SLT making it lucrative to redevelop at the Y

Tahoe Valley — aka the Y in South Lake Tahoe — may become more of a destination. Renderings/Design Workshop

By Kathryn Reed

South Lake Tahoe officials believe the best way to get people to renovate their properties is to dangle a carrot in front of them. For those with property in the Tahoe Valley Area Plan, the carrots are coverage and commercial floor area.

At a meeting Thursday night about the plan, where only a handful of residents showed up, it was revealed that incentives are part of the draft plan.

“Some properties in Tahoe Valley are 70 percent or 100 percent covered,” John Hitchcock, planner with South Lake Tahoe, said. “Either they can’t afford the fees or they don’t want to rip out the coverage.”

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency has rules about how much of a property can be covered with an impervious material. When it comes time to remodel, mitigation fees come into play. Either that, or the end result must be less coverage to comply with the regulations.

The city plans to match coverage transfers in certain instances. Projects will have to meet city environmental and economic goals to receive the incentives.

The city will create specific criteria for when incentives would be allowed.

Commercial floor area (CFA) is another TRPA-created commodity. Based on the Regional Plan, jurisdictions in the basin have 200,000-square-feet of CFA to use. The city has less than 50,000 square feet banked and will get another 15,000 square feet from the TRPA when the Tahoe Valley Area Plan is approved.

Above, is what a section of the Tahoe Valley are looks like today. Right,  is conceptually what it could become.

TRPA limits development with CFA instead of allowing jurisdictions to use more traditional zoning methods.

The incentives are being used so the plan gets implemented instead of being a document that collects dust or is disregarded on some computer server.

Some of the written comments about the plan include having large swaths of landscaping in front of buildings to keep an open feel and not impacting views of ridgelines.

Hitchcock said that while the design of future buildings or redevelopment projects will have a mountain theme, there is leeway for creativity.

People also said they have no desire for the Y to look like the Stateline end of town.

The stormwater basins are still projected to be turned into a greenbelt that people could use for walking and biking.

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Notes:

• For more info, go online.

• The draft Tahoe Valley Area Plan and notice of preparation of an EIR/EIS will go before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency June 25, to the City Council on July 1 and to the Planning Commission July 10.

• The final plan is expected to be released later this summer, with it going to the City Council for adoption in the fall and likely to TRPA in December.