Reno Gazette-Journal from Reno, Nevada • Page 19

Wednesday, May 28, 198019 'Local Reno Evening Gazette Ruling on reappraisal windfall Rollan Melton consulted before Tuesday's commission meeting. He said the proposed regulations were not intended to cast aspersions on the intergrity of assessors, but he said he was "appalled" when he found Clark County had been ignoring the legal mandate to assess stored personal property since 1909. "If the law is unworkable, that's up the legislators. But to blatantly ignore it is in error," Nickson declared. The draft regulations would require assessors to file complete annual appraisal reports with the Taxation Department, as well as estimates of the coming year's appraisal efforts.

It also specified a five-year reappraisal cycle according to geographical area, a tax roll according to parcel number instead of alphabetical order and numerous technical details. Assessors from smaller counties said the draft regulations were designed more for larger counties with access to computers than for rural one and two-person offices. Under the proposal, the Tax Commission would have certified Washoe and Douglas' regular tax rate Tuesday, the deadline for setting those rates. Meanwhile, the two counties would reappraise the delinquent parcels, 16,500 of which are in Washoe County alone. Then on Oct.

1, the Tax Commission would have reopened Washoe and Douglas' tax rates and adjusted them downward in proportion to the amount of extra revenue the counties receive from the new reassessments. The measure would have allowed the counties to recoup reappraisal expenses but not profit from the deal. But the proposal failed after Washoe County commissioners advised the tax board they could not legally change their tax levy in the middle of the year. The commission voted 4-3 to certify the regular Washoe and Douglas county rates as of Tuesday's deadline. "We're not going to fleece the pub lic," Washoe County Commission Chairman Bill Farr said.

The commissioners promised not to spend any extra tax money they get, other than for recouping reassessment expenses. If windfall funds are carried over into the next fiscal year, the large ending balance would lower property tax rates in the following budget year. Washoe Deputy District Attorney Chan Griswold, legal adviser to the commission, said any funds generated by the reassessments will likely be tied up in litigation. Spokesmen representing nine county assessors' offices also complained they were not consulted about a set of proposed new assessment regulations, drafted by the Department of Taxation after it became known more than 31,000 properties statewide had not been reappraised in the five-year cycle required by law. Taxation Director Roy Nickson agreed assessors should have been By SUE VOLEK Gazette-Journal Carson Bureau State tax commissioners Tuesday narrowly rejected a proposal to prevent counties from reaping windfall revenues by updating lagging assessments on this year's tax bill.

The commissioners also postponed action on regulations spelling out county reappraisal procedures after assessors protested they lack the manpower to implement some of its provisions. Washoe and Douglas counties are among eight Nevada counties which have outdated property tax assessments. The two counties have volunteered to pay for appeals of reassessments in order to get the new, higher taxes on this year's roll. Commissioner Howard Winn's suggestion would have applied to any county willing to pay for the appeal hearings conducted by the state Board of Equalization. Nevada quotes RISK CAPITAL: In Ely, Greg Chachas placed a notice at the golf clubhouse saying he'll buy a steak dinner for anyone who beats him at a game of tennis.

Commented the Ely Daily Times: "Greg is now taking out a second mortgage on his house." QUOTABLE NEVADAN: After noticing what looked like a smile on the face of her week-old granddaughter, Annie: "The baby must be dreaming about the good old days." Marilyn R. Melton, Reno. Arts complex plans affirmed 3ff 9S BROOM WAS After a burglar alarm was accidentally tripped in a Southwest Reno home, Reno police immediately responded. The 16-year-old daughter of the house greeted the officers, one of whom soon inspected her bedroom. "Oh, oh," exclaimed he; "This room's been ransacked!" Said the blushing teen-ager: "Well, no sir, I just haven't cleaned it for a few days." AN ESSAY ABOUT LOVE: "Love is strange.

it makes you leel sad and it maKes you ieei sunny. It makes you feel glad and it makes you feel funny. But that's just what I've heard because love for me hasn't occurred. It's a lot of goosh and goo and cries of 'I love you' and 'My dear "Oh, and some marry for love and some marry for money. The love part is better I suppose, but I guess nobody knows." Lisa Rawlinson, age 12 At Tahoe SITUATION WANTED: This classified advertisement in the Elko Daily Free Press: "Would you need a good hand who can both buckaroo and cook? I have own horse and tac.

Honest and hardworking. Very experienced. Could offer good deal, as I need a place to live. 'Will 'l Vll -T nil i rn fMh V'-Wi Lola 738-7772." The Reno City Council, satisfied city parking requirements will be met, Monday approved scaled-down plans for the Sierra Arts Foundation performing arts and office complex. Acting Regional Planning Director Don Bayer told the council Sierra Arts has said it will provide 350 off-site parking spaces, and will be able to meet the parking requirement of 427 spaces for the downtown Virginia Street arts center.

Sierra Arts sought City Council approval of revised plans after it was forced to size down an underground parking garage. A Sierra Arts spokeswoman last week said the reduction was the result of unsuccessful negotiations for the purchase of three lots between Pine and State streets. The council voted unanimously not to require full review of the arts center and 13-story office building because of the changes. In other actions Monday, the council: Approved the 208-unit Virginia Terraces condominium project proposed near Virginia Lake between Eastshore Drive and South Virginia Street. Part of the development will replace the Orchard Trailer Park.

The project will require the abandonment of Hall Drive. In exchange, the developer will extend South Sierra Street to McKay Drive. Councilwoman Janice Pine, who moved for approval of Virginia Terraces, said a greenbelt area of the development will expand the park area at Virginia Lake. Extended a moratorium on conversions of apartments to condominiums, pending a public hearing next month on an ordinance regulating the conversions. Deferred action on surveys of Reno neighborhoods for the regional growth guidance plan undertaken by the Department of Regional Planning.

Council members said they wanted regional planners to consult with the city's new planning director, Robert Hunter, before sending out questionnaires. Under the program, residents of several neighborhoods may be surveyed on the needs of their areas. Councilman Ed Spoon said, "The more I think about It, the more I'm convinced neighborhood planning should be a function oi the city's planning department, not the Department of Regional Planning." Councilman Bill Wallace said he is concerned regional planners may be promoting "neighborhood advocacy groups" in its approach. Reno, Sparks and Washoe County officials, meeting as the Washoe Council of Governments Friday, will discuss the future of the Regional Planning Commission. Sparks withdrew from the commission last year.

An interim agreement between the county and Reno is holding the Regional Planning Commission together until July. worked, I called. Indeed, reported Lola Johnson Giacometto. On Sunday, she goes to work as caretaker of a small ranch 20 miles north of Elko. VICTIM RIGHTS: Mark Russell, noting that police are handcuffed by many laws guaranteeing rights, suggests a code of behavior for criminals, among them: "Before committing a criminal act, the mugger must read the victim his rights: 'I am a crook.

You are about to be museed bv me. You have the right to remain silent. If I am apprehended bv the nolice and thev fail to read me mv rights Lr'': hte v.v I'll see you again Jk. lie ale sle A PAGE FROM THE PAST: In Winnemucca a few days ago, Lee Case, "feeling fit as a fiddle," celebrated his 89th birthday. He was born in Gazelle photo by Jim Beuzley Fire debris winnemucca in ibsi, me son oi tjivu war veieran Walter Case.

Lee Case is a retired assaver. Drosnector and A Reno fireman throws some more burning office is occupied by Dr. Ron Carducci, a Reno material on a pile outside a house-turned of- psychologist. The damage was contained to a fice at 3512 Keystone Ave. this morning.

The closet and moderate smoke damage. mine company owner. At his birthday party, he got to recalling the past. Recollections included this: On July 12, .1908, when he was 17, young Case ran one of the best foot races ever recorded in Humboldt. The race was a 100-yard dash on Bridge Street, from Third to Second Street, and Case caught his fleet competitor, one Jimmie Sparks hotel construction plans get green light Stpwart at thp tanp Thp rlnrkincr un 10 4 i seconds, incredibly fast for that era, and respectable yet today.

In those days, noboby made any big fuss over amateur-professional status. Case won $100 for his sprint victory. The day following his birthday was an even bigger day he and his wife, Grace, celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. A special use permit for construction of a proposed 209-room hotel on Street was approved Tuesday by the Sparks City Council. Karl's Silver Club Hotel will be erected by the Spiral Corp.

Karl Berge, owner of the Silver Club on Street and president of Spiral estimated construction will start in two months. According to hotel plans, costs range from $3.8 to $4.8 million. The eight-floor hotel will be built on 11th and streets, behind the present Silver Club, and will have an 11th Street entrance. The first floor will be for parking only, and the second floor has rooms and offices. The building's floors are terraced away from Street, which is lined with residences.

Sparks planners and some residents originally voiced concerns about parking and traffic circulation, but no opposition was presented Tuesday. The hotel's revised design provides almost twice as many parking spaces, said city senior planner Joe Colgan, and buses will not have to turn north on 11th Street through the neighborhood. The parking garage has 73 spaces, and off-site parking lots will be available in the vicinty of the hotel. The property, recently rezoned to tourist-commercial from commercial- grant a special use permit allowing the New HoK' Covenant Church in Sparks to locate its Christian academy in a building at 1875 Oddie Blvd. Approved the final map for the Truckee Meadows Business Park, an industrial subdivision on seven acres north of Coney Island Drive South.

Agreed, In the afternoon caucus, to place on the next regular agenda a resolution to allow economic development revenue bonds for local development. Because of a slowdown in recent construction, officials wish to reverse a 1977 decision not to support industrial bonds. residential, is on less than one acre. The council approved the special use permit on the condition no portion of the building be devoted to unlimited gaming. A special use permit requirement for unlimited gaming facilities, hotels and motels with 19 rooms or more, was adopted by the council in April.

The permits were previously needed for projects only on one acre or more. Colgan said the special use permit will ensure the hotel will not become a casino. In other city council action Tuesday, the council: Refused to change the zoning or "Of course the average man has faith. You can tell by the way he drives his car." Fern Elges, Winnemucca Carson hearing scheduled on Westside zoning plans By LEE ADLER Gazette-Journal Carson Bureau make this portion of the city attractive and desirable will be eroded as demolition of older buildings occur and the subsequent infill of new office construction and off-street parking continue. Thus the city will be left without its most distinguishing attraction and its visual legacy would disappear." Westside preservationist Paul Carrington added a few dollar signs to the same argument, telling the commission of the "economic values that a specific historic area or restored area would bring to the business segment, which is the lifesblood of the community.

"We can share our residential area with the community as a beautiful drawing card for tourism," Carrington said. Mrs. Sulahria said the proposed historic district, approved in concept two weeks ago by Carson supervisors, can exist regardless of which zoning is adopted. The special June 17 hearing is scheduled for 7 p.m. at the justice courtroom.

Many of the objections at Tuesday's crowded hearing came from those in the RO areas who complained the value of their property would be "down-zoned" that is, devalued by such a change. Given the present turmoil, said Minnesota Street property owner Hairy Dickson, "The people don't know what to ask for their property, buyers don't know what to offer. We're in a heck of a state because zoning has been changed every two years." Robinson Street resident Gus Bundy wrote the commission he purchased his block "in part as an investment because my knowledge of city planning was sufficient to indicate it was located in the path of change." Since acquiring the property, Bundy said, half of his block has been down-zoned "although we continue to pay taxes based on the higher zoning." Others complained the zoning changes would divide their property and even cut through their homes. Former City Planner John Hancock, who now has an office on Minnesota, said retaining the office zoning is the only way anyone short of the very wealthy is going to be able to maintain some of the large buildings, such as his own, which has a $400 monthly heating bill. Assistant City Planner Julie Sulahria told the commission the zoning recommendation derives in part from the conclusions of a Sacramento-based consulting firm that past planning decisions have altered the residential character of some areas of Carson City.

They have produced, the consultants said, "Rapidly rising real estate values, overburdened streets additional on-street parking, (and) intrusion of paved and unpaved parking areas that replace green areas." Also, "Structures in need of repair lie dormant as owners are unwilling to commit time and money for their retention as they may be ultimately moved for more intensive land uses." The consultants said, "The very qualities that Unable to resolve the controversy and the confrontations Tuesday evening, the Carson Regional Planning Commission scheduled a special hearing June 17 on the proposed zoning changes within the planned historic Westside area. Specifically, the city staff and consultant's recommendation would rezone the area from the eastside of Minnesota Street from mid-block between Washington and Caroline streets south to King Street, and the west side of Minnesota between Telegraph and King streets from the exiting residential-office (RO) designation to one permitting only single family dwellings. Similarly, the south side of Washington between Minnesota and Elizabeth to the mid-block line between Washington and Caroline would go from the current single family zoning to RO..