The latest lighting technology will be in use when Station Casinos builds a 900-room hotel casino on the Mount Rose Highway in Reno, Nevada. Residents had raised lighting, signage and tall buildings concerns but only three people spoke against the proposed development at yesterday’s Reno City Planning Commission meeting, which resulted in the unanimous approval of special-use permits for Station Casinos. The Commission was assured that the latest lighting technology would keep the night skies dark by shielding lights on the property.

Special permits are needed by Station Casinos as the planned three 225 feet towers are higher than the regional centre plan’s 55 feet limit for the Mt Rose Scenic Corridor. The Commission decided that taller towers were better than wider ones that would detract more from the mountain panorama. Permission was also given for a larger sign than previously allowed, although it will be smaller than Station had wanted. The sign, over the highway and visible from half a mile away, will be dimmed at night.

One complaint was that residents were told to look at Station’s Green Valley Ranch in Henderson, described as a classy development, to see what could be built in Reno. In May last year Bayer Properties agreed to sell the proposed development site to Station Casinos Inc and described the proposed hotel casino plan as being ‘to build a property similar to the Green Valley Ranch in Henderson’. However, that development has no high-rise buildings, unlike the plan that Station has now put forward for Mt Rose. Some residents opposed such high towers outside the downtown area.

The US$500 million Mt Rose Station will be built in two phases on 88.7 acres and cover 3 million square feet. A minimum of 22% of the site must be landscaped with over 3,000 trees and 18,000 shrubs. There is an additional requirement of fountains, plazas, seating and walkways. An area at the edge of the site containing Steamboat buckwheat, which is on the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service endangered plant list, will be left undeveloped. (E-10.19.06)

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