When it comes to City Council meetings, requests to abandon public rights-of-way are usually not the most provocative topic.
But elected officials in Reno said at a Feb. 28 meeting that Jacobs Entertainment asked them to postpone a vote that would have given part of downtown's Bell Street to a Colorado-based developer. , was furious.
At one point, Mayor Hilary Schieve and 1st Ward Councilwoman Jenny Brekus got into a war of words over the mayor's response to the controversy.
“You can't come here and do city planning in an eight-hour council meeting,” Schieve argued.
“If we were doing the northwest quadrant, we could do that.” [Plan]Instead of all the behind-the-scenes meetings with Mr. Jacobs,” Brekus shot back, referring to part of the city’s 2017 Downtown Action Plan.
“There's nothing behind the scenes, Congressman Brekus,” Mr. Sheev replied.
Just a few days ago, what would normally be a routine administrative matter sparked a public backlash. The waiver request pitted Jacob's Entertainment against Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, Nevada's oldest African-American congregation.
When the church's pastor, the Rev. Debra A. Whitlock Lux, learned of the request, she felt anxious. That's because CEO Jeff Jacobs has been destroying the neighborhoods around Bethel AME for the past seven years.
“Gentrification usually happens to people of color,” Lux said.
Mr. Jacobs has been accumulating downtown real estate since late 2016, then demolishing buildings and piecing together vast tracts of land. Eventually, the plan is to create a new entertainment district stretching from Keystone Avenue to West Street.
Abandonment requests are common for such projects. Developers often ask the city to abandon alleys and streets that run through the areas they want to build on.
Mr. Jacobs' latest waiver request would put the developer's site within striking distance of the historic church built in 1907.
The congregation now meets in Sparks, but has rented the original sanctuary to another church. Eventually, I would like to turn it into a museum. Lux said the waiver request will limit access and eliminate on-street parking.
“It seems like not just in Reno, but all across America, our history is kind of sidelined, ignored, not respected as something that needs to be heard,” she said.
Meanwhile, Jacobs hasn't said exactly what he plans to build. Jacobs proposed some high-profile ideas, like a zip line between casinos and an amphitheater, but explained in an exclusive interview with KUNR that those plans have been scrapped.
“The average age of our customers is probably 55 or 60,” he said. “The zipline was not at the top of the list of amenities.”
Jacob's development agreement with the city places few restrictions on what he can do with his land. But Jacobs said he will ultimately announce a master plan in about a month.
“We’re going to uncover all the different elements of our vision for the entertainment district,” he said.
Caleb McClain of the Reno Sparks Tenants Association said the city of Reno is giving Jacobs too much leeway.
“This is the classic story of 'money talks,'” he says. “When you have as much money as Jacobs, you can speak pretty loudly.”
MacLean also accused Jacobs of exacerbating the housing crisis, as the area where he plans to build was once home to many Weekly budget motels.
Some were notorious for their poor living conditions. But until Jacobs began buying them up and tearing them down, they were the last homes of choice for low-income residents.
Kenneth Dalton said he believed Jacobs was surprised by the public backlash.
“At the time, Jacobs Entertainment didn't think anyone really cared about the church or what was going on there,” he said.
Dalton is the founder of Our Story, Inc., a company dedicated to preserving Northern Nevada's African American history.
Lux pointed out that urban development in the United States often occurs at the expense of African American communities.
“Twenty years from now, there is no wealth to pass on to the next generation. There is no inheritance, there is no history,” she said.
After backlash to Jacobs' waiver request, Schieve intervened. She set up a meeting between Lux and Jacobs, and the developer delayed his waiver request.
Jacobs said the meeting helped her understand where Lux and her congregation were coming from. Meanwhile, Lux feels optimistic now that the channels of communication have been opened.
“The church survived,” she said. “And it will survive this too.”
But Lux also gave Jacobs a warning during last week's City Council meeting. If Mr. Jacobs did not negotiate in good faith, he promised, church supporters would fill the protest chamber.