Mike Henningsen has been on the Gardnerville Town Board for 6 years. His great grandfather and brothers came to the area in the 1870’s and began the dairy industry located near Waterloo.  Mike attended local schools and then went to Cal Poly for Mechanical Engineering.  He subsequently worked at General Electric, Bently Nevada and Baker Hughes.

TOWN BOARD OVERVIEW

The Town Board consists of 5 elected members - Mike Henningsen, Bill Chernock, Lloyd Higuera, Jim Park and Mary Wenner.  Eric Nilssen is the Town Manager and Chairman of the board.  According to Mike, ‘he does his job so well that he gives the developers the strategy to succeed in Gardnerville rather than the other way around’.  Geoff LaCost is the Superintendent of Town Public Works. Other staff include 3 administrative, 4 maintenance, and 5 sanitation staff.  

CURRENT PROJECTS

The Gardnerville Town Board is an advisory board with the Douglas County Planning Commission having the approval for a project.  However, the Planning Commission doesn’t often override the town unless the refusal is blatant.  The Board has publicly available design guidelines to make it clear what they are looking for with new development.  Current projects approved include:

• Virginia Ranch Estates - 206 acres off Muller Parkway - originally approved in 2004 with 4 parks and land to the school district.  Recent revisions have involved the size of the parks.

• High Sierra RV Park - originally turned down once because the design did not meet the Design Guidelines of the Town.  A new developer came in with “Plan B”  (unique build) approvable designs.  Building has not yet started.

• Maverick gas station - approved with a few design changes.

• Martin Slough - approved after the developer changed the plans from 51 homes to 20 homes with 1 access (within town ordinance) with landscaping in the open space.

• Buckeye Farms - mostly in Minden but trails in Gardnerville. Approved last month.

CHALLENGES

The 27 miles of road and the huge amount of work to maintain them is the biggest challenge as well as locals that can not afford to live here with people from the outside coming in with cash offers for homes.

Mike honored Jen Nalder at Main Street Gardnerville for how well she gets the businesses involved.  He described her group as “a bunch of active people trying to make their town better.”