Sun Valley’s Zombie Properties and the County That Forgot Its Own Records
Zombie properties in Sun Valley from Commissioner Mike Clark’s post.
We noticed Commissioner Mike Clark posted a list of Sun Valley properties in need of intervention — parcels where people appear to be living without maintaining the land and, in some cases, without even owning it.
That alone raised eyebrows.
What raised more eyebrows was the sudden urgency from Commissioner Mariluz Garcia, who made a bit of a public hoopla over the issue — despite saying she’s been “working on this problem” for the last three years.
Three years?
At the agenda item presentation, it wasn’t Garcia at the podium — it was Assistant County Manager Dave Solaro. Which strongly suggests the two have been working on this issue together for quite some time. And yet, here we are in 2026, just now asking permission for more county employees time to figure out who owns the land.
That’s where taxpayers are allowed to ask a very basic question:
Are Commissioner Garcia and Assistant County Manager Solaro unaware that Washoe County already has:
An elected County Assessor
A County Recorder
And a County Treasurer — you know, the office that sends out property tax bills?
Because ownership, assessment, and tax status are literally what those offices exist to track.
This isn’t a mystery novel. It’s called property tax — the thing property owners are required to pay. And if no one is paying it, that information should already be readily available inside the county’s own system.
Instead, the County is now asking the Board for approval to let staff spend additional time tracking down property owners, researching title, and determining next steps — work that reasonably could have been initiated years ago. Meanwhile, residents living near these neglected parcels have endured dumping, camping, and blight for just as long. Has Washoe County ever heard of a title company?
To be fair, the agenda item itself is procedural.
It asks the Board to approve “direction to staff” allowing county employees to spend more than four hours investigating so-called “Zombie Properties” — parcels that appear to have no clear, enforceable ownership.
According to the item:
No taxes are being paid
No one is maintaining the land
The County has limited enforcement authority because there is no owner to cite or fine
The investigation is meant to answer two questions:
Can Washoe County take ownership of these parcels?
Can adjacent property owners acquire them and assume responsibility?
The “more than four hours” requirement is a standard governance rule meant to ensure transparency and prevent individual commissioners from unilaterally directing staff to large projects.
But this still looks so bad … why?
None of that explains why it took three years to get here.
It also doesn’t explain why the County — which already maintains assessment, recording, and tax data — is acting as though ownership is unknowable without a brand-new staff initiative.
From a taxpayer’s perspective, this agenda item didn’t make Washoe County look proactive. It made the County look flat-footed — and conveniently timed as Commissioner Garcia heads into a reelection year. Now she wants to talk about it, on the record, who’s the Zombie?
We’re paying the Assistant County Manager a whole lot of salary. This should not have taken years to identify, years to act on, and years to relieve residents of ongoing stress.
Come on, Washoe County.
You can — and should — do better. We know you want Commissioner Garcia reelect but this ain’t the way to do it.