City seeks special use permit for water plant expansion

Carson City is seeking a special use permit at Wednesday’s planning commission meeting for plans to expand the Quill Water Treatment Plant at 2944 Kings Canyon Road.

The meeting begins at 5 p.m. in the community center.

According to a staff report, work would include a 3,200-square-foot building expansion, more drying ponds, a pad for an equalization tank and other improvements at the approximately 414-acre site zoned public community.

“The subject site is improved with a water treatment facility which operates within an (approximately) 15-acre portion of the overall 414-acre site owned by Carson City,” reads the report. “The proposed improvements will be located within the existing fenced area and will serve to update and expand the operation of the Quill Water Treatment Facility. The project will replace aging and obsolete water treatment equipment to increase efficiencies in the system to allow the facility to treat up to 6 million gallons of surface water per day.”

Documents submitted with the application from the Public Works Department state the expansion will allow for aquifer recharge.

“The Quill Water Treatment facility is currently rated to treat 6 MGD (million gallons per day); however, source water regularly exceeds the allowable turbidity levels which forces the facility to cease treatment,” reads a statement in the application. “The project would increase the operational efficiency of the facility, allowing increased utilization of the city’s existing and permitted surface water flows and reduce the need to pump groundwater allowing for aquifer recharge.”

According to Public Works, the project will “stabilize water delivery service to the customer base.”

Public Works Project Manager Michael Friend said in an application letter that the existing building at the plant as well as the expanded building will be painted a light tan color to better blend in with surroundings.

“New concrete backwash basins will replace the old backwash basins, new drying beds will be installed and various yard piping will be replaced,” Friend wrote. “Inside the building new packaged filtration systems with ultraviolet disinfection systems will replace the existing obsolete diatomaceous earth sand filter system.”

• In other action, planning commissioners will consider a Master Plan amendment and recommendation to the Board of Supervisors to eliminate the Brown Street Specific Plan Area, a roughly 14-acre area located on Brown Street and North Edmonds Drive.

The request is coming from Carson City itself as initiated by staff and the Board of Supervisors during the annual Master Plan review in January.

“The Brown Street SPA was adopted by the board on July 21, 2005,” reads a staff report. “At the same meeting, the board also approved a zoning map amendment, changing the zoning for all properties located within the SPA to multi-family apartment. The intent of the Brown Street SPA was to establish policies that reinforce and stabilize the SPA as a cohesive residential neighborhood and to encourage redevelopment of the area in a manner that is compatible with existing uses while providing needed housing opportunities for Carson City.”

Upon review of the specific plan, however, staff concluded current city code and development standards could achieve similar goals without the specific plan.

A map from Carson City showing the Brown Street Specific Plan Area.