Denise Davis – IVCB Forum Moderator
Hi everybody. We’re just a few minutes late. Mr. Crockett just returned from his library conference, and is not quite back to Pacific Standard Time yet. Anyway, welcome to our meeting this morning.
I’m Denise Davis, your moderator. Ronda Tycer is our Forum recap editor. And John Crockett is our tech guru. As a reminder, our meeting is being recorded. Before you begin speaking, please state your name. While speaking, please be respectful. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. For those online, if you’d like to share URLs, post them in the Chat Box and they’ll be included at the end of the meeting recap. We partner with IVCB Community 1s.t.org and IVCBA.org to get information out. So, be sure to visit their websites and sign up for their newsletters. To sign up for our Forum meeting notices and recaps, send an email to us at ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com.
I got an email from Kari Ferguson last night that she wouldn’t be able to join us this morning. She did send me her announcements. Before that, I will announce that at the Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences (TERC), on Thursday evening February 9 they’ll present a talk about “food waste.” The ad says, “Nearly 1/3 of all the food produced in the world never gets eaten.” So that’s an important topic. If you’re interested you need to pre-register. The URL will be in the meeting recap. That’s an interesting topic to learn about.
I’ll go back to Kari’s announcements for the Incline Village General Improvement District (IVGID). She wants to remind everyone about Community Appreciation Days this week—today, tomorrow, and Sunday you can be [ ] from 3:50-4:30pm. Meet at the top of the Crystal Express outside of the Eagles Nest patrol shack. You must be a strong intermediate or advanced skier or snowboarder to participate. Today we also have Interpretive Mountain Tours at 10:30am and 1:30pm. The Ullr Fest starts tonight. The Torchlight Parade and Deck Party starts at 4pm at the Base Lodge deck. Everybody needs to understand that all events are outside so dress accordingly. Saturday the 4th there is a meet-and-greet with the Patrol director [ ] and her patrol dog Fred. From 11:30 to 12:30 you can ask her questions and watch Fred do tricks and snap a selfie with Fred. And Sunday the 5th there’s live music from 2-5pm at the Rock bar featuring long-time Tahoe musicians Randy Blake and Gil Gaus. Sorry if I mispronounced the name. They do light rock and Americana tunes.
There is an IVGID Audit Committee meeting Tuesday February 7that 6pm. It is on Zoom only. And on Wednesday February 8th at 6pm there is a Board of Trustees meeting.
On February 10th there is a Community twilight Snowshoe Hike to Snowflake Lodge. The URL will be posted in our recap.
The IVGID Audit Committee meeting scheduled for February 7 will include a discussion of the Annual Comprehensive Financial Report, and also discuss a report from Davis-Sparr, who is a consultant hired to review and audit the District’s financials.
The Board of Trustees meeting on February 8th has another long agenda. So bring a snack. They have quite a number of topics. It’s good we’re getting through all that information but those are long meetings.
Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief
Good morning everybody. Sorry we haven’t been to the last few meetings. There have been a few crazy Fridays for us on pressing issues and meetings to attend. I want to thank everybody for participating in the Adopt-a-Hydrant program. As you know, with the snow that’s one of our priorities and we’re getting out there. But some homeowners have adopted some and let us know about it. So we really appreciate that. Everybody knows evacuation is a hot topic. We’ve been talking a lot about it. The NLTFPD, Washoe County, Douglas County, and Carson County have secured FEMA funding for an app so we can get messages out a bit easier and cleaner when it comes to evacuations. The contract is being drafted up right now. As soon as we have more information on that Tia and I will get it out to everybody. We’ll be asking you to download it. We’ll do some press releases and such to get community members involved.
Again, if you haven’t yet—you’ve heard Joe talk about this a lot—please download the PulsePoint app as well. You can see the activities going on at the Fire Department. And if somebody is near you in need, it alerts your phone if you’re CPR certified and AED certified, and where the closest AED is. But we’ve heard a lot about that from Joe. That’s all I’ve got. Tia, do you have anything to add?
Tia Rancourt – North Lake Tahoe fire Protection District Information Officer
No. Thanks Chief. You covered everything.
Kathie Julian – Incline Resident, Washoe Board of Adjustment Member
I have a question for Chief Sommers. It’s my perennial question about the Evacuation Plan, albeit the First Phase prepared by Washoe County for IVCB. I understand your point about the app and I understand the points that Alexis Hill is making about having some trial runs for an evacuation. But my key point is that if we don’t have the proper assumptions, we’re not going to have a robust plan. And the assumptions in the plan that that County came up with did not include counting tourists, so it undercounts the number of people and cars to evacuate. They did not factor in tourism. Again, I’m just flagging that to the community. It is not in your hands. It’s in Kelly Echeverria’s hands. She is in charge of these things at the County. But I’m putting it on the radar screen and hope that you will follow up with changing the baseline assumptions in their plan.
Ryan Sommers
Thank you, Kathie. Yes we are working with them on that.
Joe Farrell – Incline Resident, PulsePoint Board of Directors Member
Good morning. I’d just like to echo Chief Sommers about PulsePoint. It’s a free app to the public. Chief Sommers and Tia worked very hard for a couple of years to get this up and running in Incline and Crystal Bay.
If you enable the CPR part of the app, and if someone is in need of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) due to cardiac arrest, the app comes up on a GPS with the location of the victim, and the location of the nearest Automated External Defibrillator (AED). I know what I’m talking about being a survivor of sudden cardiac arrest, but Edie and I are also American Heart Association official instructors. We have been doing this for nearly 15 years. We are going to be putting on a “hands-only” CPR demonstration and demonstrate how to use an AED on February 14th. We’re doing this through one of the nonprofits I volunteer for called the Via Heart Project out of San Francisco. We’ll be at Starbucks from 9am to noon on February 14th. We’ll teach you hands-on CPR and how to use an AED. This is really all you need to know. You don’t need to be certified to enable the PulsePoint app and know CPR. As long as you know how to do hands-on CPR and use the AED…. It’s very simple. We’ve taught 4-year-olds how to use AEDs when we lived in the Bay Area. Basically you just turn on the machine and follow the instructions. You’ll be up and running.
A lot of people in California worry about liability. Nevada has great Good Samaritan laws, so that’s not an issue here. One other quick thing Edie and I do offer. If you need certification—and I know NLTFPD does this also—but they’re also very busy. We offer certification courses—basic life support, heart saver—if you need it for any employment like lifeguarding or babysitting, etc. call me and we’ll be glad to help you out. Call 925 980-4888. I hope to see as many of you as possible at Starbucks on February 14. We’ll teach you in 10 minutes hands-on CPR and how to use an AED. Everyone come and invite your friends. Thank you.
Denise Davis
So if somebody needs certification, do you charge for that?
Joe Farrell
Good question. We do not charge except there is a charge from the American Heart Association of $25 for the certification card. We don’t pay that for you—that’s on your own. The way it works is… The best way to do this is there is a great online course for basic life support through the American Heart Association. It’s $22.95. You take the course, you pass it, it’s very interactive, and it’s excellent. You print out your certificate, call us up, and we do what we call a practice session and test to ensure you’re technically competent in CPR and know how to use the AED. That’s what you need. That’s part of the protocol. So you’ll be out $25 for the American Heart Association. Then we have to send in and we ‘ll get your card online. It’s about $22.95 for the online course. We can send you the link, or you can contact us. Getting the course is really easy and it’s a very, very, good course.
Sara Schmitz –IVGID Board of Trustees Member, IVCB Community 1st Executive Director
I just want people to be aware that on the agenda on Wednesday night for the Board of Trustees upcoming meeting, there are three topics with high community interest:
1- Some revisions to Ordinance 7 and the setting of a public hearing for those modifications
2- A new public records policy
3- And discussion and possible approval for hiring a consultant to design a new Incline beach house.
Those are the topics I think have the most public interest. I wanted to bring them out here. Thank you.
Blaine Beard – Washoe County Sheriff Office Incline Substation Captain
Good morning everybody. At this time the WCSO has nothing new to report. It’s status quo. We’re here for support and content and in the event any question comes up. I and the Sergeant will be here regularly.
Denise Davis
Does anyone have any questions for the Sheriff Department?
Joseph Colacurcio – Washoe County Sheriff Office Incline Substation Sergeant
We’ll be here the entire time in case something crops up.
John Crockett – Washoe County Library Head Librarian, Tahoe Transportation District Incline Village Mobility Hub Committee Member
Here at the library, you may have seen it in the IVCBA Weekly Snapshot that we have our Zoom Room cracking. So if you need a co-working space, to hold a remote meeting, interview, doctor’s Telehealth appointment, things like that, or just a quiet space to work, we have the soundproof Zoom Room at the back of our library.
We’ll have the Washoe County Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) meeting here on Monday. And we’ll have Bingo on Tuesday with popcorn and prizes.
We had the TTD Incline Mobility Hub monthly meeting last Monday. We had lots of community input, which is great. TThe HDR Consulting group presented their plan for the outreach process. The next step is to gather community input to determine the scope, and then the siting of a possible hub in Incline Village. I know there are a lot of strong feelings on that, so I encourage everyone to continue to take the opportunity to provide community input. When it comes out, complete the survey. They’ll have more workshop events. So just keep providing input. I think that’s the best way to go to determine the scope and possible site of this project.
Denise Davis
I’ll fill in a little more. The Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) has hired a consultant, HDR Engineering, to work with them locating and evaluating and planning a site. HDR listed 8 criteria for locating and planning a mobility hub. Those 8 screening criteria are:
– Transit System Score
– Transit Propensity Score
– Recreational Access Score
– Key Destination Score
– Walkability Score
– Bike-ability Score
– Road Safety Score
– Property Size Score
According to the HDR report, they have data for the first 7 screening criteria. They assert that they have not assigned a Property Size score yet because they want to know what the community wants to see in a mobility hub. According to the consultant, once the list of “wants” is compiled, that will help decide what size of property they’ll be looking for.
Originally they hoped to do community outreach in March, but HDR says that’s more likely to happen in April. As soon as we have information we’ll get it out to you. They mentioned there would be an online survey and two in-person workshops. So again once we find out when they are, we’ll pass that word along. I just can’t stress how important it is for us to participate.
John Crockett
One other thing about a possible mobility hub, we want to reduce traffic in cars in the basin. And another part of it is that it also provides commuting access to public transit for our workers in the basin. There may be something in the center of town or the outside of town or outside of the basin. So I would encourage the community to weigh in on exactly what that looks like. Because it seems that at times it looks like they are opposed to each other.
Denise Davis
Before I let you go, I’d like to circle back to the library. Do you want to talk a bit about the park and museum passes that are available through the library?
John Crockett
Absolutely. We have a great new program with the Nevada State Parks where we have State Park Passes—physical passes you can check out here at the library. We have two physical passes you can check out for 1 week at a time. They are good for entrance at Sand Harbor, Spooner, and all the other state parks in Nevada. You check them out for 1 week. It’s good for a 1-day access for 1 car with up to 8 people. They aren’t good for camping or fishing. They are just a day-pass. But that will get you into Sand Harbor if you get in there early enough. They are “first come -first serve.” You can’t reserve them ahead of time. You have to catch them here at the library. You can search our public catalog to see if they are available. So if you want to pick one up, take a look in our catalog. Search for passes. You’ll see if they are green/available at the library and come on down.
Denise Davis
It’s a physical pass that hangs in your windshield, right?
John Crockett
Yes.
Denise Davis
And now the museum passes.
John Crockett
We also have a program called “Discover and Go.” With your library card you can get museum pass access to the Nevada Museum of Art, the Automobile Museum, the Discovery Museum, and the Planetarium. Those you check out online. So if you know you’d like to go to the Discovery Museum with your family next Saturday, go to our website, Discover and Go, and select a date and see if the passes are available. If so, check them out with your library card and you’ll get a digital pass. The deals vary. The Museum of Art is a pass for 2. Discover is a family 4-pack. The Auto museum is “buy one-get one.” And there are also dozens of museums in Sacramento and the Bay Area. So if you’re taking a road trip, check that out as well.
Doug Flaherty – Incline Resident, Tahoe Clean Air Director
I just want to mention the 8 scores that were listed in the HDR Mobility Hub discussion. We really need to see a Public Safety score. It should include a traffic study, access analysis, neighborhood-pedestrian impacts, and steep roadway access and egress. Additionally, we need to add an Environmental Impact Score (EIS) for the various locations considered. Thank you.
Denise Davis
Our Board of County Commissioners will meet on February 14th. Exactly where you want to spend Valentine’s Day, with our Board of Commissioners.
The latest tax refund report is through the end of December 2022. The total tax dollars refunded equals $18,827,414. The total interest paid equals 17,982,425. And the total refund through the end of 2022 equals $36,809,839.
Todd Lowe – Incline Resident, Village League to Save Incline Assets Director
I’d like to add something to that. The period during which people can make claims and get refunds ends May 1. So anyone who has not made a claim should do so. Interestingly, the number of folks who have not made claims is on the order of 3000. We just did a mailing to all 3000 of them to remind them that if they want to make a claim they should do so, and do so soon. Another interesting factoid is that there are some 200-300 people who made claims and were sent checks but have never cashed them. So they have expired. And that money will go to the State as unclaimed property. So if anyone does make a claim and they get a check, they should cash it. Otherwise the money leaves Washoe County and goes to the State. We’re hoping this latest mailing will finish this whole business off and run this project down and it will be history, which will be a good thing.
Kathie Julian
Todd, is it public information how much individuals got back—if not by name, just by the size of the check? Is that public information?
Todd Lowe
Actually I don’t know if it’s public information. I can say this. That anybody with access to the assessors’ records can go in and calculate the amount of excess taxes someone may have paid. In the Village League, we certainly know what each and every person has received, but we don’t publish that. I doubt that that’s public information. But if you really want to know, you can figure it out yourself for anybody and everyone.
Kathie Julian
All right. Thank you.
Denise Davis
The County’s report tracks the number of parcels, the number of refunds processed, and the number of claims processed. That’s what they include in their report along with dollar amounts.
Todd Lowe
Yes, and if I could just add one thing on that. You’ll notice on the report they have a minimum quota. They have to process at least 300 claims per month. And if they don’t do that there are actually penalties for that. That was in our settlement agreement with the court. You’ll notice this past month the number of claims was less than 100. The reason is because they ran out of claims. So this mailing that I mentioned has changed that picture. Now they’ve got a big inventory of claims to process. They’re trying to get this all done and wrapped up by the May 1 deadline. So after that, even though they still have a year beyond that date to continue to pay claims that come in for various reasons, they hope they’re all done by May.
Denise Davis
Todd, can you put the URL for the County’s website in the Chat Box so we can put that in our recap?
Todd Lowe
Yes, if I can figure out how to do that, I’ll do that.
Denise Davis
If you can’t, just send it to me at ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com. So while we have you here, do you want to give us a quick update on what’s happening with the City of Incline Village effort?
Todd Lowe
Sure. So the work continues at a frantic pace. We don’t really have anything to report now. The big item that we’re just finishing up this week—as I said during the Town Hall and other meetings—is “What will happen to the beach deed?”—because that’s something that’s precious to Incline Village property owners. We need to make sure that is not disturbed in any way shape or form. That legal work, which has been going on 2 months past my forecast but is now finally finishing, is essentially done. There’s only, I can say, good news, which we’ll be talking about later. So that work continues.
We have another set of presentations coming up in a week or two—one with Ryan at NLTFPD – In fact, Ryan, I’m working on the presentation for you as I speak. And then we have to drill down on all the various services that the city will need and how they will be delivered, whether that be—as I mentioned, fire protection, or policing or streets and so on. So there’s a lot of work going on. Until we get to the point where we have that staff work complete and ready to display, and available to petition, we’re not doing a lot of talking, if you will. We’re making presentations with stakeholders and reaching out to the other organizations that have gone through this. So we’ve had a bunch of meetings with the city mayor, city manager, attorneys, and city treasurer of the City of Fernley, which is the last city in the State of Nevada to have incorporated. And we’re having similar kinds of meetings that are informing our decision-making about how to put this whole thing together. I can tell you lots of interesting stories. But I’ll keep it brief and say that we’re working hard on lots of things. The beach deed issue is about ready to wind down because that was a preliminary first step that had to be achieved before we did anything else.
Denise Davis
All right. Anybody have any other questions for Todd? Are you still thinking that the petition drive will be happening in late spring early summer?
Todd Lowe
That’s right. We kick this off in May-June-ish. As I think I explained in the past, we have 90 days to get all our signatures. So we want that to be a May, June, and July kind of event. So yes, that’s still our plan.
Denise Davis
Thanks for the update. We appreciate it.
Todd Lowe
No worries.
Denise Davis
Okay. Moving on through our agency list here, The Washoe County Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) will hold its next meeting Monday February 6 in person at the library and on Zoom. On the agenda is Jaime Rodriguez from the Washoe County Registrar of Voters. She will talk about the process, outcome, and highlights of the 2022 General Election. We also have on the agenda Andy Chapman, President and CEO of Travel North Tahoe Nevada, which was formerly known as the IVCB Visitor Bureau. He will talk about the rebranding and coming changes to that organization. And we’re also taking suggestions for topics people would like to talk about at the CAB. I hope everyone can join us either in person or on Zoom Monday evening at 5:30.
The Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) held a Board meeting on February 1. As John Crockett already reported, the Mobility Hub Committee met on the 30th to talk about the hub. But the TTD Board met February 1st. There was a big discussion about the unhappiness of the City of South Lake Tahoe with the TTD. It just so happened that on the 1st, several bus routes were impacted because of a lack of drivers. This apparently has happened with increasing frequency. And the City of South Lake Tahoe is quite unhappy and frustrated. There was quite a bit of discussion about their unhappiness. They also discussed coming up with plans for moving the TTD maintenance yard from the City of South Lake Tahoe to Douglas County. They have some funding opportunities for that. They need a new maintenance facility. So that was another point of contention for the City of South Lake Tahoe.
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Governing Board held a meeting on January 25t. As we talked about, they did have on the 24th a field trip to the old Tahoe-Biltmore/ future Waldorf Astoria site. After that they went to Kings Beach. As always, it was a day-long meeting with the TRPA Governing Board. I know a lot of people showed up in person and online to provide public comments about the EKN project.
Also that day they discussed the Lily Lake multi use trail, which is down near Fallen Leaf Lake. I provided public comment to try to spare other neighborhoods the experience our Mill Creek neighborhood now has resulting from the East Shore Trail and parking lot.
It is surprising and frustrating that we have examples of some of these projects to look at, and things that were done well and things that could be improved upon. And speaking for myself, it’s frustrating that sometimes we don’t learn from some of our mistakes.
Did anyone else want to comment about what happened at the TRPA meeting this week? I do know that the majority of public comment at the Board meeting was in support of the Waldorf Astoria project.
Kristina Hill – Incline Resident
It is unbelievable how bad the traffic is getting with existing conditions especially on the weekends from Truckee to Squaw Valley and from Truckee to Northstar. It’s bumper to bumper. It takes hours to go just a few miles. And we are still contemplating these huge developments like the Waldorf Astoria. It was previously approved. I understand that. But that previously approved project was only 100,000 square feet, and now they are proposing an 800,000 square-feet development. And they say it will have less impact. I don’t understand the math on that, but it doesn’t seem realistic. I know they’re going to do a traffic evaluation study. But it doesn’t seem logical that it could not negatively impact the environment and traffic especially in the case of an evacuation for wildfire. I would hope that the NLTFPD and Ryan and Tia would voice their concerns about that during the public hearings.
I also want to address the Lily Creek trailhead. They are creating these trailheads at these access points to facilitate more users in backcountry areas. Have you ever driven down Fallen Leaf Lake road? It is insane. If you encounter a car going the opposite way, you have to pull over because it is so narrow and rutted. To increase usage in that area is beyond belief. And it’s what they want to do also on Mt. Rose Highway for the trails and better backcountry access up there.
I am opposed to them creating attractions like the East Shore Trail. These attractions are like Disneyland roller coaster rides that attract people to these improved trails and recreation facilities where there’s no capacity for parking management that’s reasonable. I wish they would stop it.
We are at capacity. It’s so obvious for someone like me who’s lived in Tahoe for 40 years. It’s to the point we’re just choking the lake to death—loving it to death. We don’t need to attract more people to the lake and encourage more visitors to go in the backcountry and screw up Fallen Leaf Lake and create more traffic problems and increase the impact on residences near these attractions by increasing unwanted parking in their neighborhoods.
That’s all I want to say. Boulder Bay is a huge development that will attract thousands of people. And even though it used to be there and was previously approved, the dynamics of the population have changed so much in the last 15 years since approval that it’s not acceptable any more for adding this much to the population. That’s my 2 cents.
Shirley Appel – Incline Resident, Homeowner Association President
Last Saturday I was coming from Carson City on Highway 50 and turning onto Route 28. The amount of cars parked along the road was unbelievable. There’s not enough room for these cars to park for 1 mile to go to the recreation area on the other side of the street. There were people trying to go both directions and it was almost impossible. Something about that area needs to be addressed as well.
Joe Farrell
I’ll second Shirley’s comment. I also came back last Saturday, and it was crazy—and it was dangerous. You look at how the snow’s built up, so when plowing there’s no place to put the snow. So you’re turning onto 28, all of a sudden there’s at least a mile or ¾ of a mile of parking. It’s very dangerous.
I also would like to echo what Kristina is saying about the Waldorf Astoria project in terms of traffic. I’ll just share a quick story. Two years ago my wife and I were kicking the tires, and just wanted to see what the new Boulder Bay condos were like. We got a tour. I think it was about 2pm on a Friday. And we probably waited 15 minutes to turn on to 28—to actually turn right—and then turned around at the Cal Neva to get out of there back towards Incline. Traffic is going to be horrific. I’m very disappointed in TRPA. It seems like they don’t understand the traffic flow there. It’s dangerous not just for evacuation—which we all agree is an issue—but also dangerous for pedestrians.
Denise Davis
I can echo that. I have occasion to visit someone on Wassou Road . You can sit there for 15 minutes before you can turn. And I’ve also done that turn to the right to the Kings Beach roundabout and then to come back.
Kristina Hill
I want to add that the Spooner Lake area is another example of them constructing an attraction, which is this huge new Visitor Center—like they couldn’t have visitors before—to make more people go there. I’m totally opposed to that as well. I don’t know why we need to attract more people to this area that is so fragile and congested already. Why bring more people? Why have more trails? Why have more parking lots? We should be discouraging people from coming.
And I’ll add one more thing about the transit hub. I’m opposed to it, but I realize what they are trying to do. Whenever in Europe I’ve ridden a bus, it’s so convenient you don’t need a car. You go from the plane to the train to the bus. However if people drive to Tahoe they are going to use their car. The only time they will use a bus is if they come here on a bus, or if they fly here and take an Uber from the airport. Once they have their car here, people are going to use their car. That’s the way it is. You never see anybody on buses on the North Shore. And like South Lake Tahoe is disappointed with their transit not having enough drivers, we too don’t have enough affordable housing for our bus drivers to live in our community. So how are they going to drive buses? We don’t need more buses. Nobody drives them. Unless you have people bused up here from the Bay Area.
Denise Davis
I’ll just share with you that the term that TRPA and our commissioners and others in authority are using is “access.” They don’t see that they’re attracting people. They see that they are “providing access.”
Kathie Julian
I just want to flag that—when people are talking about development—I want to flag the TRPA informational hearing with the Regional Planning Implementation Committee (RPIC), which is meeting on February 22 at which they will be discussing development rights. I got an email from Karen Fink at TRPA when that came out, and I would urge people to look at that email. The materials aren’t yet posted. They will be posted on the website. Folks should follow up with that. This has implications for Incline Village development rights. Also there’s the issue of ADUs. As we know, California is looking at putting in ADUs to serve as workforce housing. But ADUs in California are restricted and can’t be used for Short Term Rentals (STRs).
I understand that Washoe County is considering looking at ADUs in Incline Village. They haven’t proposed that yet, but I think it is something that’s on the table to look at. And I think our residents need to follow up on this because of the concern that they could be used as STRs and also the concern that it increases density. All of this is being done to encourage workforce housing. Workforce housing is good. The question is whether this mode of increasing housing inventory is sound. Some would argue that limitations on STRs if invoked earlier would have increased our inventory of workforce housing sooner and in a more environmentally sound manner. But pay attention to the information I put in the Chat Box.
Denise Davis
Just to follow up, I’ll read from an email Kathie Julian forwarded to me. “On February 22 TRPA will hold an informational hearing with its Regional Plan Implementation Committee (RPIC) on updates to the definition of “achievable housing” to include a local employment component. TRPA will also hold a short Development Rights 101 workshop for the Board to explain how different types of housing receive development rights under TRPA’s Growth Management System, and the incentives and disincentives embedded in the current system.” So that’s another important meeting to keep an eye on.
Also in the email that Kathie forwarded, TRPA lists their “housing milestones” in 2022. These include:
· “Accessory Dwelling Units. Issued 17 permits for accessory dwelling units in 2022.
· Homeowner Tools. Launched the Tahoe ADU Calculator Tool to help homeowners calculate the potential costs and return on investment associated with building an ADU in Tahoe.
· Moveable Tiny Homes. Removed a major permitting hurdle for moveable tiny homes.
· Tackled the misuse of deed-restricted housing. Launched a comprehensive outreach program to owners of 95 legacy deed-restricted units in the Incline Village area to bring them into the annual monitoring and compliance program, which was created in 2018.
· Developed and analyzed amendments to TRPA’s height, density, and coverage standards to make construction of multi-family housing and ADUs more competitive with second homes and luxury residences. These amendments will be coming forward to the Tahoe Living Working Group in April (see above).
Applied for over $3 million in grant funding to better integrate equity, housing choice and affordability, and environmental benefits into TRPA’s Regional Plan.”
Kathie Julian
I have a comment on the deed restriction paragraph there. I just spoke with Karen Fink and she clarified for me that the 95 properties that are deed-restricted, are deed-restricted by TRPA, so it’s not up to Washoe County to enforce the deed restrictions. It’s strictly on the County, not TRPA.
Also, they sent out letters to these homeowners. Some had sold their properties in violation, but others had not. I didn’t get any numbers. She did say that Washoe County will not allow deed-restricted properties to be used as STRs. They have flagged that. I’m not sure when they flagged it but they’ve flagged it now.
I have followed up with a query as to what is their enforcement authority if they find – and she also said that TRPA is working with the real-estate community. The question in my mind is– where are these properties. I asked her if that was public knowledge and she said she’d get back to me. I also asked what are the enforcement authorities that TRPA has? If someone lists a house for sale for more than it should be for sale based on the deed restriction, what can TRPA do? These are to-be-answered questions. My concern as a resident here is that you can put disincentives to certain things, but are they enforceable? Do they have any teeth? Will they really work down the line?
Denise Davis
I see a question from Chris King in the Chat Box about the Advisory Planning Commission (APC). Judy Simon who is on the APC forwarded me an email this week saying that the meeting on February 8 has been cancelled. It’s still listed on the TRPA website, but her email said the meeting was cancelled.
Doug Flaherty –
Thank you. I’ll be brief. It’s really, really, important that everyone who cares about overcapacity at the lake shows up and speaks at the February 22nd TRPA RPIC meeting. Even though this is an informational session, they will be talking about density, height, and coverage changes that will be increased by the TRPA under the guise of affordable housing. Right now we’re under assault. We’ve got the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan issue. We’ve got the Placer County Tahoe Area Plan issue for increasing height, density and coverage. And then we’ve got the big kahuna—I call the TRPA—pro-developer/pro-growth aggressive increases in allowed height, density, and coverage. We’re in an environmental free fall, folks. And we need to show up and comment. Use the public comment meeting space, even if it doesn’t pertain to a specific agenda item, and make your comments known.
Kathie Julian
I just put in a link to the Tahoe Living Housing Committee website. This is an interesting committee. I believe our representative from the lake committee is Judy Simon on this working committee. Judy is online and can correct me. It is a bi-state committee with representation from contractors, realtors, business community, TRPA, and APC, which is Judy from our neck of the woods. I do notice the people who go to these meetings—the ones I’ve sat through on Zoom—are people with serious interest in developing the Lake Tahoe basin. So it would behoove residents to start paying attention to some of these TRPA committees. It’s very complicated. But it would behoove us to pay attention to these committees that TRPA has set up.
Judy Simon – Incline Resident, TRPA Advisory Planning Committee Member, TRPA Living Working Housing Committee Member
I came in late because I had something to do earlier. So I’m not signed in, but you can get on Karen Fink’s list. That meeting will be on April 21st. I think someone put that in the Chat Box. I’m not sure what we can actually do except voice our opinions.
Denise Davis
So Judy, are you on the Housing Committee or only on the APC?
Judy Simon
I’m on the Living Working Housing Committee. Both. They don’t meet often. It appears to be—like a lot of other things—staff driven. They’ve been tying themselves up in knots trying to figure out what is “achievable” versus “affordable” housing.
Denise Davis
So that’s the update. I’m sure that when you know things, you’ll be sharing them with us.
Judy Simon
Yes, I certainly will.
Denise Davis
I want to remind everyone that our Nevada State legislature officially convenes starting on Monday. They have been holding meetings prior to convening the sessions. I will have the legislature website and all their youtube videos on a channel. The URL will be posted in the recap.
We’re nearing 10am. Does anyone have any last comments or things to share? Seeing none, I want to thank everyone for joining us today. We have lots of important things in the works, and lots of committees, organizations, and agencies to keep an eye on. So, keep up the good fight and we’ll see you in 2 weeks. Thanks. Bye.
Participants
Blaine Beard
Chris King
David Simon
Denise Davis
Doug Flaherty
Helen Neff
Joe Campbell
Joe Farrell
John Crockett
Jon Davidson
Joseph Colacurcio
Judith Miller
Kathie Julian
Kristina Hill
Mark Sasway
Mary Danahey
Miranda Jacobson
Nicholas Thomas
Pam Straley
Ronda Tycer
Ryan Sommers
Sam Levine
Sara Schmitz
Shirley Appel
Steve Price
Tia Rancourt
Todd Lowe
CHAT BOX:
09:08:41 From kathie julian : Suggest Incline Residents tune into this TRPA meeting to learn about how our community can be further developed by TRPA:
09:08:53 From kathie julian : “Achievable” Definition Updates and
Development Rights 101 –
“On February 22, 2023 TRPA will hold an informational hearing with its Regional Plan Implementation Committee on updates to the definition of “achievable” housing to include a local-employment component. In 2022, the Tahoe Living Working Group and Local Government and Housing Committee recommended advancing these updates for approval to the Governing Board. TRPA will also hold a short “Development Rights 101” workshop for the board to explain how different types of housing receive development rights under TRPA’s growth management system, and the incentives and disincentives embedded in the current system.”
Materials will be posted one week prior to the meeting on TRPA’s webpage.
09:09:38 From Sara Schmitz : the board of trustees meeting will include revisions/refinements to Ordinance 7, the Incline Beach house and a new policy for Public Records Requests and more.
09:30:34 From Mark Sasway: North Tahoe Dems, Chair to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Could you please put the email for alerts for these meetings in the chat please. I must have misspelled it.
09:38:30 From Todd’s iPad : To make a property tax refund claim or learn more about property assessments got to
https://www.washoecounty.gov/treas/ivcbclaims/
09:41:14 From Washoe County Libraries to Mark Sasway: North Tahoe Dems, Chair(Direct Message) : Got it, Mark. Could you please send a message to ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com
09:41:33 From Mark Sasway: North Tahoe Dems, Chair to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Thank you. I got it. I see I’m adding the final “A” that I don’t need.
09:41:51 From kathie julian : Traffic information available at: https://ndot.maps.arcgis.com/apps/webappviewer/index.html?id=278339b4605e4dda8da9bddd2fd9f1e9
09:42:38 From kathie julian : IV Station between CB and IV is 0312240.
09:48:17 From Doug Flaherty : Posting Butte County Grand Jury Report concerning fire evacuation recommendations that were ignored by the Butte County Commissioners. Everyone should read the entire report and compare those realities to our own Lake Tahoe Basin public safety.
09:48:23 From Doug Flaherty : https://www.buttecounty.net/Portals/1/GrandJury/08-09/Grand_Jury_Report_FY08-09-Sec10.pdf
09:52:22 From Doug Flaherty : The results of the Butte County Paradise fire deaths and evacuation limitations speak for themselves.
09:53:08 From Chris King: TRPA has an Advisory Planning Commission meeting on 2/8: https://www.trpa.gov/event/advisory-planning-commission-meeting-5-2023-02-08/
09:57:58 From kathie julian : Here is website for the Tahoe Living Housing committee of TRPA: https://www.trpa.gov/tahoe-living-housing-and-community-revitalization-working-group-2/
09:59:37 From Chris King,: Is there a link for the 2/22 meeting?
10:02:12 From Doug Flaherty : Redevelopment should not be used as an excuse for over-development.
FORUM URLS:
our email is:
Washoe County Sheriff Office (WCSO)
Non-emergency dispatch 775-785-9276
Incline substation Facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/Washoe-County-Sheriffs-Office-Incline-Village-Substation-143827955640457/
RED Day / GREEN Day parking info 775-833-5555
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/operations/roads/Snow%20and%20Ice/Winter%20Parking.php
Washoe County “Where’s My Plow” real time snow equipment operations
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/operations/roads/Snow%20and%20Ice/snow_ice_ops_incline.php
North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District website
Feb 3 – Ullr Fest
Feb 6 – Washoe County Citizen Advisory Board (CAB)
https://www.washoecounty.gov/CABS/IVCB_CAB/2023/files/IVCB-Agenda-2-6-23.pdf
Feb 7 – IVGID Audit Committee meeting
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/Agenda_-_0207_Audit.pdf
Feb 8 – IVGID Board of Trustees meeting
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/Agenda_2_8_2023_Final.pdf
Feb 9 – Tahoe Center for Environmental Sciences – food waste discussion
https://tahoe.ucdavis.edu/events/why-third-food-wasted-worldwide
Feb 10 – Community Twilight Snowshoe Hike to Snowflake Lodge
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/community-twilight-snowshoe-hikes
Nevada Legislature
www.youtube.com/@NVLeg/streams
IV/CB Community 1st meetings and community info
IVCBA (Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association)