State Sen. Ben Kieckhefer, R-Reno, has close ties to a company that stands to benefit from one of his latest bills in the Nevada Legislature. Too close, according to the measure’s critics.

They say Senate Bill 327 offers builders a way to plow ahead with the massive, hotly debated Stonegate development on the northern outskirts of Reno. They suspect Kieckhefer is pushing the measure to help out his bosses at McDonald Carano, the Reno-based law firm that helped get the project past the City Council in February.

Kieckhefer said the bill — which greases the skids for a controversial new type of subdivision that developers plan to debut at Stonegate — merely gives cities another option to put up much-needed roofs amid a statewide housing crunch.

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He acknowledged it was brought to him by a Stonegate lobbyist, and aims to topple the biggest hurdle the project’s developer faced at Reno City Hall. But he denied the bill would directly benefit him or his law firm, where he works as director of client relations.

“I don’t think it does anything specifically for a client of the firm,” Kieckhefer told the Reno Gazette Journal. “I thought about that. When I was told it doesn’t impact (Stonegate), I agreed to sponsor it.

“It doesn’t affect (Stonegate) because they’re already done (getting approvals). My understanding is that it’s an optional approval process the city can implement if it chooses to do so.”

That explanation didn’t pass muster with Stonegate foes, who count Kieckhefer’s bill as yet another example of self-dealing in Nevada’s citizen Legislature.

Stonegate developers eye third-party builders

Stonegate developers want to sell off large chunks of their sprawling, 1,700-acre housing plot in Cold Springs to third-party builders.

And SB 327 offers a ready selling point — fast-tracked planning approvals for builders who work on the 5,000-unit blueprint.

“This bill would substantively benefit Stonegate,” said Steve Wolgast, a former county commission candidate and outspoken opponent of the project. “If you’re Stonegate, your business isn’t so much to build, as to sell these (lots).

“If SB 327 passes, you’re all set, because you don’t have to go back to the planning commission.”

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Bob Fulkerson, a progressive activist who has vocally opposed the project, took an even sharper tack.

“Looks like old Ben K is up to it again — introducing legislation to help clients of his law firm,” he wrote in a Monday email. “This would be a big gift to the Stonegate developers, whom McDonald Carano represent, in that it would allow the creation of superpad parcel as a subdivision mechanism, which has never been used before the city implemented the Stonegate (planned unit development).”

The bill would create 'superpads' — so what are they?

The subdivision method in question is called a “superpad.”

It would allow Stonegate’s developers, the Heinz Ranch Land Co., to lay down the project’s water and sewer infrastructure before selling off subdivided lots to future home builders.

Under current law, builders working on these smaller chunks of Stonegate’s superpad would still need the city’s OK to break ground on new homes.

But SB 327 would ensure those approvals can be provided by city staff and without the hassle of a City Council meeting, where Reno residents have regularly raised a ruckus over Stonegate.

City Councilwoman Jenny Brekhus, the lone council member to oppose the development’s approval last month, made a particular stink over the “dubious” use of superpads in a formal appeal filed with the city.

She and other opponents fear superpads’ multi-stage approval process is susceptible to sudden market downturns that could leave developers sitting on dozens or hundreds of “zombie” lots — unsold, blighted tracts of land that could spend years awaiting interest from a builder.

Brekhus, a former city planner, said Kieckhefer’s bill could head off future legal challenges against the practice.

She hesitated when asked if the measure posed a conflict of interest for its sponsor.

“I don’t know if this is a Ben Kieckhefer issue or a Nevada Legislature issue,” Brekhus said. “My understanding is that conflicts of interest aren’t well defined for legislators in Carson City.”

Nevada ranks low for political transparency

Nevada has regularly ranked at or near the bottom of nationwide political transparency surveys. Legislators have rarely led the way in efforts to repair that rickety reputation.

Kieckhefer said he’d never heard his bill described as a way to short-circuit court challenges.

Ultimately, he said, it’s a pro-development proposal.

“These big project processes sometimes get bogged down,” Kieckhefer said. “With housing shortage issues, things like that, trying to close gaps in that timeline, when appropriate, makes sense to me.

“I’ve supported the development community in Northern Nevada for a long time. It doesn’t affect Stonegate at all, even though they’re the ones that ran into problems with (superpads). It’s really about future development.”

Lobbyist says bill is needed to improve approval process for homes

Mendy Elliott — the Stonegate lobbyist that first brought the bill to Kieckhefer’s attention —said it grew out of talks with Don Tatro and Aaron West, the heads of the state’s two largest building trades groups. She, like Kieckhefer, said the bill wouldn’t benefit Stonegate.

So why seek a sponsor for a bill that doesn’t benefit her client?

“It’s multifaceted,” Elliott explained. “There needs to be housing on the market faster. In discussing why it’s taking so long, they knew there was a different process in place in different (cities)."

“(West and Tatro) wanted consistency in the statute.”

West, CEO of the Nevada Builders Alliance, confirmed that account. Tatro said he wasn't involved in drafting the legislation.

"My membership actually has concerns it will have a negative impact on the industry," the head of the Builders Association of Nevada wrote in a Friday email. "I was told there was a bill that could have a positive improvement for larger developments by Aaron and Mendy’s team, and told them we would support any legislation that achieved process improvements for the industry.

"I’m not sure this bill does that after hearing recently from local governments and (builders association) members."

Elliott said the bill was tough to sell to Kieckhefer.

“He’s cautious; he wanted to make sure it was appropriate and really needed,” she added. “The person who really benefits the most from this bill is the homebuyer.”

Kieckhefer's past votes scrutinized

SB 327 does not mark the first time Kieckhefer’s been accused of putting his bosses’ interests ahead of his constituents.

A 2017 analysis from the Associated Press found the Reno Republican voted at least six times to advance measures benefiting McDonald Carano’s clients. In one case, he voted for a bill in committee that would have hastened a sales tax break for medical equipment, a measure backed by his firm's client.

Kieckhefer also voted to approve $750 million in taxes to help build the Oakland Raiders’ new stadium in Las Vegas. His firm was lobbying for the team at the time.

Nevada law says that if legislators feel they have conflicts of interest, they must disclose them before voting. But Kieckhefer didn’t have to ahead of the Raiders decision: The Senate, in a historically unprecedented move, waived the normal conflict-of-interest provisions for that vote.

Kieckhefer at the time told the AP that a firewall divides his McDonald Carano lobbying from its work with legal clients. Kieckhefer is a former reporter for the AP and the Reno Gazette Journal.

He defended Nevada's citizen legislature, which meets every other year and pays lawmakers $288.29 for every day of the session.

"I'm not reliant on support from lobbyists or special interests to keep the job I have to support my family," he said.

If approved, SB 327 would take effect on July 1. Lawmakers have not yet held a hearing on the measure.

James DeHaven is the politics reporter for the Reno Gazette Journal. He covers campaigns, the Nevada Legislature and everything in between. Support his work by subscribing to RGJ.com right here.