Response Summary
On May 30th, the Reno City Attorney's office issued a legal opinion stating that our proposal for Evans Park would conflict with the 1926 deed restriction requiring Evans Park to be used “for park purposes.”
However, the legal opinion unfortunately misrepresents our proposal for Evans Historic Park as explained in our response below. Please send an email to City Council prior to June 6th and let them know why you support our proposal to move these historic houses to Evans Park to create Reno's first historic city park!
Dear Ms. Towler,
Having just viewed the Reno City Attorney Memorandum, subject Evans Historical Park Project
Deed Restriction, dated May 30, 2018, I would, as a representative of the project and the Truckee
Meadows Heritage Trust, respectfully like to request a meeting to discuss this memo.
The memorandum unfortunately misrepresents the nature of our proposal for Evans Historic Park
in several ways that we believe have influenced the legal decision as written, and we would
appreciate the opportunity to discuss those discrepancies with you at your earliest convenience.
The legal decision uses as its attachment, and possibly as its sole source, the PowerPoint
presentation that was used to present an abbreviated version of the proposal to City Council in
the meeting on May 23, 2018. This is unfortunate as this presentation by necessity did not fully
explicate the details of the proposal, as we were granted only 15-20 minutes to present it to City
Council.
The attached document, which was provided to all City Council members and the Mayor during
that meeting, contains details of the proposal which address in greater detail many of the
concerns raised in the legal decision. That packet is attached, and we would like to have the
opportunity to go over it with you in person, as many of these issues are better explicated in open
discussion.
Among the discrepancies in the decision as written are the following:
- This project does not propose to "lease Evans Park to the Truckee Meadows Heritage Trust,"
as stated on p. 2 of this memo. Rather, as our proposal states, "Evans Park will remain a city park,
and the structures will be on a land lease from the City of Reno."
- The memo states that "the Trust, not the City, will operate and maintain the property." This is
not an accurate representation of our proposal. The Trust will never operate the property; it is a
mechanism to transfer ownership of the historic houses from the University of Nevada, Reno to
the individual house buyers and to help oversee the creation of regulations to govern the
operations of those houses on City park property.
- The memo states that the project is "failing to identify specific tenants, or even the mix of
tenants" and that therefore "the City can only speculate as to how the Trust will strike an
appropriate balance between its commercial interests, and the City's interests in preserving Evans
Park as a park." This assumption is mistaken on two fronts: first, our project has already
identified several potential tenants including Bibo Coffee, Dropout Bikes, and Textbook Brokers,
all of which currently cater to the University community, and several of whose buildings are
slated to be demolished. We are seeking additional tenants who are also interested in catering to
this built-in community of surrounding students and area residents. Secondly, the City will be
integrally involved in the formulation of regulations governing the commercial operations in the
park.
- Our proposed project stipulates the creation of a Property Owners Association, which would
be formed by the owners of the houses in close collaboration with the City of Reno, on whose
land the houses will continue to sit. As a result, the City will have a controlling interest in the
determination of what types of businesses may operate in the park, and other issues regarding
their operation.
- The fact that the spaces other than the land housing historic structures will remain a public
City of Reno park should also reassure the City that any public programming will remain under
its control. As a result, the memo is inaccurate in stating that "Special events and community
activities...will be aimed at financially supporting and preserving the historic homes by
promoting the commercial interests of the Project's small business tenants." This is not the intent
of our project at all and appears to be simply an unfortunate assumption. The park will remain a
City park, and any programming will be under the control of the City.
- Although the memo takes into consideration the language of the original deed restriction
accompanying the creation of the park in 1926, it does not include acknowledgement or
interpretation of the implications of the 1966 sale of Evans Park to the State of Nevada, as
documented in the attached deed from the Washoe County Recorder's office. We believe this
deed contains information that is relevant to our proposal to move several structures to the park
while allowing the property to remain in compliance with the 1926 deed restriction and would
like to see it acknowledged and interpreted.
- We would like to discuss the existence of other City of Reno parks with less acreage of open
space than Evans Park will retain under our plan. There are also other city parks that house
buildings and/or areas which are not entirely open or accessible to the public, and city parks that
lease land for commercial operation or other activities, and we would like to discuss those with
you, as well, to ascertain City policy.
There are several other issues we are very eager to discuss with you, and we hope that the
attached document as well as perusal of our project's website at http://evanspark.org/ may offer
further clarification.
Thank you so much,
Alicia
Alicia Barber, Ph.D.
Email City Council with a personal message of support
