Staff trains Planning Commission on neighborhood plans, explains limits and update process
December 05, 2025 | Planning Commission , Reno, Washoe County, Nevada
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Grace Mackinnon, senior management analyst for the City of Reno, gave a training to the Planning Commission on Dec. 4 explaining the origins, purpose and present status of neighborhood plans in the city.
Mackinnon said the city’s earlier Great Reno Master Plan (2007–2017) contained 24 area plans — center and transit corridor plans and neighborhood plans — and that those neighborhood plans produced a fragmented patchwork of policy that was difficult for staff to administer. “To maximize the city's limited resources and maintain a more user friendly master plan, the city does not intend to develop additional neighborhood plans,” Mackinnon said, quoting language incorporated in the Reimagine Reno update.
She listed the neighborhood overlays that remain in the master plan and zoning code, including Country Club Acres, Greenfield, Mortensen/Garson, Northeast, Wells Avenue and West University, and explained how the city folded many detailed neighborhood policies into broader area‑specific policies such as Foothill and Central neighborhoods.
Mackinnon told commissioners that the Planning Commission and staff apply those overlay policies when reviewing projects in affected areas but that the authority to create, retire or direct updates to neighborhood plans rests with the City Council. Any change would require Council direction to initiate a text amendment, followed by the city’s public process: neighborhood advisory boards, stakeholder meetings, a Planning Commission review and then Council consideration.
Commissioners pressed staff on whether the older overlays remain current and how public outreach would be handled if updates were initiated. Mackinnon said some overlays — she cited Wells Avenue and West University as examples — have evolved and remain useful; others and plan‑unit developments may be more outdated and would require a separate initiative. She emphasized there has been no current Council direction to update or retire overlays and that any future work would follow the formal text‑amendment workflow.
The training was presented as an informational item; no action was taken.
Mackinnon said the city’s earlier Great Reno Master Plan (2007–2017) contained 24 area plans — center and transit corridor plans and neighborhood plans — and that those neighborhood plans produced a fragmented patchwork of policy that was difficult for staff to administer. “To maximize the city's limited resources and maintain a more user friendly master plan, the city does not intend to develop additional neighborhood plans,” Mackinnon said, quoting language incorporated in the Reimagine Reno update.
She listed the neighborhood overlays that remain in the master plan and zoning code, including Country Club Acres, Greenfield, Mortensen/Garson, Northeast, Wells Avenue and West University, and explained how the city folded many detailed neighborhood policies into broader area‑specific policies such as Foothill and Central neighborhoods.
Mackinnon told commissioners that the Planning Commission and staff apply those overlay policies when reviewing projects in affected areas but that the authority to create, retire or direct updates to neighborhood plans rests with the City Council. Any change would require Council direction to initiate a text amendment, followed by the city’s public process: neighborhood advisory boards, stakeholder meetings, a Planning Commission review and then Council consideration.
Commissioners pressed staff on whether the older overlays remain current and how public outreach would be handled if updates were initiated. Mackinnon said some overlays — she cited Wells Avenue and West University as examples — have evolved and remain useful; others and plan‑unit developments may be more outdated and would require a separate initiative. She emphasized there has been no current Council direction to update or retire overlays and that any future work would follow the formal text‑amendment workflow.
The training was presented as an informational item; no action was taken.
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