by Dana Gentry, Nevada Current
State Sen. Skip Daly, a Democrat who represents Washoe County, suggested Friday the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency needs to exert its wide-ranging authority to extract concessions from developers seeking approval of projects at Lake Tahoe.
Daly, chairman of Nevada’s Legislative Committee for the Review and Oversight of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, invoked Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg’s planned sprawling complex on the lake’s west shore as an example.
“He has the right to develop it, and he’s got the money where he can call in the experts. Everything that he wants, no matter how long it takes – he’ll pay the money,” Daly said. “But he’s doing nothing to mitigate any impacts. He’s doing nothing to restore the lake.”
Zuckerberg, the TRPA said Monday, has received permits to redevelop two previously-developed properties, and “followed all of TRPA’s rules and our staff has been engaged on this project to ensure that it adheres to our strict environmental guidelines.”
Daly suggests the TRPA, governed by a bi-state board of elected and appointed officials from Nevada and California, should evaluate projects based on a matrix of priorities.
“Maybe they (TRPA) can’t condition it, but they can sure make things slow down. I probably shouldn’t say that,” Daly said. “But they absolutely have a process, and I’m just not sure that it’s working as well as it could with the tools they have.”
Julie Regan, executive director of the TRPA, noted that Daly’s matrix of priorities would have to fit within the agency’s existing framework.
“We do have a process, and we’ve had a lot of back and forth on this question, because the Compact is our constitution.” Regan responded, referring to the federal agreement between California and Nevada officials that guides development in the area. “We have the environmental standards. Any project that goes forward has to be demonstrated not to adversely impact those standards. And so we’re not quite sure how to move forward, in terms of a matrix.”
Regan said the TRPA would be “happy to receive a letter to explore options around this,” adding California would have to be in agreement. “And that’s a process to go through, but I think we’re very happy that we hear the sentiment.”
Regan said the TRPA’s governing board “shares a lot of the same concerns that you do.”
Balancing act
Daly’s priorities, which the committee voted to forward to the TRPA in the form of a letter, are:
- preservation, protection, and restoration of the Lake;
- enhancing the visitor experience;
- mitigating impacts on residents; and
- “economic considerations”
Daly, in an interview before the meeting, acknowledged the competing interests in his matrix.
“It’s a balancing act,” he said, adding that TRPA, because of its federal mandate, has more tools than local jurisdictions to tweak development that doesn’t fit “on the matrix of priorities.”
“Enhancing, preserving, protecting, and restoring the lake. Does your project do any of that?” Daly suggests TRPA should consider when querying developers. ”Probably not.”
The second factor – whether the project enhances the visitor experience – should be determined by whether it will reduce traffic, have sufficient parking, or provide micro transit.
“If you’ve got the zoning, cities and counties can’t turn you down,” Daly said. “TRPA can say, ‘hey, we have to meet all of these criteria. Your project doesn’t fit right.”
‘Wheel-spinning endeavor’
Residents who attended the committee’s final meeting of the interim, and some who sat through all six, contend Daly’s priorities, as well as those of the committee, are out of whack.
“Six meetings and eight months into this wheel-spinning endeavor to support this committee’s active oversight of TRPA’s badly-listing ship, we are more convinced than ever that Tahoe’s tipping point into environmental and economic collapse is here,” said Dana Tibbets of the East Shore Alliance.
Incline Village resident Pamela Tsigdinos said all that residents have seen and heard from lawmakers “is example after example of this committee disregarding the public’s fundamental concerns.” She, like other residents, says the well-being of those who live in the basin should take priority over the visitor experience.
Daly disagrees. He asserts visitors “have as much right as the people that live there to enjoy the lake, but we don’t want to just trample over the residents,”
In written public comment, Helen Neff of Lake Tahoe suggested revisions to Daly’s proposed missive to the TRPA.
“While the visitor experience is vital to the local economy, it should not come at the expense of residents’ well-being. Enhancing the visitor experience is a by-product of a well-cared for local population and environment, not the other way around,” Neff wrote, adding the letter should “reaffirm the reason TRPA was formed, specifically, the preservation, protection, and restoration of the Lake.”
To achieve that goal, Neff suggests TRPA “balance the needs of residents with economic considerations,” including regional transportation, workforce housing, smart development, and comprehensive wildfire evacuation plans.
Bill drafts on tap
The committee voted to endorse a number of bill drafts, including one that would allow the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) to issue parking tickets to illegally parked vehicles. Another would allow the TTD and local jurisdictions to charge for parking at certain paved lots.
One bill draft submitted by the TRPA seeks to impose a $4.25 fee a night on transient lodging.
Tahoe resident Niobe Burden says rather than charging overnight guests, who are already paying tourism-related fees, officials “should be encouraging longer stays, where visitors learn to love and want to protect the lake.” Instead, she suggests imposing a fee on “day visitors entering the basin, who are the primary cause of many of the traffic and pollution issues that we are trying to mitigate.”
Burden also encouraged the committee to ensure the TRPA provides a progress report by year’s end on its environmental thresholds. She noted the “newsworthy interim reports of invasive species, algae blooms and microplastics certainly are not an indication that these thresholds are trending in a positive direction.”
Nevada state lawmakers are recommending several pieces of legislation dealing with Lake Tahoe, including bills that would:
- Prohibit the operation of any watercraft at a speed in excess of five nautical miles per hour within 600 feet of the water line
- Allow cities and counties to form Business Improvement Districts (BID) to provide funding for transportation, housing, and mitigation of visitor activities
- Allow local jurisdictions within the basin to charge an impact fee to developers of housing units greater than 1,000 square feet, with fees used to pay for utility hookup, impact and/or mitigation fees for deed restricted affordable, moderate,or achievable units that are less than 1,000 square feet
- Allow the Tahoe Transportation District and its contractors, to issue parking tickets to illegally parked vehicles within certain safety zones (requires California to support change to bi-state compact)
- Allow the transportation district to charge a fee for public parking at certain paved areas along State Route 28
- Impose a public transit surcharge of $4.25 per night for vacation rentals
- Authorize the release of $19 million in general obligation bonds to implement Nevada’s portion of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Program
- Provide that landowners don’t need a logging permit for cutting operations unless the effort qualifies as a logging operation
