Pretty much everyone knows I am downtown's biggest cheerleader. Still to this day, here I am nearly 20 years later (I started the blog in 2006) highlighting the various ways downtown has improved, and providing gentle criticism of problem areas like the Virginia Street corridor.
Even when it comes to Jacobs Entertainment, I haven't universally hated on him. I'm actually really impressed with the 245 North Arlington resdiential building on the verge of completion, including the glass windows that hide the first-floor parking, the retail space on the corner of 2nd and Arlington, the almost-gothic lighting of the balconies at night. I also don't have anything against all the improvements he has made to the J Resort itself, or the Glow Plaza, or the many sculptures lining 4th Street.
And I'm not against vibrant nightlife or festivals downtown. I'll be attending the Western Lights Festival this weekend, and I used to throw parties in Reno's 'rave scene' in Reno in the 1990s, downtown and elsewhere hidden in warehouses in Sparks. I've danced my ass off at Burning Man, Yuri's Night, Compression and Decompression parties downtown when they used to close down Virginia Street, and even gone to support my DJ friends at Tonic, Blue Bird, Dead Ringer etc, although not quite as much now that I'm breaching my 50s lol. I'm providing this context to say this isn't just some old-man rant. I actually want 1Up to reopen downtown.
But I have some concerns with the festival grounds that is already under construction prior to him receiving the conditional use permits he needs to fully operate it.
Tonight at the Reno Planning Commission he is asking for a conditional use permit to allow 'Recreation or Amusement Outside' and 'Live Entertainment' land uses to facilitate outdoor festivals, concerts and recreation events. Even if the Planning Commission approves it, it is almost guaranteed to be appealed and then go before Reno City Council.
Personally speaking, I have some concerns about the design, layout, traffic mitigation and capacity, concerning this project. For starters, even though they mention they will only do ten events a year with attendance over 12,000, that's still almost one per month and more realistically, those 10 events will be crammed into the spring, summer and fall months, because it's an outdoor event space, so more likely a couple per month. According to the staff report there's approximately 1,965 parking spaces are available within ten private parking lots in the project vicinity for a venue that has a capacity of 15,000.
Then there are 1,610 affected residential units within the immediate vicinity of the festival grounds, spread across 22 different properties. I feel like the included noise study in the staff report grossly underestimates the actual volume created from a sound system that is meant to accomodate 15,000 people.
And trust me, I want downtown activated and full of events just as much as anyone else. It's been a 20-year dream of mine to have a lively, full, healthy activated downtown. But some sections of downtown are in such a sad state of affairs, I'm wondering if we are grasping at straws just because those straws exist, rather than thinking to ourselves 'hmmm, is this is best way to go about activating downtown?' With food trucks on-site at the festival grounds (can you imagine the lines?) and no real reason to leave the festival grounds and walk a half mile over to where there IS some activation along the river, how much will this project truly benefit the rest of downtown, particularly during the times the site won't be activated? Is this true activation? Does this align with what current and future downtown residents want? I want to hear from you.
It really reminds me of the first wave of development for downtown, when flashy glass tower after tower were proposed, like Wingfield Towers or the Waterfront, and regardless of how it might impact the surrounding neighborhood, we, myself included, mistakingly said 'oooh shiny new object let's build it!' half out of desperation to convert a dying casino core into something new. I don't want to make the same mistake this time around.
But, don't take my word for it. Let's hear from Robert Dagitz, who 'opened' Lawler Events Center as the Executive Director back in 1982, and also opened and operated Shoreline Amphitheater, a 22,000-seat outdoor events center in Mountain View California. His comments are based on twenty plus years of managing and producing public events; ranging from the San Francisco Symphony to the Grateful Dead concerts, from POTUS visits to NCAA championships, from International Air Stream owners conventions to State Rainbow Girls conferences. In other words, he's an authority on this.
His letter to the Planning Commission, which I beleive will be submitted as public comment, is below.
We first moved to Reno in 1982 to open Lawlor Events Center, I was hired by UNR as the first Executive Director of the facility. In 1986 I left Reno to open Shoreline Amphitheater In Mountain View, CA, a 22,000 seat outdoor public events facility. My comments are based on twenty plus years of managing and producing public events; ranging from the San Francisco Symphony to the Grateful Dead concerts, from POTUS visits to NCAA championships, from International Air Stream owners conventions to State Rainbow Girls conferences.
Judging from the Conditional Use Permit application for the J Resort Festival Grounds I would like to offer the following observatons.
Ø The location of the proposed (currently under construction) facility in the center of a growing metro area is at best fraught with problems.
Ø Traffic on city streets caused by 15,000 people attempting to reach an event will cause a huge backup both on the “come in” and the “exit”. This will make it impossible for emergency vehicles in the area.
Ø With the generally accepted average of 2.5 people per car, between 5 and 6,000 cars will be descending on a one block venue, which appears to have a best case availability of 1,500 to 2,000 cars in walking distance.
Ø The cueing space required for ticketed entry to the facility will clearly require closing Ralston St, further compounding traffic flow issues.
Ø The public area “seating” area of 64,800 sq ft will provide 4.23 sq ft per person which is less than half of the minimum space required in this type of setting. (Try standing on a 2 ft by 2 ft square for the duration of a three to four hour event, in fact try standing on that square for 15 minutes.)
Ø The application calls for the use of “portable restrooms”. For a gathering of 15,000, again using the generally accepted minimum of one toilet per 100 attendees where are the 150 portables going to be located so that people can access them without leaving the facility, and who will service them?
Ø It is unbelievable that a city the size of Reno will consider allowing a permanently constructed facility to be built without permanent restrooms. This is like a county fair or one time use of a ranch pasture.
Ø Public safety; emergency access is going to be very difficult as one side is cut off by the train track, and Ralston St will be clogged with attendees. The liability issue will be very large.
Ø There is no mention in the proposal of a first aid or medical facility which will clearly be needed for a crowd attending an outdoor event in summer temperatures in Reno.
Ø The sound study, quoted, uses a level under 80 db while concert sound levels regularly exceed 100 db and can reach 130 db. The page after page of numbers do not tell anything about the event sound impact. The sound impact of this type of facility will HUGE! With Shoreline Ampnitheater, located in a park on the edge of an industrial setting, we had constant sound issues. It was determined that the sound actually bounced off of the temperature inversion layer and significantly effected neighborhoods several miles away. Here sound levels will clearly effect large numbers of residents and businesses.
In summation it is my professional opinion that from the information available this is a very bad location for a public facility. Also the design of the facility appears to have left out many things which will cause the surrounding city a great deal of problems and significant liability issues. It is important for the public safety and the good will of events held in our city to be first class and of the sort that visitors and locals can enjoy and come back for time after time.
That's definitely a pretty sobering letter from someone who's career is based on opening large-scale events centers. I just want the Planning Commission, and probably the Reno City Council if it's appealed, to really, really think about this, and if you DO choose to approve it, add on some conditions, because this is a CONDITIONAL use permit, such as building permanent restrooms INCLUDING at each of the parking lots of Jacobs, rely on reaslitic sound amplification and not projected models, such as when the Basecamp festival happens in Wingfield and everyone in Arlington Towers feels the bass rumbling in their stomachs while INDOORS with their windows closed (yes, this really happened with residents who are friends of mine I spoke with).
I'm all for festivals happening downtown, but it needs to be done right. My biggest fear is that future developers shy away from building residential in this area out of fear of repercussions from their future residents on the noise levels and other issues Mr. Dagitz raises. For example, Jacobs himself is supposed to build new 'affordable' residential on 2nd Street next to the Gibson Apartments as part of a deal with Reno Housing Authority. It's literally a block away from the festival grounds location.
I'm not asking the Planning Commission to outright deny the conditional use permit, but put conditions on it. For me, those conditions should be;
1. Keep the max capacity at under 10,000 for any event. The capacity should match what parking is available downtown.
2. Keep the amplified sound cut-off at 10 pm
3. The festival grounds needs permanent plumbed restroom facilities and enough to accomodate 10,000 people. The Las Vegas festival grounds, although much larger, has 400 permanent restrooms according its web site.
Again I'm not against activation downtown, or even against this festival grounds, but the Planning Commission and most likely the Reno City Council, has an opportunity to make sure it's done properly and in scale to the rest of downtown.