Guest Opinion: Park Cattle Co. project will change Valley

Residents of Douglas County should pay close attention to the proposal that will be coming soon from Park Cattle. If approved, it would be the beginning of the end for life as we know it in Carson Valley.

Park Cattle has about 4,500 acres in three large parcels on both sides of Minden. Nearly all of this land is zoned agricultural (A-19), meaning one home on each (minimum)19-acre parcel. This would allow them to build about 240 homes.

They are also allowed by the master plan to cluster homes, while preserving the rest as open space. This is considered desirable by many planners, which is the reason that our 1996 master plan gave a 50 percent bonus for clustering. This would have allowed Park about 360 homes. Two years ago, however, the master plan was amended to triple the bonus for clustering to 150 percent to help struggling family ranchers. This now allows Park about 600 clustered homes, in exchange for preserving the rest as open space in perpetuity.

Park Cattle, however, is not happy with this generous bonus for clustering. They will be coming forward shortly and asking that the master plan be amended for their benefit, so that they can build in excess of 4,000 homes.

Their proposal is an insult to the people of Douglas County. It is an insult to the majority of voters, who passed the Sustainable Growth Initiative in 2002. It is an insult to the commissioners, staff, and many others who worked to pass a compromise Growth Management Ordinance last year. That ordinance, by the way, contemplates an overall build-out number for the county, a number that is thought to be all that the available groundwater and infrastructure can handle. Park Cattle's proposal would blow that build-out figure right out of the water, only one year after it was agreed upon.

For most of us, it comes down to a quality of life issue. The No. 1 quality consistently mentioned by Douglas County residents is preserving our rural character. Building more than 4,000 new homes would detract from that quality. How about traffic? Every year we're getting more and more cars and traffic lights. Obviously this would only worsen with thousands of new homes.

What about water? In recent years we have pumped nearly our entire estimated recharge. With thousands of new homes, we would begin to exceed our recharge, and hence start to draw down our aquifer. More and more wells would begin to go dry. Sure, there are plenty of paper water rights out there (the Town of Minden can't wait to sell them), but our aquifer is severely over-allocated, by a factor of nearly three to one.

Park Cattle will try to convince you that their proposal will be good for the county. They will point to all the open space that will be preserved, yet fail to mention that even more open space would be preserved with the clustering that they are currently allowed. They will perhaps offer to provide land for a much-needed senior center, even though there are many other options which do not carry such a high price tag to the community. They will talk about the trails they will offer, though they could do the same with clustering if they wanted. Basically they are suggesting that Master Plan Amendments should be for sale, and they are just negotiating the price.

Let's get one thing clear: the Park Cattle Co. is not a "struggling family ranch." They are perhaps the largest and wealthiest landowners in the county. This is the same Park Cattle that just last month received $165 million in a settlement with the owners of the Horizon and MontBleu casinos. They also own the Edgewood Tahoe Golf property. It is hard to describe their motivation in pursuing their development plans in the Carson Valley without using the word greed " let's just say that they wish to maximize their profits.

This once-proud ranching business is now described as a "diversified real estate company," featuring squabbling family members and lawsuits. The hand-writing was on the wall last year when Park Cattle hired Las Vegas mega-developer Brad Nelson as their new president. The Record-Courier quoted him as saying: "My whole career is real estate."

The biggest concern, however, is the terrible precedent this would set. If Park's proposal is approved, how could they say no to Bently, or Settelmeyer, or any other large landowner? What is the compelling reason to approve this master plan amendment that would give Park Cattle seven times the number of homes to which they are currently entitled? There is none.

Why would the county commissioners even consider approving a master plan amendment that only benefits Park Cattle, yet is a detriment to the existing residents of the county? That is the real question that must be answered this summer, because only three votes are needed for its approval.

When asked if he was willing to put his proposal to a vote of the people, the president of Park Cattle said that the public was too uninformed and uneducated to make that decision. Do you want our Valley to become another Truckee Meadows or San Fernando Valley? Both those areas were once agricultural, and look what's become of them. Every resident of Douglas County should make a point of educating themselves on this important issue, and then letting the commissioners know how you feel. The future of our county depends on it.

n Jim Slade is a Foothill resident.