Reno City Council has approved giving a strip of land located downtown to developers building a $50 million student housing project that would displace some tenants. Reno Public Radio’s Anh Gray has more.
The city is abandoning a section of Lake Street located between East Sixth Street and East Seventh Street that is about 10-foot wide by 400-foot long.
Apartments in that area will be razed to make way for a new state-of-the-art residential building which will be named “The Standard at Reno.” At a public hearing, Scott Bullock a low-income tenant who will be affected by the demolition asked council members to consider the impact to those already living there.
“I’m asking you the city council to look beyond the a shiny new block of buildings and consider what this is doing to the many people currently living there," Bullock says. "We are the working poor, we are families with children, we are elderly and infirmed. This is not an event that can easily be overcome.”
Council members didn’t ask the developers whether those displaced will receive housing assistance, prior to voting.
The Reno Gazette-Journal reports that Mayor Hillary Schieve will be keeping tabs on the situation. In addition, the current landowner of the apartments has already relocated some tenants to other properties with plans to help others.
The downtown student housing is slated to open by Fall of 2018.
