51,000 new primary and secondary jobs are coming to the Reno-Sparks area over the next five years. See the RGJ’s story: Job growth to test region’s infrastructure says EDAWN
But who’s going to fill these positions?
Nevada currently has the second fastest growing population in the nation; so perhaps these jobs will be filled with job seekers relocating to the region. But can the region’s infrastructure (roads, housing, schools, healthcare system, water supply, etc.) support that kind of growth and continued population increase?
Regarding housing I can say that inventory is already at historically low levels. Buyer demand is currently already very strong — even though it’s only January. Home prices have nearly doubled since bottoming three years ago. Where is the additional housing stock going to come from? Where is it going to be built? KTVN news recently reported that there are several new housing developments underway throughout the Truckee Meadows. But will that be enough to satisfy homebuyer demand and keep home prices in check.
To address these concerns and others, the Economic Development Authority of Western Nevada (EDAWN) has convened a regional planning group, the Economic Planning Indicators Committee (EPIC). See the RGJ Opinion piece: Kazmierski: 50,000 jobs coming to Reno area – now what? In the piece, Mike Kazmierski, president and CEO of EDAWN, says EPIC’s mission is: “to identify in detail the who, what, where and when impacts of this growth. The goal is to get this information out to the community by March 1st.”
I will keep readers posted on updates as I receive them.
sully
It’s interesting that this figure has jumped to 51,000 jobs, as I was expecting an increase but not nearly this high. With an additional (assuming all jobs are filled by new residents) number of residents this would add about 500 million gallons of water per month during the winter months and double that (at least) for landscape watering months. County water and south meadows water have been merged into TMWA, so they will be the agency charged with supplying all this extra water. We are already, and have been for some time, on watering restrictions. Are there plans in motion to drain Lake Tahoe?
Zen
That is a jaw dropping number. The article goes on to say that the number only comes from the companies that EDAWN is assisting in coming here and that the number could be much larger. Sully brings up a great point. Where’s the water going to come from? Infrastructure can be built in a growing economic boom, but water is getting tough to come by. There are some ways to mitigate the problem, but it will require some tough decisions to be made.
Local politicians need to recognize that most of us live in a desert here on the east side of the Sierra’s. Quit requiring insane landscaping requirements with every new development. Cut back or eliminate urban sprawl. Look for an opportunity to create a new reservoir. Reward residents who replace their water intensive landscaping with xeriscaping options. Probably most important of all is taking a modern realistic look at what our water resources really are and implement regulations to utilize them in a responsible manner that will sustain the future needs of the region. Even with that, we now have pretty good evidence that there have been very long periods of abundant precipitation and very long periods of drought in the regions past and most likely we will be having them again in the future, so regardless of how well we prepare, old mother nature may just have another plan.
Carol
Here in the Bay Area, we were excited by Amazon’s warehouse opening a couple of years ago. They did hire a lot of people, but this past Christmas they brought in 3,000 robots and when Christmas was over, they let a large part of the workforce go. We hear from a person who worked there that the robots are faster and more efficient than the humans were. Seems a twelve hour shift with a 20 minute wait in line for security check that the humans were subject too wore them out while the robots just keep on trucking!
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