbook addresses how the open space will be maintained and by whom.

Exhibit 2-11, Regional Trail, Sun Valley Channel, Orr Ditch and Trail Access Point Plan, in the Proposed Tentative Handbook delineates the regional trail system within KRN. The trail system will connect residential uses to the community park, open space and other non-residential land uses in the plan. Neighborhood trails connecting to the regional trail system are also proposed. The Proposed Tentative Handbook provides a design for the regional trail requiring a 12- foot wide concrete pathway with landscaping on either side of the trail. The regional trail will be dedicated to the City while the landscaping and any furniture will be maintained by the Landscape Maintenance Association (LMA) for KRN.

PDe:    The physical design of the plan and the manner in which the design does or does not make adequate provision for public services and utilities, provide adequate control over vehicular traffic, and further amenities of light, air, recreation and visual enjoyment.

The Proposed Tentative Handbook for KRN provides design standards ensuring access to light, air, recreation and visual enjoyment. The plan includes a community park and a network of trails for recreation of residents and people working in KRN. Chapter 4 addresses the infrastructure such as trails, sanitary sewer, potable water, storm water management and roadways needed to serve KRN. Chapter 4 has been updated in the Proposed Tentative Handbook to reflect infrastructure constructed to date and to be completed as KRN is completed.

PDf:     The relationship, beneficial or adverse, of the proposed planned unit development to the neighborhood in which it is being proposed to be established. 

KRN has been an approved planned development since 2004. It is one of the largest planned developments in Sparks and its buildout is important to the future of the City. KRN is designed to provide a variety of housing options, retail and services, medical facilities and a variety of employment opportunities. As it continues toward buildout, KRN will benefit the City, the Spanish Springs valley, and the Truckee Meadows region.

PDg:    In the case of a plan which proposes development over a period of years, the sufficiency of the terms of conditions intended to protect the interests of the public, residents and owners of the planned unit development in the integrity of the plan.

The Proposed Tentative Handbook maintains the integrity of the plan by retaining large majorities of the land uses and development standards originally approved in the 2004 tentative handbook. The Proposed Tentative Handbook also addresses actual and anticipated changes and opportunities that have arisen since KRN was originally approved prior to the Great Recession. These changes include the proposed addition of a medical campus, allowing mixed residential uses (including assisted living), and adding Warehousing and Distribution as a permitted use in the Business Park land use designation. The Proposed Tentative Handbook for KRN guides development by providing standards regulating the character and quality of development while providing for the provision of community facilities, utilities and other infrastructure.

1. The City Council may approve the Proposed Tentative Handbook.
2. The City Council may deny the Proposed Tentative Handbook.
3. The City Council may remand the request to the Planning Commission with direction.  

I move to approve the amended Tentative Development Handbook for the Kiley Ranch North Planned Development, generally located north of the southern division of Kiley Ranch, east of Pioneer Meadows Planned Development, south of Lazy 5 Regional Park and along Pyramid Highway, Sparks, Nevada, on a site approximately 874.2 acres in size in the NUD (New Urban District) zoning district; to revise Exhibit 1-3, Master Plan, and Table 1-1 to comply with the Comprehensive Plan Land Use Map, change the floor area ratios for development, amend development standards, and other matters related thereto.