Community members around Reno and Sparks gathered last week for a Nevada Department of Transportation meeting to learn more about the fate of their homes in light of the Spaghetti Bowl revamp project. That's where Interstate 80 meets with U.S. Highway 395 in Reno, where hundreds of car accidents occur every year.
Depending on which of the three proposed plans is selected, potentially 200 to 900 residences could disappear in the coming years.
However, NDOT’s preferred plan would potentially demolish over 300 homes, who are disproportionately low-income and minority communities.
Quilistine Washington-Walker and Kyle Ferrari have been neighbors for 27 years in the Seventh street area. They both received letters in recent weeks, detailing the proposed demolition of their homes.
“It’s just nostalgia. It’s my mother’s old place,” Washington-Walker said. “That’s all it is. It’s just a place, you know, for me.”
Washington-Walker, as well as Ferrari, worry about finding new homes with rising prices. Ferrari said he doesn’t quite know what he’ll do.
“It’s my life. It’s my whole entire life,” Ferrari said. “It’s my retirement. It’s everything. [I’ve] lived there, ran my business out of there, and I was hoping to do a little urban winery in the historical building on the corner. So that was my plan.”
In addition, one registered historic site--Coney Island Bar--could be demolished along with 22 businesses. NDOT has received some criticism that the people who may be forced out of their homes tend to disproportionately be members of minority groups or low-income--or both.
Project Manager Dale Keller said the preferred plan would not demolish as many homes as other Spaghetti Bowl plans would.
“At the end of the day, there’s the substantial need for the project,” Keller said. “It’s based on the overall public interest. So we’ll continue to work with the [Environmental Justice] community as well as minority and low-income populations to find the best solution and have them be a part of the decision-making process.”
NDOT has established plans to provide fair market value to those who are displaced and is looking into extending assistance time longer than legally required because of the price of the area housing market.
Public comment on the project is open until January 15th, and a final decision on the plans is expected in July.
