When will the Updated Master Plan Master Plan be Enacted?

Following two years of public input and technical research to inform the drafting of a new plan, the City of Reno is in the midst of adopting its updated Master Plan. What are the final steps before the plan is official? That’s the question the ReImagine Reno team has heard from several participants. It does take several steps and votes before the updated plan is enacted. Here’s how the adoption process works:

What is the first step in the adoption process?

The Reno Planning Commission kicks off the process. They must adopt the updated Master Plan and repeal the existing plan. This occurred on October 18, 2017. The action by the Planning Commission sent the plan to Reno City Council for their consideration.

After the City Council votes to adopt the plan, what happens?

It depends! If the City Council makes no changes to the plan recommended by the Planning Commission, the plan moves to regional conformance (see below).

If the City Council makes changes to the recommended plan, state law requires the revisions to be referred back to the Planning Commission for the preparation of an attested report about the changes. This essentially means the Planning Commission has an opportunity to review the changes and report back to the City Council with its opinions on the changes. The Planning Commission can decide to not provide a report, which means the version adopted by the City Council is deemed approved.

If the the Planning Commission decides to provide a report to the City Council, what happens?

The City Council would review the input by the Planning Commission and determine if anything in the plan should change. At that point, the Council has the final say in the plan’s language.

Then the plan is official, right?

Not quite! There is one more step in the adoption process. After approval, the plan heads to the Truckee Meadows Regional Planning Agency to ensure it conforms with the Truckee Meadows Regional Plan. Following that conformance review, the updated Master Plan would go into effect. Up until that point, the existing plan will remain in place.