(The Associated Press circulated the following on December 5.)
RENO, Nev. — The U.S. House has approved a Nevada congressman’s bill that would clarify ownership of land and allow city officials to redevelop it along Reno’s downtown railroad trench.
“Clarifying title to the land along the rail corridor will allow the city to complete the ReTRAC project and enhance economic development opportunities in downtown Reno,” said Rep. Dean Heller, R-Nev., the bill’s sponsor.
He said he looked forward to working with Sens. Harry Reid and John Ensign to move the legislation through the Senate. It would give the city the title to the land stretching 2 miles through the city’s core.
In 1866, the federal government granted title to certain lands with reversionary interest to the Union Pacific Railroad to facilitate the construction of the transcontinental rail system.
Heller’s Reno Reversionary Interest Act instructs the secretary of the interior to execute and file a deed release to the City of Reno along the Reno Transportation Rail Access Corridor (ReTRAC).
“ReTRAC represents a vital piece of Reno’s downtown redevelopment efforts and continues to serve as a catalyst for our revitalized central core,” Mayor Bob Cashell said.
City Manager Charles McNeely said a $500,000 study on how to revitalize downtown properties along the tracks is in its final public review stage. The city council and Planning Commission are expected to review the ReTRAC plan together next month or February.
“All of a sudden, we have 120 acres through the core of downtown. Not that many cities have an opportunity to go back and master plan that much land,” McNeely told the Reno-Gazette Journal.
McNeely said much of that land could be used for housing, greenbelts or commercial uses. The city traded two former railroad properties — the Men’s Club and the Freight House — to developers as part of the deal for a downtown baseball stadium.
The city has borrowed up to $15 million against the lease revenues from the former railroad properties for downtown projects, including a proposed two-block plaza over the tracks to create a new shopping district.
The bill eliminates a reversionary clause in the deed that gave the land back to the federal government if the parcels were ever sold.