Placer County working on massive area plan
By Kathryn Reed
STATELINE — Placer County is putting a twist on its area plan that other jurisdictions have not done. That is to tie an actual project to environmental documents.
“An additional benefit is we will see what regulations do on the ground,” Arlo Stockholm, consultant for the county, last week told the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Advisory Planning Commission.
The Tahoe City Lodge is a 120-unit hotel on 3.1 acres that is being proposed to be built across from Commons Beach on Highway 28.
Comments are being taken until Aug. 3 regarding the notice of preparation for scoping the environmental impact documents.
A rendering by Design Workshop of what Tahoe City could look like.
The county wants to change how commodities are traded in the Lake Tahoe Basin so commercial floor area could be converted to tourist accommodation units. The Regional Plan does not currently allow for that. This is one reason why Placer has bought a hotel in South Lake Tahoe and desires to do so again – it needs to acquire TAUs so people can build lodging establishments.
Samir Tuma with Kila Properties in Palo Alto is the developer of the Tahoe City Lodge. He said they are in talks with the Tahoe City Golf Course to try to integrate their businesses.
Ellie Waller, who lives on the North Shore, isn’t against a good project. However, at the meeting she questioned why taxpayer dollars were being used to pay for the environmental documents of a private developer.
Jennifer Quashnick with Friends of the West Shore is concerned the lodge will preclude other projects from being considered. She also hopes the cumulative impacts of growth in the region will be looked at, in particular the proposed expansion at the Squaw Valley Village.
Stockholm said the recently approved Fanny Bridge project will be taken into consideration with the area plan docs.
Waller also questioned why Placer is doing one area plan that encompasses the entire Lake Tahoe portion of the county instead of breaking it up into smaller chunks like what South Lake Tahoe and Douglas County have done.
The county should save a considerable amount of money with the consolidated format even though there are four designated geographic segments in the area plan. The Tahoe Basin Area Plan encompasses about 72 square miles.
“There will be separate design standards for the four plan areas,” Stockholm told the commission.
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Notes:
· Future meetings:
1. Placer County – June 16, 12:30pm, North Lake Tahoe Event Center, Kings Beach.
2. Placer County – June 16, 5:30pm, Tahoe City Public Utility District board room.
3. Placer County – workshop, June 22, 5:30pm, North Tahoe Event Center, Kings Beach.
4. TRPA Regional Plan Implementation Committee, June 24, 8:30am, Stateline office.
5. TRPA Governing Board, June 24, 9:30am, Stateline.
6. Placer County – workshop, June 29, 5:30pm, Tahoe City Public Utility District board room.
· More information is available online.
Hard to believe they can have a plan and hold local meetings without being a stand-alone city.
What?
There is nothing saying you need to be a city to have a plan. Are you not aware of the fact that some counties are also cities? (I am not sure this makes any sense but it is true nevertheless.) It must be driven by money and power.
San Francisco is an example.
Basically the less bureaucracy the easier to manage and plan for.
That was my point, if Tahoe City can do it, i.e. make plans and hold local meetings and so on, so can South Shore. The City of SLT should be dissolved, it simply results in overlapping positions, duplicity, unnecessary bureaucracy, higher taxes and fees, redundant departments, lesser economies of scale.
OMG no bike lanes or roundabouts. Look at all the evil cars in the picture.
Steve, the county could care less what happens in the south shore. If the city was dissolved, you would hear a giant sucking sound of tax dollars currently be spent in the south shore being sent to the west and never to be returned. As it is there is more taxes raised in the county portion of the south shore than is spent here, mush more.