We plan. We grow. We plan some more. At some point, planning has to become pavement.
The last few weeks have been heartbreaking for our community. We've watched neighbors evacuate, homes burn and families face the unimaginable. We've watched people scramble to move horses and livestock. We've watched firefighters and first responders work relentlessly.
And we've watched our community show up. People have opened their homes, taken in animals, donated money and supplies, checked on neighbors and asked over and over, “How can I help?”
That is something I hope we never lose.
When these fires are finally behind us, there will be meetings. There will be reviews of what happened, what worked, what didn't and what we can do better next time. There should be. We should learn from what happened.
But I hope we don't spend a lot more time and money studying problems we already know we have.
Our infrastructure is one of them.
These fires didn't suddenly tell us our roads haven't kept pace with the growth of Reno, Sparks, Spanish Springs and the North Valleys. We knew. What they did was prove just how much that can matter when thousands of people need those roads at the same time.
I have friends who tried to evacuate during these fires. They sat in traffic for hours trying to get out and eventually gave up and went home.
Think about that.
They were trying to leave because of a wildfire and reached a point where turning around felt like the option they had left.
That should bother all of us.
And it should force a bigger conversation about how we're growing and whether the infrastructure needed to support that growth is keeping up.
Because we don't have a shortage of plans.
We plan. Then we plan again. And then we plan some more.
We study the traffic. We project the growth. We identify the bottlenecks. We design improvements. We search for funding. We revise the plans. Years pass.
Meanwhile, development continues. More homes are built. More people are using the same roads. And by the time some of these long awaited improvements are finally completed, we're already talking about what needs to happen next.
We're always planning. We're always catching up.
At some point, planning has to become pavement.
We Already Know Where Some of the Problems Are
Spanish Springs is a perfect example.
Washoe County's Envision Washoe 2040 Master Plan says that because Pyramid Highway is the main thoroughfare in the Spanish Springs planning area, “traffic and emergency ingress and egress are primary development constraints.”
Source: Washoe County — Envision Washoe 2040 Master Plan
There it is, in the County's own plan. Emergency ingress and egress are already identified as a primary development constraint.
And Spanish Springs continues to grow. I'm not against that growth. We need housing, and I understand why people want to live here. What I question is why the infrastructure needed to support that growth can remain years behind it.
Spanish Springs needs better regional connectivity, including better access to U.S. 395 and better connections into the regional road network toward Interstate 80 and the employment centers along the I-80 corridor, including USA Parkway.
After what we've just experienced, there's another question we need to consider when we're planning that connectivity:
What happens when one of the few ways out isn't available?
So When Will It Actually Be Built?
The planned Pyramid Way/Sparks Boulevard/Highland Ranch Parkway interchange is a good example of why this gets so frustrating.
RTC is designing a grade separated interchange to replace the existing intersection and is also doing preliminary design work associated with a future connection toward U.S. 395.
Source: RTC Washoe — Pyramid Way/Sparks Boulevard/Highland Ranch Intersection
I tried to answer what seems like a pretty basic question: When will it actually be built?There isn't a simple answer. RTC's public information on the project has changed over time, and newer planning documents don't provide a simple, reliable construction timeline.
That's frustrating.
If a project is funded, tell us. If it isn't, tell us. If the construction schedule changes, update it. Residents shouldn't have to dig through years of government documents to understand when a major road project affecting their community is actually going to happen.
There is important work happening right now. Pyramid Highway is under construction, and major improvements to U.S. 395 through the North Valleys are underway. I'm not suggesting nothing is being done.
I'm questioning whether we're doing it fast enough to ever actually get ahead.
The North Valleys Can't Be Left Out of This Conversation
Golden Valley, Lemmon Valley, Stead and Cold Springs have grown tremendously, and U.S. 395 is the major highway connecting those communities with Reno and Sparks. NDOT is making major improvements there now. Source: Nevada Department of Transportation — U.S. 395 North Valleys Project
That's progress. It's also another example of infrastructure trying to catch up with growth that's already happened. And that's the pattern I'm questioning. Not whether we're building anything, but whether we're building soon enough.
How Much Planning Is Too Much Planning?
This is where I think we need to be willing to ask an uncomfortable question.
Planning matters. Engineering matters. Environmental review matters. Public input matters. We shouldn't be building major infrastructure without doing that work. But surely there is a point where necessary planning becomes excessive process. How much time and money are we spending studying, designing, reviewing, revising and then revisiting projects before construction actually begins? How many times does a project have to be reconsidered because so many years have passed that costs, growth and traffic have changed again? And how much more expensive does a project become while we're doing all of that?
I don't pretend to know those answers. But I think taxpayers deserve them.
Some of that planning is absolutely necessary. But when communities can grow substantially while a needed project moves through years of studies, designs, funding decisions and revisions, I think it's fair to ask whether the process itself has become part of the problem.
By the time something finally gets built, are we building for where we're going, or for where we were when we started planning it? Because that's what it feels like we're doing over and over again.
We plan. We grow. We catch up. And then we start planning again.
Nevada Doesn't Require Us to Wait for the Growth to Arrive
I've heard for years that Nevada is simply set up this way, that development comes first and infrastructure follows.
So I looked into it.
That's not what Nevada law says.
Nevada law allows local governments to plan around projected growth and future infrastructure needs. It also allows development impact fees to help pay for capital improvements or expansions made necessary by new development. Those calculations themselves rely on projections of future population, density and land use.
Sources:
Nevada Legislature — NRS Chapter 278, Planning and Zoning
Nevada Legislature — NRS Chapter 278B, Impact Fees for New Development
So we can look ahead. Clearly, we know how to plan ahead.
Perhaps we're spending too much time planning ahead and not enough time actually getting ahead.
This Isn't About Finding One Villain
It would be easy to blame NDOT, RTC, Washoe County, the cities or developers. I don't think the answer is that simple.
Major transportation projects can involve local, regional, state and federal agencies. Funding comes from different places. Right-of-way, environmental review and engineering take time.
But complexity can't become an excuse for continually falling behind. And red tape shouldn't simply be accepted because “that's how government works.”
If there are unnecessary layers in the process, let's identify them. If we're paying to revisit studies because projects have sat too long, let's talk about that. If funding is the real obstacle, tell the public. If laws or regulations are preventing projects from moving faster, tell us which ones and what needs to change. I don't need another promise that something is being studied. I want to know what's stopping us from building it.
Maybe projects need to be funded differently. Maybe priorities need to change. Maybe infrastructure needs to be further along before certain levels of development are approved. And after these fires, I believe emergency access deserves more weight in those decisions.
I don't pretend to know exactly which of those is the answer. But I do know that by the time some of our infrastructure gets built, we're already outgrowing it. That's the cycle I want our elected officials, transportation agencies and community leaders to address.
Reno-Sparks is going to continue growing. I'm not arguing against that. I'm asking whether we can finally get serious about making the infrastructure keep pace.
So Where Do We Go From Here?
I don't pretend to have all the answers. Transportation projects are complicated, and there are legitimate reasons they take time.
But I also don't think “it takes time” can continue to be the answer when our communities are growing faster than the infrastructure meant to support them.
These fires brought that home for me in a way traffic jams and commute times never could. When people I know tried to evacuate, sat in traffic for hours and eventually gave up and went home, this stopped being just another conversation about growth and roads.
We can review what happened during these fires, and we should. We can look at evacuation procedures, communication and emergency response and find ways to improve all of them.
But we also need to look beyond the emergency itself.
Were the roads and infrastructure we have given people the options they needed when it mattered most?
If the answer is no, then I hope this time we do more than study why.
What do you think?
If you live in Reno, Sparks, Spanish Springs or the North Valleys, I want to hear from you. Where do you see the biggest infrastructure problem? What project has been talked about for years that you're still waiting to see built? And what do you think needs to change?
Join the conversation in the comments below.