The Reno City Council will hear from the developers of a proposed master-planned community in southeast Reno, next week. The Daybreak Community is planned on nearly 1,000 acres on the Butler Ranch near Rattlesnake Mountain. At the November 14 meeting, they will discuss issues related to traffic and flooding. If approved, the development would be built on a flood plain. Officials say their plan is to provide 25 percent more flood mitigation than is required.

"Effectively, at the end of the day, when this project is built, there will be more flood stage on the property than exists out there currently," Andy Durling, Vice President of Wood Rodgers said. "What we're finding in our model is that the base flood elevations through Daybreak are actually lowering. What's being observed during the 1997 flood event will actually be lower when this project is built."

The development would include 4,700 housing units and commercial space. It would leave 32 percent of the land for trails and parks, and land is set aside for an elementary school, and possibly a high school and charter school, depending on what the Washoe County School District wants.

"They came back and said they'll need at least one elementary school, kind of in the more central part of Daybreak, and so we've set that aside for them," Durling said.

The completion of Veterans Parkway has added access to the land. Durling says the project was planned, with or without the road, but that it definitely makes things easier. While more development is happening in the valleys and on the edges of town, this project would be a large infill development which already has some infrastructure and emergency services.

"Rather than leaping out to the far extents of our city, this is really kind of filling in one of the last few large remaining land areas that is within that kind of urban, suburban area," Durling said.

Durling says there will be many more meetings to come, saying the permitting process for a project of this size usually takes about two years. If all goes as planned, construction could begin by this summer. The entire project could take 10-15 years to complete. Durling says the new neighborhood would provide a diverse selection of housing that could be affordable for some first-time buyers.

"Housing is still the number one issue that's facing northern Nevada right now and most of the issues surrounding housing is just the lack of supply," Durling said.

Durling says the parks would be managed by the homeowners associations, so they would not add more expenses to the city's parks department. 

Part of the project includes the removal of the dam that created Alexander Lake, which was built to store water for the ranch. The removal would allow Thomas Creek to flow back on its normal course.

"A more historically, natural stream bed and stream environment is a much better water resource in the long-term than the ranching pond that's out there right now," Durling said.

Many new neighborhoods are built with walls between main streets and backyards. Daybreak is designed with the front of the houses facing the street, with wider paths for walking and biking than a traditional sidewalk allows.