Commission approves off‑site road and water work to serve Apartments at Dandini project

The Planning Commission on May 8 approved a major site plan review for off‑site improvements — an access road and a waterline — needed to support the 402‑unit Apartments at Dandini and provide future looping for other parcels near Truckee Meadows Community College and the DRI research park.

Associate planner Jeff Foster told commissioners the 3‑acre grading and fill work would be considered hillside development because roughly 70 percent of the site exceeds a 15 percent slope; fills may reach up to 30 feet high in isolated locations. The applicant has designed the alignment to minimize impacts on slopes over 30 percent, preserving roughly 92 percent of the overall parcel as undisturbed open space. Staff recommended conditions that require erosion‑control measures, slope treatment, revegetation, and noxious‑weed mitigation.

Applicant representative Stacy Huggins (Wood Rogers) said the alignment had been chosen to minimize impacts and noted that the waterline and road looping are needed to satisfy Truckee Meadows Water Authority loop‑testing and to provide capacity to the apartment project. The road section is being graded to a 35‑foot section (capable of a future 26‑foot roadway) but will be paved initially to a 15‑foot width so it will function as an access and maintenance drive until future development secures full road construction.

Staff and the applicant told commissioners they had coordinated with the Desert Research Park and TMCC property owners; the applicant supplied a memorandum of understanding to allow work within the other properties where needed. Staff recommended limiting construction hours because of nearby homes and included standard grading and hillside development conditions such as revegetation, riprap, and slope stabilization.

The commission found the site plan met the major‑site‑plan findings and approved the project with the conditions listed in the staff report.