Over the last 15 years, the population of Reno — the so-called Biggest Little City in the World — has surged, thanks in large part to an influx of Californians drawn by Nevada’s cheaper housing, booming tech industry and relative lack of soul-crushing traffic.
From 2010 to 2025, Reno’s population grew an astonishing 26%, to more than 283,000 people.
With all that growth, new development has expanded farther and farther into the fire-prone scrubland surrounding the Sierra Nevada foothills city just across the California border…