Fellow Resident and Friends of the City of Reno,

We, like you, are proud members of this community. We love the many great attributes that our city and the surrounding areas have to offer. As you know, Reno, and particularly the downtown area, is at the front end of a wave of redevelopment that will remake the city and affect our friends and neighbors for decades to come. We believe that, through this development, Reno should become a viable, thriving, and sustainable community for ALL of its residents. There are many communities across the country that have shown that redevelopment can be done in a way that is responsible and inclusive of all people, regardless of income, class, race, or ethnicity. We’re calling on the Reno City Council to provide leadership that will ensure redevelopment is done in a socially equitable manner.

To this end, ACTIONN calls on the Reno City Council to support affordable housing, inclusive zoning, improved notification of development projects, and to enact Community Benefit Polices which will support our local economy by providing good paying local jobs, fair wages, targeted training, and apprenticeships. 

(1)    Community Benefit Policies enacted by the City will ensure that whenever any developer or landowner receives publicly funded subsidies, incentives, or contracts from the City of Reno, they will be required to comply with Community Benefit Policies that are clear and transparent, including:  

(a)    ensuring that sixty percent of the workforce hired for the project be comprised of local residents, (b) purchase all necessary materials and services from local businesses whenever possible, (c) pay project workers  the prevailing wage and permanent workers a living wage (d) include certified job training programs and apprenticeships that provide an employment ladder for local residents. 

(2)    The City of Reno should use its entire legal authority to ensure that an adequate inventory of affordable housing exists within the City’s jurisdiction. This includes (among other tools) requiring Jobs-Housing Fit goals and Inclusionary Zoning to achieve Economic Integration.

(3)    Improve Transparency and Public Participation in Community Development Decisions. The current methods of notification prior to planning and development hearings do not include renters. The City of Reno should develop and implement policies which ensure that all residents are notified of planning and development hearings that directly impact them. 

The Reno City Council has the opportunity to not only ReImagine Reno and become a University Town but to do those things in a way that will make The Biggest Little City in the World a model of 21st Century sustainable and equitable development that will benefit all of  the people who live, work, and play here. Together we can make Reno a strong, vibrant, and sustainable City for all of its residents.

Therefore, ACTIONN and the undersigned community members urge the City of Reno to join the many communities around the country that have incorporated social equity into their redevelopment agendas by working to implement the above mentioned policy changes.

Photo Credit: Our Town Reno (https://www.facebook.com/ourtownreno/?fref=ts)