Wells Avenue Bungalow District

The Wells Avenue neighborhood has the most active resident and business groups in Reno. How active? We've reduced crime by 30% in less than a year, we've planted over 120 trees in parkways along the neighborhood streets straddling Wells Avenue, we convinced the city to move up sidewalk replacement after we learned how long it would be before we were scheduled for the replacement, the city installed extra streetlights to better light our little bungalow district, rehabilitated Stewart Park, made over Wells Avenue completely and turned it into a pedestrian-dense avenue, we regularly schedule clean-ups for our own neighborhood, research grants available for home restoration and much more. Sound like the kind of neighbors you'd like to have? I can't say enough about my neighbors and what we've done together to improve this neighborhood.
With a low foreclosure rate and realtively few homes for sale, the homes in this neighborhood never really suffered from the real estate crash, because their home values never peaked in the first place. It was, and is still one of the most affordable bungalow districts in the country.

The bungalow district's first homes, constructed along Holcomb and Moran Streets were mostly Queen Anne and Queen Anne cottage styles. By 1910, Arts and Crafts homes with wide porches were more common, and by the 1920’s, the classic bungalow was prevalent, often utilizing local brick. The Mission Revival style, which typically features stucco, arches and parapet roof lines, was also popular during the bungalow period. Some of the area’s most unique homes are recognized as being built in the Vernacular style and add an eccentric touch to the overall character of the neighborhood.

The Wells Avenue Neighborhood is in the process of being surveyed for possible designation as the city’s next conservation district. The City of Reno, through its recently adopted Historic Plan, has identified the steps for this process, which includes an architectural survey of all structures within the boundary of the proposed district. A conservation district does not regulate what a property owner can do with his property but is intended to recognize an area’s unique architecture and history and foster a sense of community pride. The city’s only other officially designated conservation district is Powning’s Addition. Members of the Wells Addition Neighborhood Group began the survey last year and this spring, the UNR Planning Club will continue to work on it . Mella Harmon will provide training to help the group recognize and identify the various architectural styles found in the area. The survey will focus on a four by ten block area that contains some of the neighborhood’s most beautiful homes. The proposed boundaries will be Ryland and Vassar from north to south and Holcomb and Locust from west to east. This establishes Wells Avenue as the central axis of the district.

PREVIOUS UPDATE:
6/26/2008 - WELLS AVENUE BUNGALOW NEWS - Congratulations to all of us Wells Avenuvians! The overlay zoning and design standards portion of the Wells Avenue Plan passed city council with no opposition yesterday. Barrie Schuster, our fearless neighborhood leader as I like to refer to her (she's also on our NAB), was on-hand at the council meeting to endorse the proposal. She also, with the help of a slew of complaints from residents in this area, got a special meeting scheduled to discuss our not-so-red-hot sidewalks in what us Wells Avenue residents call 'the island', the group of old homes bordered by Holcomb, Wells, Vassar and Ryland.
Barry Schuster said "Our Vision for the future is of a Wells Avenue Neighborhood where pride in the neighborhood's history and character is clear-evidenced by the area's well maintained homes and yards and ongoing property owner investment in the restoration and adaptive re use of historic homes and structures.  The diversity of the neighborhood is further enhanced through the integration of infill and redevelopment that is in keeping with the established character of the neighborhood." I second that motion!
The best part of the Overlay plan are the mass zoning changes it institutes. Some of the highlights include; re-zoning all of the properties on the east side of Holcomb to Mixed Use Residential, allowing adaptive re-use of the old homes along this street as small offices, something many people have been doing anyway, also rezoning the properties on Vassar between Wells and Holcomb as Mixed Use Residential as well. Some of the Action Plan highlights include enhancing Wells Avenue's treescape (something already in process with the Roots for Wells plan of 100 trees being planted along Wells Avenue this fall), historic bungalow district walking tours, getting 'historic bungalow district' signs for our neighborhood, promoting homeownership in the neighborhood to reduce absentee landlords and home turnover, architectural standards for new buildings, a facade improvement program for Wells Ave, a neighborhood watch program already in effect, and so much more! I can't emphasize this enough; I love this neighborhood, I have some amazing neighbors who were all as committed to developing this plan as I was, and of course Barrie, who has become an essential beacon of communication between us and city officials. Everyone, from our councilwoman Jessica Sferrazza to the Planning Commission to Jessica Jones, the main community development manager involved, was impressed with the continuous high level of resident participation in this process.