Exciting news for Lemmon Valley residents, a new shopping center could be coming to the area.
The City of Reno and Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency are working through the process of accepting a building permit request to build a plaza on 19.6 acres of land off Lemmon Drive and Memorial Road.
Chris Talley, a Regional Planner for Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency, says, "We look at things that are projects of regional significance, and that is a submittal that comes in from the City of Reno. So they had received a building permit for this proposal. They had identified that it actually required a site plan review process, which is an internal ministerial review that they conduct."
The permit is for commercial and retail development for about 2.3 acres of buildings.
Because it will be across a residential area, they need to review the number of daily trips made through the area.
For these types of proposals to move forward, they need to exceed 6,000 daily trips.
Talley told us, "They approved it conditioned on us at regional, looking at it, and that was based off of the number of vehicle trips that were proposed. So we have a threshold that we look at for projects of regional significance of being 6,250 or more, and this one triggered it at 9,000, a little over 9,000 vehicle trips per day."
The proposal shared details of what could be included in the plaza.
It states that 10 different tenant locations will be available, and could include drive-through restaurants, retail stores, and possibly a car wash, but nothing is set in stone just yet.
It’s still in its early stages of approval, and the city has other components it requires it to get through.
Talley also said, "Anybody that is interested in this process has the right to appeal it. So they approved it tonight. The Regional Planning Commission approved it. So there's an appeal process that follows that, but after that, that essentially satisfies one of their conditions at the City of Reno, and they can continue to move forward with their proposal."
It is a private developer who submitted for the permit, and actually already owns the land, so it will be up to them to fund this project if they get approval for the building permit.
