Planning



Residential neighborhoods
Commercial Projects
Mixed Use

MWA Inc, brings creativity, experience and expertise to help navigate the often complicated and expensive planning & entitlement process unique to the Truckee and Tahoe areas. Understanding the small town politics and history of complex governing documents has proven valuable to many of our clients. We assemble teams of experienced and respected consultants as appropriate to garner success and value.

It is common to find land planners within civil engineering and landscape architecture firms with whom we often collaborate. Having the creative minds of the architects on the project early can offer an extra layer of perspective. Kurt Reinkens having been active in Truckee planning since 1987 and having served on the Town of Truckee Planning Commission, has gained valuable knowledge of the workings within Town Hall. The 30+ years of working within the Tahoe Basin on TRPA governed projects also has proven value. The experiences and insight have resulted in success with what were deemed controversial or complex projects.

The Sierra Business Council published “A Commercial and Mixed-Use Handbook” which includes the MWA project of (The Rock link) as a case study exemplifying a mixed-use neighborhood commercial project as a superior solution in the Sierra as compared to the traditional strip mall. A digital copy of the handbook can be requested online at: https://www.sierrabusiness.org/archives/a-commercial-and-mixed-use-handbook/

Grocery Outlet
Grocery Store and Workforce Housing
Truckee-The Rock
Award winning commercial mixed-use project






Kristi/Karin,

On October 18, we moved into the new house that you designed for us and have been enjoying it immensely. It is even nicer than we had envisaged when we were looking at the plans on paper. The living space (Great Room, kitchen, eating area) are working out perfectly. We’ve had two sets of guests up already and having all that open space has been very handy. All the large windows in the back (Great Room, kitchen, master bedroom) make it feel like we’re camping. The steel staircase complements the exposed steel beams and posts and is a phenomenal centerpiece as you walk into the house.

We greatly appreciate the collaborative way in which you worked with us to come up with this design. We had some ideas on what we were after when we began the process, but you were able to shape our inchoate thoughts into something really spectacular. You also were very proactive in talking with the town’s building department and submitting our permit application at a fortuitous time for us. We also valued your input on what it would cost to build the place. Interestingly, despite COVID and all the related supply chain issues we’ve experienced over the past year and a half, our actual construction cost came in very close to your original ball park estimate.

Thank you very much for your partnership in helping us realize a real dream home.

All the best,

Joe Naylor & Karen Torres


-- Joe Naylor
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