The Washoe County Commission unanimously passed a rezoning motion Tuesday that will affect two schools in Incline Village.
The change will allow Saint Clare's Montessori School to relocate to the St. Francis of Assisi church property, and the Village Church to expand its preschool into an elementary school.
However, some residents are against the re-zoning plan-- which would put these two schools within about a half-mile of one another, and potentially open up zoning for other school projects. Neighbors signed petitions and showed up to today's meeting to fight it.
"There's increased noise population, increased trash, there's increased traffic," Incline resident Shawn Comstock said. "And so, it's not good for the neighborhood to have two high schools within one residential, single family residential neighborhood on Mt. Rose Highway."
Those who pushed for the zoning change say they have nowhere else to go.
"It's a Catholic school. We can't go anywhere else in town," Peter Larson, Guide at the Saint Clare's Montessori School, said. "We have to be at the Catholic church. The sacrament of the Eucharist is so important to us that we're there. It's not like we can go to any other building, there's a longstanding precedent that Catholic Schools are in Catholic Churches."
Despite the opposition, the motion did pass unanimously, and puts to rest a debate that's been happening in the community for more than two years.
