Residential developers beginning to stir

Developers of residential projects in northern Nevada are stirring a bit, rethinking how they can use their land holdings to meet the needs of a market profoundly changed by the recession.

Few of the new plans have progressed far enough to seek the approval of local governments.

But conference room at land-use planners such as KLS Planning & Design in Reno buzz these days with meetings at which stalled subdivisions are re-thought.

"Large lots become smaller lots or different product types entirely," says John Krmpotic, a veteran planner who's the president of KLS.

He says developers' interest in rethinking their plans comes as more of them believe that prices and demand for new housing in the hard-hit northern Nevada market are beginning to stabilize.

Once developers are confident about the likely selling prices for new homes, they have a starting point to pencil out plans for subdivisions and individual homes.

John Hester, community development director for the City of Reno, says his staff has met with several developers who want to kick around ideas as they put consider proposals that they'd take to their lenders.

The planning remains in its early stages.

The City of Sparks hasn't fielded any substantial proposals for reworked or redesigned subdivisions in recent months, says city spokesman Adam Mayberry.

"We'd love to hear from them," Mayberry says. "We're ready."

The city staff in Reno, meanwhile, handled one substantial subdivision request during the first quarter a plan for 44 lots at Curti Ranch in south Reno along with a handful of smaller applications such as adjustments of lot lines.

Scott Barnes, a land specialist with Colliers International in Reno, says some developers continue to request extensions to the timelines for already approved projects, waiting for better indications that the market has reached bottom.

Jason Gilles, president and chief executive officer of TEC Civil Engineering Consultants in Reno, says much of his firm's recent work with developers reflected their need to keep existing permits from lapsing rather than a desire to freshen plans in anticipation of the market's return.

And executives of engineering firms say conversations between developers and planners haven't progressed far enough to create much a stir among the civil engineering firms that typically come on board once plans for a subdivision have been conceptualized.

But some developers have regained their confidence enough that they are beginning to shop for subdivision land which now sells for half or less of peak values a few years ago to get themselves in position for renewed development.

Barnes notes that transactions during the first quarter of this year included the purchased of 199 undeveloped lots on Highway 40 near Verdi by West Meadow Investments. The company paid $1.05 million for the lots at Canyon Ranch.

Driving some of the recent activity, Reno's Hester says, has been improved sales of newly built entry-level homes.

The city issued permits for 97 new single-family homes during the first quarter, a 67 percent increase over last year's 58 permits.

In Sparks, residential permits during the first quarter totaled 35, essentially flat in comparison with last year's 34 permits.

In 2005, the peak year of the residential boom in northern Nevada, permits were pulled for 5,324 new homes in the region.