The Regional Transportation Commission on Friday morning agreed to defederalize a planned intersection improvement project at Pyramid Highway and McCarran Boulevard. The move to take federal funding and oversight out of the picture could shave four years and up to $29 million off of the project, according to RTC planners.

The project’s goal is to clean up congestion at an intersection that the RTC has identified as the third most congested in Washoe County.

More than 40,000 cars pass through that area every day, according to RTC’s 2006 figures. These figures also state that the intersection’s overcrowding is only topped by the congestion at North McCarran Boulevard and North Virginia Street, as well as at McCarran Boulevard and Longley Lane.

These figures were gathered in 2006, according to RTC deputy executive director Derek Morse.

Morse also said the accident rate for that intersection was one of the top 15 in the community.

However, the unanimous approval came in the shadow of concerns over properties being taken and access to neighborhoods being restricted. The RTC board heard pleas from nine locals, including the priest at a local Catholic church and the daughter of an 84-year old Sparks woman whose property is wanted by the RTC for part of the intersection project.

“We feel threatened because we don’t know what will happen to us,” said Father Norman King, the pastor of Immaculate Conception Church, which sits near the intersection.

Concrete plans for improving the intersection have not been finalized, according to Morse. However, some plans include adding lanes to Pyramid Highway, meaning the RTC would have to acquire large tracts of right of way.

“We have three or four alternatives,” Morse said of the future intersection improvement plan at an Oct. 12 Sparks City Council meeting. “But there will definitely be more lanes and maybe some grade separations.”

Preliminary numbers tossed around by Morse said that more than 60 homes may need to be purchased by the RTC to complete a viable project.

One such home that has been on the RTC’s radar for some time is the residence of Norma Lagomarsino. The 84-year-old woman has lived on the corner of McCarran Boulevard and Pyramid Highway for 50 years.

In order to build a southbound right turn lane from Pyramid onto McCarran, the RTC would need to shave 10 feet from Lagomarsino’s home, effectively closing off her current driveway.

“We do not want Sparks to be devastated by what they are doing now,” said Sandi Lagomarsino-Sullivan, Norma’s daughter.

King was afraid that widening McCarran Boulevard would eliminate the main entrance to his church.

“How are we going to get them in?” King asked the board, referring his church attendees. “We may have thousands of cars going through a subdivision.”

Others were concerned about the people who could lose their homes in the right of way acquisition process.

“My concern is those people who could lose their homes,” said Anne Cates. “Many of them are up side down (on their mortgages).”

Cates is one of the hundreds who live in the Village Green subdivision, another area on the corner of Pyramid Highway and McCarran Boulevard that would be affected by any intersection changes.

With all the voiced concerns, the unanimous RTC board vote came with one stipulation.

“Do we still have the option to take this off the table (if we vote yes today)?” board chair David Aiazzi asked.

“Adopting this today does not commit you to completing the project,” Morse responded.

The next step, according to RTC officials, is to finalize a plan for improvements and bring it back to the board for their approval.

If planning goes exactly the way that RTC staff envisions, the construction plan could be ready for contractors to bid on by July 2012, Morse said.

The Sparks City Council approved fast-tracking the project at an Oct. 12 meeting. The request to speed up the intersection improvements was made by Ward 3 councilman and RTC board member Ron Smith as well as Ward 5 councilman Ron Schmitt. The land in question for the project lies in Schmitt’s ward.

Now, the project will be funded entirely by RTC fuel tax proceeds and designed in accordance with RTC and Nevada Department of Transportation standards. The roads are owned and maintained by NDOT.

According to reports prepared for the Oct. 12 Sparks City Council meeting, the federal study process is “considerably more time-consuming and expensive than the project development process normally undertaken by the RTC when non-federal funding is being used and adds little or no additional value to the end product.”