Question again arises: What to do with Lakeview trailhead?

The Carson City Parks and Recreation Commission will consider on Tuesday whether to recommend to the Board of Supervisors that conceptual plans be developed for Lakeview Park at the end of Hobart Road in northwest Carson City.

"Right now it's being used as a popular informal trailhead to Hobart Reservoir," said Recreation Director Roger Moellendorf. "It's very popular with equestrians, mountain bikers and fishermen."

The 40-acre park was identified through the 2004-06 Envision Carson City Master Plan process as a natural park and equestrian trailhead. The city believes the park is extremely important as public access into state park backcountry.

The problem at present is that there is no parking near the trailhead, so horseback riders are parking along the roads, which is an inconvenience to homeowners, Moellendorf said.

The main equestrian user at this time is the Nevada All State Trail Riders, and through discussions with the city over the past year, they have decided to provide the city with $20,000 as seed money to develop the natural park and trailhead.

"We believe we can parlay that through the Nevada State Parks-Recreation Trail Program and come up with another $80,000," Moellendorf said.

However, Scott Dutcher, president of the equestrian group, said in a letter to the chairman of the Sierra Club's Great Basin Group that his group does not want to see the property become a park.

"Development of an equestrian trailhead (which is really just a large enough parking area to accommodate our horse trailers off-street) was attempted several years ago for this property, but was successfully halted by the efforts of a group of neighbors who resisted the idea of a park, which is again being proposed by city staff," Dutcher said.

"We tend to agree with the neighbors on this point, that a park becomes a destination, while the trailhead that we propose is not. A trailhead is a gateway to a further destination - the national forest, state park and the Tahoe Rim Trail," he said.

And Richard Schneider, president of the Lakeview Property Owners Association, said equestrian usage is the problem for the neighbors.

"One of the things that concerns us is that this is not a Carson group. Horses are already a problem there. They park their trailers in front of homes and shovel (manure) out into the street," Schneider said.

He said there have already been some unpleasant encounters there between homeowners and horse

people.

"I don't think horses should be allowed in mixed-use areas. I'm concerned that their being there would exclude other users. I wouldn't take my grandchildren up there because of the manure and I don't think people will want to picnic around it," he said.

History on the 40-acre site goes back to 1960, but ownership wasn't transferred to the city until 1967, according to a report by Park Planner Vern Krahn and Open Space Manager Juan Guzman.

At one point, plans called for a 20-unit campground, but the idea was dropped in 1976 in lieu of a nature education site with trails and a small campground.

But the vision changed again between 2004-06 when the Parks and Recreation Master Plan showed that residents wanted to see trails into the mountains and BLM land, Moellendorf said.

At the same time, the Unified Pathways Master Plan identified Lakeview Park as an equestrian trailhead.

The city is also looking at the park as a site for a water treatment plant and a hydroelectric power plant.

Commissioners meet at 5:30 p.m. Tuesday in the Sierra Room of the Carson City Community Center, 851 E. William St.

"We're hoping to hear what kind of comments we get," Moellendorf said. "Our intent is to keep a clean, blank sheet going into this meeting. This deserves a public discussion."

Nevada Appeal Staff Report

Carson City's Public Works Department is looking at the 40-acre property at the end of Hobart Road in Lakeview Estates as a possible site for a water treatment plant as well as a small hydroelectric plant.

The department said construction of a water treatment/hydroelectric plant is at least eight years away.

According to the department, a treatment plant would save the city about $400,000 a year on electrical pumping costs. Instead of piping Marlette Lake water to the Quill Treatment Plant for treatment and distribution, then pumping this water back up to the Lakeview area for residential use, the Marlette Lake water could be piped directly to a Lakeview Park water treatment plant. That, the department said, would also provide Lakeview residents with a better and more consistent water supply and pressure.

The construction of a small hydroelectric power plant in association with the water treatment plant could generate $250,000 a year in revenues for the city.