Join the K-Tahoe and the Weekday Wakeup Crew as we broadcast live from the Harveys Arcade Feb. 17 from noon to 3pm.
Harvey’s is throwing a big party geared toward local kids of all ages. The entire event is from 10am-10pm.
There will be free video play and popcorn, a Dance Dance Revolution Contest at 6pm, Guitar Hero contest at 8pm and tokens will be 20 for $3.
Sun, sun and more sun is today’s forecast. Here is the ski report from Curtis Fong, the Guy from Tahoe.
Join the K-Tahoe and the Weekday Wakeup Crew as we broadcast live from the Harveys Arcade Feb. 17 from noon to 3pm.
Harvey’s is throwing a big party geared toward local kids of all ages. The entire event is from 10am-10pm.
There will be free video play and popcorn, a Dance Dance Revolution Contest at 6pm, Guitar Hero contest at 8pm and tokens will be 20 for $3.
By Rick Kushman, Sacramento Bee
SAN FRANCISCO – It’s 2:30 p.m. on a crazed Saturday. The folks from Lava Cap Winery are smiling and pouring wine and trying to be friendly and a little informative over the crowd noise that seems just short of that from a jet engine.
In front of Lava Cap’s table is a clump of nine people, all with wine glasses, all waiting to taste. Behind them, a happy mass of maybe 5,000 people is roiling through the giant pier building at Fort Mason and the Grand Zinfandel Tasting.
On Feb. 24, the Best in the Basin awards will be given out at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board meeting in Stateline.
The 20-year-old awards program recognizes work on projects demonstrating exceptional planning, design and compatibility with the Lake Tahoe environment. Local professionals in the fields of architecture, landscaping, planning, engineering, and resource management served as independent judges.
Best New Construction, Industrial
Winners are:
Best Erosion Control Project: Tahoe Vista Erosion Control project, Environmental Improvement Program Project Number 212, Placer County. Kansas McGahan, PE, Placer County project engineer; Camp, Dresser, McKee (CDM, Inc.), project design; Gold Valley Construction, contractor.
Best BMP Retrofit: Kings Run Condominiums, 1300 Regency Way, Tahoe Vista. Webb Land Surveying and Leroy Civil engineering, preliminary design; Basile Management Practice (Lake Tahoe BMP, Tahoe City), engineering and construction.
Best Restoration Project: Third Creek Stream Restoration, Environmental Improvement Program Project Number 562, Incline Village. Lead agency, Incline Village General Improvement District (Brad Johnson, engineering manager); agency partners, US Army Corps of Engineers, Nevada Division of State Lands, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency; design consultant, Entrix, Inc. (chief engineer Charley Miller, P.E.); contractor, Burdick Construction, Inc.
Best Defensible Space Project: Carnelian Woods Townhomes, 5101 North Lake Blvd., Tahoe City. Bruce Seybold, registered professional forester, North Tahoe Fire Protection District; Cross Check Services, contractor.
Best Forest Fuels Reduction Project: China Gardens Fuels Reduction Project, China Garden Court, Glenbrook. Glenbrook Homeowners Association, property owner; Tahoe Douglas Fire Department Zephyr Hand Crew, hand thinning work; Cold Creek Land Services, contractor.
Public Service Award: South Tahoe Area Transit Authority/BlueGO, South Y Transit Center remodel, South Lake Tahoe. DML Construction, contractor; Lake Tahoe Heating and Plumbing, subcontractor; Winters Electric, subcontractor.
Best Affordable Housing Project: Kelly Ridge Apartments (affordable housing for seniors), 1447 Herbert Ave. South Lake Tahoe. Tahoe Senior Housing II, L.P., owner; Randy Borges, Borges Architectural Group, architect; American Baptist Homes of the West, developer; Boward Builders, general contractor. Funding through California Housing Finance Agency, California HOME Program, South Lake Tahoe Redevelopment Agency. Project coordination by Tahoe Area Coordination Council for the Disabled (TACCD).
Best Residential Rebuild: Kirschenbaum Residence Homewood. Scott Gillespie, Sandbox Studio, designer; Lowe Construction, contractor.
Best Residential Modification: Fett Residence, Highway 28, Crystal Bay. Elise Fett & Associates, architecture and engineering; Michael Horn Construction, contractor.
Adaptation of a Vintage Home: Gordon Residents, Elks Point. (“The Little Stone House”) Architect, Elise Fett; Engineer, James Swann of Mountain Engineering; Contractor, East Slope Construction; Kemper Hendrick of Kemper Masonry, masonry work; Cameron Boyle and Shane Jett-Pierce, carpentry; Micah Langdon of Design Workshop, landscape design; Western Environments Inc. of Carson City, outdoor stone work, with landscape design implementation; Bruce Tilley of Tilley Plumbing, plumbing work; Steve Bowman of Bowman and Son Electrical, electrical work; cabinetry by Mark Bartholomucci of Gardnerville; Judith Schultz, The Mill, Lodi, interior design.
Best New Construction, Industrial: South Tahoe Industrial Park, 1772 D St., South Lake Tahoe. Owners: Steven D. Leman & Tom Haen. Landscape design by Steve Leman; general contractor, Thomas Haen Co.; civil engineer, Jim Haen; landscaping by Tahoe Outdoor Living.
Best Commercial Rebuild: Ski Run Center, intersection of Ski Run Boulevard and Highway 50, South Lake Tahoe. Engineering and architectural work by MWA Inc.; Gardner’s Construction, contractor.
In addition to the awards, the Best in the Basin judges singled out the following three projects for honorable mention:
South Tahoe Public Utility District, 1275 Meadow Crest Drive, South Lake Tahoe. Special recognition for drought resistant landscaping/demonstration garden at administrative offices. Landscape contractor, Aspen Hollow Nursery; landscape design, John Thiel, PE, Design Workshop.
Caltrans and Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board. Special recognition for implementing Natural Environment As Treatment (NEAT) planning initiative for water quality projects along 38 miles of Lake Tahoe Basin highways. This approach helps avoid unnecessary cost of mechanical treatments where appropriate. Architects, engineers and contractors, Rood Rodgers Inc.
Lake Village/Golden Sierra Power. Special recognition for solar retrofit at 118 Snowbird Court, Stateline. Peter Lusich, owner; project design, Mark Johnson, Golden Sierra Power; racking design, Direct Power and Water; roof calculation and engineering, Building Concepts; online electrical diagram, Mt. View Electric.
Lake Tahoe Unified School District is accepting applications (commitment forms) for the Two-Way Immersion Kindergarten Classes at Bijou Community School.
If you are interested in applying your incoming kindergartner for the lottery, pick up an application at Bijou Community School. Applications are due March 19 at 4pm.
The lottery and mandatory meeting for the TWI kinder class will be March 24 at 6pm.
By Kathryn Reed
Divided along what has become the usual line, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted 3-2 on Feb. 15 to support Lake Tahoe Development Company having 30 more days to own sole rights to coming up with a plan to get the stalled convention center project out of bankruptcy.
Today is the deadline for interested parties to submit comments to the court regarding LTDC’s request to have exclusivity rights that expired Feb. 2 to be extended to July 2 — the date LTDC wants.
Councilmen Jerry Birdwell and Bill Crawford believe the developer has had long enough to come up with a plan.
An artist's rendering of the Chateau at Heavenly Village.
“He’s had a 120 days to work on it and he didn’t,” Birdwell said of developer Randy Lane before the council deliberated for 20 minutes in closed session.
Crawford said, “If there is a reorganization, it will be very lengthy, especially if he is going to change the project, and that is his plan.”
The “he” Crawford referenced is Michael Rosenfeld, founder and CEO of Woodridge Capital Partners based in Los Angeles. That firm along with Pacific Coast Capital Partners of El Segundo, also in Southern California, wrote letters to the council dated Feb. 11 stating their interest in taking over what locals call “the hole.”
Nicholas Colonna, with PCCP, and Rosenfeld wrote, “We are committed to moving forward immediately to address the financial problems plaguing the property [currently in bankruptcy] and work with the city to insure (sic) the property assemblage remains intact and entitlements are maintained. Our goal is to preserve long term value for the property and for the community of South Lake Tahoe.”
Kenny Curtzwiler and Harry Segal were the only members of the public to show up for Monday’s 1pm special meeting. No one representing the developer or the potential investor was present.
Curtzwiler is in favor of giving the investor time to come up with a viable plan, but wants the council to ensure Lane has nothing to do with the project in the future.
Segal, who owned one of the parcels and is part of the bankruptcy proceedings, told the council to do whatever it can to “protect the interest of the original property owners.”
“In the end the judge will be the one who decides. But we owe the taxpayers of this community, and people who invested and are holding notes an opportunity to get paid,” Mayor Kathay Lovell said after the meeting. Lovell participated by phone because she was out of town.
Lovell, along with Councilmen Hal Cole and Bruce Grego voted in support of a 30-day extension.
“I just felt like we needed to provide this guy some level of support if he is the real deal. And that’s a big if,” Lovell said of the investor.
Cole said after the meeting that he isn’t even sure the court will be swayed by the city’s stance, believing the judge will put more weight on what the creditors have to say. A decision will come March 2.
“I don’t think the 30 days is going to make it or break it one way or the other,” Cole said after the meeting.
Lane, principal for the Zephyr Cove-based developer, filed for bankruptcy in October. No work has been done on the project since winter 2007.
City National Bank, which is owed nearly $8 million by LTDC, has filed a motion with the court to not extend the exclusivity period.
“Lane has provided me with the name of the so-called investor referenced in the Debtor’s motion to extend the exclusivity periods, but such investor has not contacted me, or, to the best of my knowledge, anyone else at CNB. Thus, I have no reason to believe that a plan of reorganization built around such person is in the offing. Nor do I have a clue as to any of the details of such a plan, including its treatment of the Loan and other secured debt, the means for its implementation and whether such plan is feasible,” Raymond Walsh, senior vice president of special assets for City National Bank, wrote the court.
In that same document Walsh says the bank plans to submit a reorganization plan.
“Allowing the debtor more time with which only it may file a plan does not accomplish anything other than delay the case, allow interest to accrue on the Loan, and exacerbate the risk that the TRPA and building permits will expire before the Chateau Project is sold or completed,” Marc Levinson, attorney for City National Bank, writes in his statement to the court.
Levinson also writes, “The Debtor is flailing about, hoping that magic happens — thus the unidentified investor featured in the Motion.”
The project
Concrete and rebar cover much of the 11-plus acre site on the far eastern edge of South Lake Tahoe. The $410-million Chateau at Heavenly Village project, as it has been called, was to encompass two hotels, a convention center, retail and open space.
It has been wrought with trouble since what is generically known as Project 3 was approved by the council in 1997. Marriott, Harrah’s Entertainment and Harveys when it was owned by Colony Capital had rights to develop the site. All three backed out.
Lane came along and said he’d do it with partner John Serpa. Lake Tahoe Development Company secured all the permits. An owner participation agreement was negotiated by then-Councilmen Cole and John Upton.
It has since been revised and when Cole was off the council it was decided by the council of Lovell, Mike Weber, Ted Long, Crawford and Birdwell to allow construction to start without financing in place.
Lane told the council he had financing, but that fell apart. Somehow work started.
That council also approved construction to begin without a final map in place. Right now 29 parcels — not one as would be normal for something like this — is covered in concrete. That just adds to the complexities of the eventual bankruptcy reorganization plan.
It would be hard to give the property back to the owners with their business gone, the structure gone, the land covered with concrete and utilities ripped out.
Eminent domain had to be used to secure many of the parcels.
A marketing study was done in February 2007 by Hospitality Valuation Services and Strategic Marketing Group allegedly proving the need for a convention center. Cole and Upton said they saw the document, but the other three council members at the time (Lovell, Weber and Long) never did.
An earlier study from 1995 by Coopers & Lybrand concluded a convention center would do well in South Lake Tahoe.
The 4-year-old marketing study in part projected the convention center would host 95,900 conventioneers the first year. (The convention center was supposed to open in summer 2009.) That number was expected to grow to 181,450 in year four.
It’s 2010. No one on the council in open session has asked if the project as approved is still needed or wanted, or what should go there if this investor or another wants to alter plans.
The world’s best skiers and snowboarders are battling it out again for the Freeride World Tour Championship title at four of the world’s most prestigious ski resorts.
It all starts on the Russian slopes of Sochi, followed closely by the next stage in Chamonix-Mont-Blanc, France. The Tour then journeys to Squaw Valley for the only North American stop to “ride†the mythical
Squaw's tram face. Photo/Provided
Tram Face that has never before successfully opened for competition, as weather deterred the event (and first legal descent) from taking place in 2009.
The stage is set for a second attempt to make history on the permanently closed terrain during Nissan Tram Face – Squaw Valley on Feb. 27-March 5.
In Squaw Valley’s 60 years of operation, the steep rock face below Tower 1 of the Cable Car (known as the “Tram Faceâ€) has remained strictly off-limits. Its steep and seemingly unskiable pitch and permanent closure have made it a coveted line among the freeride set that calls the mountain home.
For more information, go to www.freerideworldtour.com.
By USA Today
Seth Wescott of Sugarloaf, Maine, won the men’s snowboard cross final today to give the USA its second gold medal of the Vancouver Games. Wescott was the defending champion in the event, having won gold in 2006 in Torino.
Nate Holland of Squaw Valley was the other American to advance to the four-man final. He faltered early and finished fourth.
Canada’s Mike Robertson took silver, France’s Tony Ramoin won the bronze.
By Henry Blodget, The Wire
It didn’t seem possible that it would happen again.
It didn’t seem possible that, in the middle of a national holiday, NBC would be so self-serving that it would risk infuriating millions of viewers by tape-delaying one of the most popular events at the Winter Olympics–the Men’s Downhill.