Whether Drayton is built out, or turned into something else like a trail or linear park, is working its way through county staff.
Rancher John Drayton first proposed a master plan amendment for a neighborhood named Pleasantview back in late 1970s.
It would be a decade later before the final paperwork was approved, including a development agreement that continues to this day, some 35 years later.
The original Pleasantview was 192 lots on 91 acres and has been built out. But that pesky development agreement prompted at least a dozen neighbors of the boulevard named for Drayton to weigh in last week.
At issue is the last piece in the Pleasantview puzzle that most folks would like to see left off the map entirely.
There are actually three development agreements still pending from the project located next to the Gardnerville Ranchos, all of which the county, the builder and the neighbors would like to see closed with as little damage as possible.
The right-of-way was deeded to the county as part of the plan, cooked up when a barn was the largest structure on what was once a ranch, but concerns about it were expressed by the project back when it was finally approved in 1988.
According to the minutes of the meeting, project attorney Jeff Rahbeck said one of their major concerns was an 80-foot arterial roadway through the project.
Drayton Boulevard was originally intended to relieve congestion on Tillman Lane, which passes for the Gardnerville Ranchos’ main drag. In 2020, Regional Transportation Commissioners recommended removing the road from the transportation plan.
And then there is the issue of a secondary access for the 30-some homes in Rain Shadow Ranch, which under county code requires a second route. In addition, the $460,000 the county collected from developers for the route is less than a tenth of the $5.6 million required actually build it.
A gated emergency exit doesn’t actually meet the county’s design standards, meaning there’s something else that has to be dealt with in the development agreement.
The one thing everyone appears to agree on is that no one needs a cinder block luge track cutting through that neighborhood.