Acccording to an Associated Press release published on the RGJ website, Senator Ted Cruz is scheduled to attend a public meet and greet at the Arrow Creek Country Club the evening of August 15^th. No time was referenced.

The Somersett Strategic Planning Committee (SPC) and our Board of Directors (BOD) is in the process of generating a Request for Proposal (RFP) to engage a land use planner to prepare a “Master Plan Amenities Recommendation” (i.e., conceptual renderings, building size, and space layout for moved/expanded amenities). Also, under consideration is the purchase of the parcel of land adjacent to The Club at Town Center, should it become available again. These actions may be well and good at some time in the future, but believed by SU to be patently premature at the present time. This based on the following:

• The Amenities Assessment Report recommendations regarding amenity expansions (see previous post of July 25) were based on old (2010 census) demographics and inadequate homeowner (2013) survey data, and that new data is necessary before any amenity changes/additions are undertaken.
• There is an apparent lack of control and supervision by the management staff in amenity usage.  The result being inadequate data and abuse of facilities by unauthorized users. Operational improvements are necessary to assess actual amenity usage and the problems associated therewith.
• There is a general feeling that older adults (e.g., those without resident children) are getting shorted in amenity usage and venues, primarily due to the increase usage by children (see previous post of August 3 & Comments). There is a need to address this issue before proceeding with any land use planning.
• There are many Amenities Assessment Report recommendations that should be acted upon before considering the hiring of a land use planner.  Most notably the implementation of a key card system for amenity access.  This would enable an accurate assessment and tracking of amenity usage as well as limiting access to authorized users.
• Purchase of additional land at this time would not make sense given the recent SOA purchase (November 2014) of the parcels adjacent to the Town Center retail buildings, for which no current usage plan exists. Also not covered in the Amenity Assessment Report was the SOA purchase and leaseback of the Country Club property.  Given the ongoing failure rate of golf courses, what would the SOA do with this property?  To our knowledge, no contingency plan exists.  Hopefully, there will not be a need for one.

The conclusion being that no amenity expansions, purchase of additional property and hence, engagement of a land use planner, should be considered until: 1) implementation of a comprehensive key card system, 2) operational improvements, and 3) updated homeowner demographics, amenity usage data and surveys; have all been accomplished.

Let’s not get the cart before the horse, and perform the Amenity Assessment Report recommendations in the proper order.

Comments welcome!

Submitted by Steve A.

When we bought here it was in great part for the amenities available. We do not have children here but it is obvious that the direction is to give more accessibility of those amenities to youngsters at the expense of adults. Additionally the running of the club amenities needs to be reviewed and improved. In a short period of time here are some examples of what I have experienced

Basketball…for about 2 months during the summer, due to kids club, adults were not able to use the courts except nights/weekends. Then adding to this issue I experienced going to the court on a weekend and finding out that all but one of the basketballs were bad (and that one was being used) and so were thrown out and new ones ordered but not arrived so once again I couldnt use this amenity. So tell me how about 10 basketballs go bad at once..impossible…and rather than wait weeks for new ones, go to a store and buy them.

Pool…as you are all aware the hours for the adult pool has been extended to allow kids more time in the adult pool. once again we are being pushed aside. Additionally an incident happened recently were a child pooped in the kids pool forcing evacuation and allowing them to intrude/use the adult pool…what was to prevent the same thing from happening in the adult pool

Tennis…I recently called to reserve a court 2 days in advance and was told none was available. The group met at the court with the idea of having to drive to a public court to play…lo and behold both courts were empty and also found out that earlier only one court was being used…again management needs to get a better handle on usage

Wednesday Market Day….while this wasn’t an amenity while we used to have this well attended event we no longer have it…I only bring this up because it was a plus for the community and along with suggestions re: this event, availabilty of the basketball courts, suggestions to improve tennis court usage, I have submitted suggestions to better improve the management of these facilities.

Nothing changed, and never heard back with comments good or bad.

As a large adult only group that pays the same HOA fees we shouldn’t see a reduction in availability and once again suggest that the precedures in running these amenities need to be reviewed.

As a follow-up to previous posts on the proposed Verdi Rock Crushing facility, the following summary was posted on the Keep Verdi Verdi website (www.keepverdiverdi.org)

“The Reno Community Council meeting held on July 29th has concluded, with the council denying the 39 Ventures special use permit to conduct screening/crushing operations at their site in Verdi.  It is likely that the site ownership will move forward with an application for an alternative use, such as landscape material yard, lumber yard, or similar (all of which would likely be approved due to the land’s “community/commercial” zoning).

This effort’s success was an entire community effort, with a total of 60 speakers at the meeting and input from over 400 (Reno and Verdi combined) community members, with 155 supporting 39 Ventures operations and 257 opposing.  It appeared that the support was split with Reno residents generally in favor of the operation and Verdi residents opposed.”

A video of the entire meeting can be accessed by clicking on the following link. Note that this is a video of the entire July 29 meeting agenda items. To only view the evening session pertaining to the 39 Ventures issue, forward to the 5:16 point.  For a full screen view of the video, click on the arrow icon.

July 29 Reno City Council Meeting Video