Victorian Square in Sparks is in the middle of some big changes, and Monday the city council approved another one, and a first for Northern Nevada: an "urban winery."
The Sparks city council gave the green light to allow these wineries to open up in the downtown area as part of the overall project to make Victorian Square more of a destination.
"It's exciting," Sparks City Planning Manager Jim Rundle said. "It's a little bit different than just a winery where you're pulling wines from across maybe the west. This could be a winery that's producing right here on site."
The urban winery would make, bottle, age, and sell the wine on site, as well as allow for tastings, but it gets the "urban" designation because it will bring the grapes from elsewhere. As stipulated in a new Nevada law, a portion of those grapes would have to be grown in Nevada.
The council voted unanimously to make a change to the city's municipal code to permit these urban wineries. Previously, city codes only allowed wineries in agricultural areas.
The winery is proposed for the development happening next to the movie theater in Victorian Square. There's no estimate yet on when that winery might open, but Rundle did say that the new Galaxy movie theater there should be all refurbished and ready to open in September.
