Revamped Storey ordinance could allow some development along the Truckee

Troy Regas will get another chance to build his RV park if the Storey County Commissioners approve a new ordinance regulating building along the Truckee River.

Regas owns more than 200 acres in northern Storey County along the Truckee and wants to build an RV park, but current zoning law forbids the construction, use, location, operation or maintaining of manufactured/mobile home parks, trailer parks, recreational vehicle parks and motels within 4,000 feet of the Truckee River.

He has gone before the Storey County Planning Commission and Storey County Commission several times to have the ordinance re-written, something that was requested by the planning commission.

Regas said the area was a junkyard before, with scrap metal, chemicals and other debris that posed more of a risk to the river than the RV park he wants to build.

He said he had to remove six tons of dirt contaminated with oils and chemicals, burn thousands of pounds of wood debris and removed three sewer systems used for trailer homes.

The new ordinance allows such development if the owner obtains a special use permit from the county.

To get the special use permit, a project developer would not be able to impair the river or riparian corridor, remove vegetation, plan to use fill in the 100-year floodplain or intend to build on unstable slopes or dikes.

A project could not impact the river's reach, or ruin the view, and would need an approved Nevada Department of Environmental Protection double-lined sewage disposal system, with all parts above the floodplain 300 feet from the river's edge.

Developments would not be allowed to harm recreation, fisheries, flood control or storm water runoff and would require landscaped areas with noninvasive plants that protect ecological balance and water quality of the Truckee.

Storey County Commissioners will hear the first reading of the ordinance at today's meeting, but will not vote until the second reading.

Regas wants a 67-unit RV park with barbecue pits, adjacent parking, day use, water and electric hookups.

"I designed the RV park not to have sewer at all because of the ordinance," he said, adding that there are dump stations at truckstops and other places six miles away from the property, and that owners of self-contained RVs can go there to dump their waste.

Regas said he paid more than $20,000 a year on his property and had to be able to make money off it.

"I can't wholesale this property, so I'm trying to make income," he said. "I've beautified it, taken garbage off. It's a big job. I've been working on it for almost four years."