The University of Nevada is planning to relocate about a dozen old, historic homes that are currently in the way of the school's expansion.
These homes are located in the university's so-called "Gateway District" just south of campus, along Center and Lake Streets. They were built in the 1890's and early 1900's, so preservation advocates have been fighting to keep them in place.
"They are historical Queen Annes," Carol Coleman, president of the Historic Reno Preservation Society, said. "We have no other block of Queen Annes like this in the City of Reno. We are losing quite a bit of history when they move."
But on Tuesday University President Marc Johnson told the city's Historical Resources Commission that the university is moving them in order to build several new buildings on those blocks.
Johnson says the school is growing rapidly; the student body has increased by 28 percent since 2009, and they anticipate hiring about 250 more faculty members. He called the need for this space "desperate" and says that while they can't keep the houses there, they won't demolish them either.
"We have the legal authority as a higher education agency to take the properties that we own and do whatever we want with them," Johnson said, "but we want to be good neighbors, good citizens of the community, and be responsive to the various interests the best we can."
Johnson says he'd like to see the houses kept together and used for some type of community benefit, like transitional or senior housing. They haven't chosen a new location for them yet, but Johnson says the earliest they could move them would be mid-May of 2018.
A contractor at the meeting estimated that the cost to move them is roughly $50,000 per house.
