Denise Davis – IVCB Forum Moderator
Good morning, forum. I’m Denise Davis, your moderator. Ronda Tycer is our forum recap editor, and John Crockett is our tech guru.
As a reminder, this 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 in the meeting recap. We partner with IVCB Community 1st.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. So, if you did not get a notice about today’s meeting in your email, you need to sign up.
I’d like to thank Yolanda Knaak for asking our Middle School principal Dan Lediard to be with us today. He needs to leave and get back to the school by 9:45. Please keep that in mind when we get to Q&A.
Dan Lediard – Incline Middle School Principal
Thank you so much. Thank you everyone. It’s a pleasure to be here. I want to start off by saying I’m going to give you a 15-minute presentation and leave about 5 or 10 minutes for questions if there are any. So, I’ll jump right in.
I first want to address the Facility Modernization Plan and the meetings that have been occurring since last spring. As you may know, there’s a rumor going around that Incline Middle School is going to close next school year. I want to tell you that is not the case. They’re not even going to close the year after that. The reality of our situation is the Washoe County School District (WCSD) is looking at the budget and spending, of course, because we are publicly funded. The money that is going to the Middle School now is a little bit overfunded compared to what the Reno schools and other smaller schools are receiving. We have 15 full-time teachers, two part-time. But we’re being funded a little bit over what our student population represents. As of today we have about 128 students. If we were funding our school with 128 students, we would have 5-6 teachers. Because of that, we get more allocations and more teachers. So we’re a little bit over-funded. We can’t change the numbers. We can’t change the concern that the WCSD wants to shut down the Middle School. That is true. They don’t want to sell the building. That’s not their intention. But they’re hoping to save money. That’s the bottom line.
With the politics going around in the school district and the wonderful community of Incline Village, there are some things in our school we can control. That’s what we’re going to focus on over the next few years.
The reality is we’re looking at a possible Middle School closure in the next 3-4 years. We’re looking for a lot of community input, as Dr. Enfield, our superintendent, has mentioned. But if we’re going to change schools, or move middle-school students to the elementary school or high school, that requires either the elementary school or the high school to be built out. That means construction, which includes years of planning, a bidding process, and putting everything together to make that happen. The reality is, that 3-4 years from now, the Middle School will face the situation of a possible closure.
That being said, when I came on this job last May, I met with my staff many times and got to know the situation. I met with many parents and many faculty members. I even met with some of the elementary school parents. I was out there at the 5th grade promotion ceremony at the end of the school year in June.
I decided together with my staff, that we can only control what’s inside our building. The reality is the only thing we can really control is our student enrollment numbers. We know that there are private schools, there’s the Lake Tahoe School, and at least two Catholic schools in the area. And the Catholic schools are requesting to build out and create more private schools. So, we have our work cut out for us if we want to increase our student enrollment.
What we’ve decided to do as a school is to keep the politics out of our building. That’s most important to keep my staff happy and to keep them focused on what’s important, which is teaching our youngsters. So, no politics, no discussions about the Middle School closing are allowed inside the building. We’re asking the Middle School staff to graciously… Terry Kay Heil has allowed us to use her theater for several Facility Modernization planning meetings, which I’m sure some of you have been to.
In addition, we are focusing Incline Middle School on three issues that are going to increase our student enrollment. The first one is the most public-facing piece. That is our state test scores. As you may know, the S-BAC scores as we call them plummeted over the last year or 2, especially last year with our Hispanic population. And even the test scores for our Caucasian students plummeted last year in specific areas. So our main goal is to get our state test scores up, our S-BAC scores up. Our testing is in April, May or June and the scores come out in September. Our school is now a “3-Star” school, on a 1-5 scale with 5 being highest. The State of Nevada has brought back the “Star” rating system. Right now based on last year’s scores, we’re at a “3”. Not great. Not bad. But we have some work to do.
In addition to the Star rating system we have developed and put into place, a “literacy-across-the-curriculum” program. What that looks like is we have 10 literacy trainings through the WCSD coming to our campus to teach our teachers little tricks and tweaks to include the literacy curriculum in every single class. That includes PE and the music classrooms as well. We’ve already had 4 trainings and another coming up next Wednesday, and then 5 more trainings through the second semester.
We’re also going to work on students computer skills, typing, answering questions, and do practice tests to hopefully raise those test scores for the S-BAC next year. We hope to increase our Star rating system to a 4 and possibly a 5. So state test scores are our first focus to get enrollment numbers up because that’s what the public sees most when they go to our website.
The second part of our plan is to expand our Exploratory Program. I’ll give you a brief summary of what the Exploratory Program is. It’s similar to a College and Career readiness program but for middle-school students. In Reno, we have the College and Career fairs throughout the school year. But it’s difficult if not impossible to get our middle-school kids in Incline down to those programs and back up to school in time to get in and out of school on time. What Carrie Michael did—the principal last year who did a fantastic job of doing this—was she created an Exploratory Program. It started with teachers creating their own Exploratory passion-projects that students might be interested in, to give them an idea of what things they’re interested in and what they want to do after high school. We’re not just focusing on college. We’re focusing on careers, because as we know, you don’t need a college education these days to make a lot of money and have a good life. What we’re doing is expanding on the Exploratory Program.
I want to say that we can’t do as much as we’re doing right now without the help of Mary Danahey and Sharon Schrage of the Incline Education Fund. Thank you very much Mary and Sharon. They’ve been a tremendous help so far in expanding our program. And we’re going to continue expanding every semester and every year. I’ll give you a few examples. We’ve added a mountain-bike program, a French culinary program, and a Gateway Mountain program to give students access to something they might be interested in. We tweaked it a bit from last year. Last year, students could choose what subjects they wanted to study or take part in. But being the experienced middle-school folks we are, we know that sometimes students only focus on one or two things that they like, and if they don’t like it or they’re not sure, they won’t choose others. So, we decided as a staff to select subjects for our students. We did that for two reasons. One, to ensure students had access to as many different types of curriculum as possible. And one of our main focuses in the Exploratory program is to get our swim program built and expose that to students who are non-swimmers. I was amazed to find out that many of our students living in Lake Tahoe don’t know how to swim. With our concern of life-saving measures, we want to focus our program on those students who do not know how to swim, or have low swim skills. So those are just examples of our Exploratory Program. That’s our second piece to increase student enrollment.
The third piece, which is very dear to us, and the public may not know this, which is why I want to share this, we are working to become a STEM school—Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics. The Incline High School is already certified as a STEM school recognized by OSIT that works through the Nevada Governor’s office. The Incline High School is already there. Last year, the Incline Elementary School stepped into the development category. So, they are working, and are already in the program. The Incline Middle School is not there yet. However, next week or the week after, we will submit our application to become one of the STEM schools. That will hopefully make the Incline community the first K-12 aligned STEM program in the State of Nevada. I want to make sure everyone knows about this. I want the public to know because I need your help. We need your help—everyone in the community and here right now—to spread the word that Incline Middle School is expanding our programs. We need to increase student enrollments if we’re going to save this school. In essence, what we’re doing is competing with the private schools. We’re offering curriculum and courses they don’t offer. We’ll let the parents and communities know that we are a good school offering free curriculum compared to the private schools. With that being said, I’ll open this up for questions if anybody has one.
Denise Davis
Any questions? No? We’re a quiet group today.
Dan Lediard
If there are questions in the future, my name is Dan Lediard, the principal of Incline Middle School, please feel free to reach out to me at the Incline Middle School any time and I’m happy to answer any questions you may have. Thank you so much for having me here this morning.
John Eppolito – Incline Village Resident
I taught school for 6 years. Middle school was actually my favorite. They can’t help it. It’s hormones and sugar. I have more of a comment on the timing of all this. My understanding is that this local group… Some of you have heard WCSD Trustee Jeff Church talk at this meeting. The way I understand what’s happening is… just what Dan was talking about. Unless things have changed in the last month or 2, a local committee is going to be formed next year. And they are going to spend a year meeting. Then in May 2025 they will present their findings to the Washoe County Zoning Advisory committee. Then a month later, that committee will present their recommendations to the WCSD Board of Trustees. So the closing could happen in the fall of 2026 or later, as Dan said a minute ago.
One of the things Trustee Church talked about was us not participating in the working group, which will have 25 members—ridiculous to begin with—mostly staffed with district employees—13 out of the 25.
Dan Lediard
Just over half, imagine that.
John Eppolito
I’ve been involved in the school district for a long time— 20 years. I had kids in the schools for 19 years— the last one just got out last year—[laughter]—not for good behavior. Anyway, is fall 2026 the time when this could happen?
Dan Lediard
That’s a good question. The reality is the district is not giving us an actual date. After the meetings in April and May last year—which you probably all know didn’t go very well—they are pushing that timeline back. The district is pulling back and focusing on getting more information out to the community about what they would like to do—just ideas. But they’re also focusing more on getting ideas from the families and the community about what they would like to see within Incline Middle School. So I would say 2026 is not realistic. I’m going to push it to 2027 at the earliest.
John Eppolito
That’s probably good for a lot of families to hear.
Kristina Hill – Incline Village Resident
That was a very interesting presentation. And I’m wondering if you’re teaching kids swimming, and you’re teaching them this and that, what about teaching them about “land use planning”? What about teaching them what’s going on with TRPA and the counties right now? The political climate in our basin is changing. I think kids would be interested in learning about how TRPA works. You can make a career—like I did and many people do— in helping people go through that process—learning about the application process that’s required by TRPA and the county. It’s pretty easy and common sense, but it’s a great career for people who live in Tahoe. I’m about to retire, so I need some kids to come in and take my place and do what I do. They can make a lot of money.
Dan Lediard
Great question, Kristina. I can answer that. The way our Exploratory Class works is we get ideas just like you gave, and find a way to incorporate it in the middle-school program. There are a few things we need to have happen, though. We need to have a teacher of record or a background-checked adult to come in and lead that course. We also need the community to come together and give us the information they want us to teach the kids. So Kristina, if you or anyone you know would like to come and give us some ideas and help us create a curriculum, and then maybe help us find a community member who is willing to get background checked through the district, we can put that program together. It’s as easy as that, but there are a few minimum requirements that have to be met.
Kristina Hill
Is it a paid position?
Dan Lediard
It’s not a paid position through the school district. However, there is a possibility we could get stipends or funding through outside resources.
Kristina Hill
Okay, thank you.
Denise Davis
Any other questions?
Debbie Nicholas – American Association of University Women (AAUW) Tahoe-Nevada
Hi. That was a wonderful presentation. I just want to let you know that AAUW Tahoe-Nevada already does supportive work with the Middle School. We are happy to support you in further STEM education and other programs. I’d love to put you in contact with our program people so perhaps you could come and give a presentation to our group.
Dan Lediard
Absolutely, Debbie. I would love to. And AAUW is currently sponsoring our Girls Who Code program. They are on campus every day. Thursday at lunch… I saw them there yesterday rounding up the girls and getting them in that class. I think AAUW is also helping sponsor our culinary program in the afternoons. Thank you Debbie. And yes, I would love to come speak.
Denise Davis
A local parent was sharing a conversation with me, and said the class size her child is in is smaller than the class sizes at the Incline Tahoe School. Do you want to tell us about your class sizes?
Dan Lediard
That’s correct. Yes, that’s a great segue. Thank you, Denise. One of the benefits of us being such a small school right now is that the class sizes are incredibly small, which is a fantastic opportunity for teachers to give one-to-one education for every student in that class. Coming from the Reno schools, and the Lake Tahoe School, class size averages are in the 30s. Some of the Reno schools have 35 or 40 students in a class, especially the high schools. Our average class size is about 14-18. That is awesome. That’s a wonderful opportunity for us to give students direct one-to-one teaching.
In addition to that, we have what’s called the Wellness Zone. It is run by a counselor who is also becoming a teacher. Students can come in any time of the day 2nd to 6th periods to get homework help. There’s rarely more than two or three students in there at a time. So, there’s very close proximity to the teacher, with one-to-one teaching. In addition, we have a Homework Club after school with 5 or 6 students on average attending that as well. And our teachers teach in the Homework Club as well. The benefit of having a small school is very small class sizes and very personalized teaching.
John Eppolito
I thought of one more thing. When the district talks about closing the Incline Middle School, one thing you’ll never hear them say is, “It’s what’s best for the kids.” In addition to what Dan’s doing over there—especially those three things to try to keep enrollment up and increasing, I think we need to talk about what’s best for kids. Because no one in the district will say it is. Middle-school kids are different. We all know that. You don’t need a PhD in Education to know that. So that’s another thing that we should bring up when the time is appropriate.
Dan Lediard
Yes, John. I want to touch on that, too. To piggyback on what John said, that’s absolutely true. If we focus on what’s best for kids, that voice will be heard by the district because that’s what we always focus on. For example, when I’m making difficult decisions by myself at the Middle School—if it’s difficult and there are two sides to be weighed and I can go one way or the other—I always focus on what’s best for kids, and my answer is going to relate to that. In addition to that, John, the Facility Modernization meetings and the district requesting input from our community members, I would like to see more community members suggesting things like, let’s focus our money in the Middle School to make us competitive with the private schools. I think the tuition at Lake Tahoe School is $28,000-$33,000 per year. Ours is free. So, if we can provide opportunities for our students similar to or better than what the Lake Tahoe School is providing, that’s the great way to get our enrollment numbers up. Other questions?
Denise Davis
It looks like we’re ending just about right on time. Do you want to give people your contact information if they want to reach you?
Dan Lediard
Absolutely. My phone is 775 832-4220. And my email address is—and I’ll leave a card with my info on as well—my email is dlediard@washoeschools.net. Please ask questions. I’d like to keep this communication going. We’ve got approximately 3 years to get our enrollment numbers up to where the WCSD cannot say we want to close the school. So please reach out.
Denise Davis
Thank you so much for coming and joining us today and thanks Yolanda for being our intermediary.
Dan Lediard
I appreciate it.
Denise Davis
Kari, what is happening at IVGID?
Kari Ferguson – Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator
Good morning, everyone. Happy December. It’s hard to believe, but here we are in the last month of the year. We have a lot of fun things starting to happen. All of our winter programming has shifted. We have our pickle ball court inside the Recreation Center for folks to enjoy. We also have a very fun event planned for tomorrow, which I believe Linda will go into more detail on. We’re collaborating with the Lake Tahoe Foundation, and IVCBA and UNR Lake Tahoe for the fun Candy Cane Lane event. So tomorrow come celebrate the spirit of the season with everyone. We start at the Rec Center at 2 pm. There will be cocoa and cookies and lots of spirit to be had. Then people will wander their way through Candy Cane Lane, which is the little trail across the bridge to UNR Lake Tahoe. We were out there decorating in the cold yesterday. It will be really cool. Santa will arrive next to the UNR Demonstration Garden. North Lake Tahoe Fire Department is going to deliver Santa. We’re excited. Get your phones charged to get those pictures of Santa tomorrow. There’s also another event sponsored by IVCBA at Country Club Village as well. I see Linda so she’ll give you more information.
Also I was up at Diamond Peak yesterday and even though we haven’t had much natural snow yet, they are doing a fabulous job of making snow. We are still planning to open on December 7th, so everyone should get their skis ready. Get your snowboards and skis waxed. We’ll see you on December 7th at Diamond Peak. There’s a picture of the Candy Cane Lane map. You can take a picture of the QR code and have it on your phone to have it handy.
The only other announcement I have is that there is an IVGID Board of Trustees meeting December 13th. That’s the only meeting coming up that I’m aware of. There should be some more meetings added to the IVGID website later today. I’m awaiting agendas for the committee meetings. Following the meeting on the 13th, the next Board meeting will be on the 10th of January 2024. That’s it for me. Denise, you always hold me to account.
Denise Davis
I did include in the forum URLs the Flashvote survey results regarding IVGID venue priorities.
Kari Ferguson
Great. Yes, the Board of Trustees is using Flashvote to gather information. I don’t get to see that info unless I log in just like you. But it’s cool information, and a great way to collect info in a super timely manner. One more thing, I am also going to be pushing out more of the Lead and Copper Pipe survey. I met with the Public Works crew last week. So we nailed down some things. It’s currently online. I’ll be pushing out the link and having the QR code for our venues so you can just scan and get right into the survey. If anyone needs help with that, they can contact me. I’ll put my email and phone number in the Chat.
I forgot to mention our venue closures for Christmas. The Administration Building and the Public Works building will be closed on Christmas Monday the 25th. The Rec Center is also closed on Monday. On December 24th the Rec Center will be open with modified hours. I’ll confirm that and put it in the Chat.
Linda Offerdahl – Incline Village Crystal Bay Business and Community Association Executive Director
I’ll just piggyback on what Kari said. The Candy Cane Lane is a true community event. Several organizations will be there. There’s going to be Cocoa with the Captains—WCSO Captain Zerkle and possibly our former Captain Blaine Beard. Tiffany and [inaudible] from the Sheriff Office will be there and hopefully Nic Tone. The Association of American University Women will be there, and the Rotary Club. And Nina Photography will be there to take photos. The Tahoe Environmental Research Center (TERC) from UC Davis will present snow science. The Incline Elementary School choir is singing. That will be a big crowd pleaser. But what I’m really excited about is the community tree. Some of you know that Sheila Leijon and I—every year—go searching for that perfect community tree. This year it’s in the middle of the woods on Candy Cane Lane. That tree is lit right now. I drove by it last night past my bedtime. You can see it from Incline Way if you look into the woods there between the two. The Incline High School basketball team is going to be helping the [inaudible 28:20] that day. CERT will help direct traffic. I don’t believe I’ve left anyone out. Oh, Pet network and Daisy Day Care.
As long as I have the mike, our magazine Live Work Play should be coming in your mailboxes. We just had Dan from the Middle School. There’s a huge article on him and on the Incline Education Fund and their STEM campaign. Mary Danahey and Sharon Schrage of the Incline Education Fund work tirelessly on behalf of Incline schools and have raised a ton of money and put it all to really good use.
The Washoe Tahoe Housing Partnership did a Roadmap “with no car and no gas”. As a part of that, the Committee on Community Engagement met November 6th. We are still going to do some outreach to gain support for housing, which is becoming ever more critical for all of our workers. We need to see what parts of the Roadmap will work well for our community. So, we’ll be looking at how to form a housing partnership group to really address those issues. There are still people trying to work on that problem.
Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief
Good morning. Obviously we’ve laid off our seasonals, and we’re down to a skeleton crew. You will still see some pile burning when the weather’s conducive and we’re outside of the holiday season. The last 3 days we’ve been at the Hyatt for our annual EMS training. Tia wanted me to mention that the holiday Christmas Tree chipping program is at the Incline Beach overflow parking lot off Lakeshore Blvd. We’ll be back up and running the program this year from December 22 until January 29.
Kari Ferguson
Thank you, Chief Sommers. It is a new location, so I want to highlight the new location for tree chipping. It won’t be at Preston Field. It is at the overflow lot on Lakeshore. You may have parked there if you went to Music on the Beach or some such. Thank you Chief Sommers for reminding me that it is a new location for tree chipping this year.
Denise Davis
We have a question. Where’s the overflow parking lot you’re talking about?
Kari Ferguson
It’s on Lakeshore heading east from Village, across from Incline Beach before you hit Aspen Grove. It’s the driveway on the left between Lakeshore Realty and Aspen Grove. The address is 958 Lakeshore.
Denise Davis
Okay, any other questions? Thanks for joining us Chief. We appreciate it. I want to share an announcement I got from Helen Neff, who we all know and love for her efforts for pedestrian safety in Incline. If anyone has a “Take It Slow Tahoe” yard sign, please bring it inside for the winter so we can use it again next year and it won’t be crushed by the snow. So please remove all signs and take them inside for the winter. Next spring when we can see the ground again, we’ll put them out.
Nick Tone – Washoe County Sheriff Office Sergeant
We don’t have the latest stats so I don’t have a lot for you guys today. We’ll have those in the next couple of weeks. So, I have just two quick announcements. The second school resource officer assigned to the Incline High School has cleared her training. Deputy DeGoy. She’s a former Nevada Highway patrol trooper assigned to Lake Tahoe, and she’s a resident of the Tahoe basin. She came over to the Sheriff’s office, did our program, finished her training, and has just started at the High School. She’s already there. So, she’s our second person there.
Prior to Captain Beard’s retirement, he was working with the DMV to get a kiosk up here. That has come to fruition. On December 7, the DMV will have a kiosk at Raley’s for people to use. It will save you a drive down to the valley. It will be for simple business only. So, short-and-sweet today unless you have questions for us.
John Eppolito
Is the new officer at the High School a school district employee or a WCSO employee?
Nick Tone
She is a Sheriff Office employee. Yes, over at the high school there is one WCSD police officer there, and we have two deputies assigned specifically to that program.
Tiffany Clement – Washoe County Sheriff Office
I just want to give a shout-out to the owners of Raley’s, Julie and Mike Teel for collaborating with the DMV and the WCSO to get that DMV kiosk put in for more convenience to you. We still offer VIN inspections at WCSO as a courtesy, and that can ease your process for your DMV registration.
Denise Davis
Thanks. I volunteered to serve the staff working at the jail on Thanksgiving. We citizens have no idea how many people it takes—even on a holiday—to operate the jail and keep our inmates, our community, and everybody safe. Thanks to everyone at the Sheriff’s Department.
Nick Tone
We certainly appreciate your help.
Denise Davis
Also, in case you missed the sad news yesterday, two Nevada State Police officers were killed in an accident in Las Vegas…. just needless.
Nick Tone
Fortunately, the suspect was taken into custody down in Las Vegas. [35:38 inaudible] If you see emergency lights on the highway, please move over.
Denise Davis
Now that it’s the snow season, don’t forget our Red Day/Green Day parking information. You can get that at 775 833-5555.
Aaron Vanderpool – Incline Village Resident, HOA President
I have a comment. You did a perfect segue about the parking. I want to talk about UNR and Country Club Drive for a moment. There’s no easy way to say this, so I’ll just be blunt. As a Sierra Nevada College alumni, I want to point out that so far UNR seems like another hostile and toxic presence in Incline. Right now I’d like to preemptively ask people not to be upset about all the cars parking up and down Country Club while UNR’s very large front and back parking lots sit practically empty. These are teachers and faculty, students and visitors who are parking on the street, because they are fed up with the greedy micromanagement and passive/aggressive decisions going on. It hasn’t been a good situation for people I know. This is just one of the problems showing up when a large corporation takes over a small institution. We’re in a different situation than in downtown Reno.
So, I’d like to ask the community to be kind and not take any action against the vehicles parked along Country Club, and not let UNR take future action against these vehicles by creating “No Parking” zones, or calling this Red Flag/Green Flag parking creating preventative measures. It’s just another oppressive move against the workforce and education. I don’t think the cost should be externalized to the community for any of that stuff. It should be a low priority. There was never a parking problem at SNC that I know of—not until the campus has full enrollment of students again. Lastly, I think it should be low priority because before anything is done over there, once again, my neighborhood over here on Oriole is still dangerous and loud and cars are breaking TRPA’s noise ordinance and so forth. Thank you.
Tiffany Clement
Thanks, Aaron for your comments. While I understand the concern with the cost of parking at the university campus, it’s important to adhere to Red Days because the snowplows will continue to do their work to clear our roads, and we like to get that warning out to everybody when it is snowing. On the Red Days the snowplows are going to come through and just worry about those folks’ vehicles being hit by plows unnecessarily. That’s why we have the Red Day alert.
Aaron Vanderpool
Thank you. I totally understand that. And once again I would like to point out the impossible situation on Oriole Way. Thank you.
Nick Tone
In regard to Oriole, we’re trying to be proactive with our motor units up here and our traffic enforcements. If there are any specific issues you see, always use that nonemergency line and we’ll send a deputy right over. Sometimes in the winter when the call volume goes up, we don’t have as much opportunity for proactive patrol. We make the best effort. But if there’s something actively going on—blocking traffic or whatever variety of issue—please call and we’ll absolutely prioritize it, and send somebody over to try to address it, whatever the issue is.
Aaron Vanderpool.
Thanks. I appreciate your friendly attitude on that.
Denise Davis
Thanks Aaron, thanks Sergeant Tone, and thanks Tiffany. Moving on. Ann, what would you like to tell us about today?
Ann Nichols – Crystal Bay Resident North Tahoe Preservation Alliance Director
Three conservation groups have filed a lawsuit against Placer County and their housing plan amendments to the Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Area Plan (TBAP). We had 30 days to file. Instead of doing an Environmental Analysis, they did an Environmental Checklist. They basically failed to consider any area growth in Carson and Reno. Since 2020, there have been 30,000 building permits pulled in just Reno. We have a lot of problems here, and they’re just… They just think more development will fix everything.
The TRPA is having a meeting on December 13th and no doubt they are going to approve their own housing amendments allowing 65’ in height, unlimited density, unlimited coverage, and requiring no parking spaces for multifamily units. There are a ton of multifamily units around the lake. This will affect the whole lake. So we have 60 days to file on that now. We need community support. It costs a lot of money to do this.
Again, the problem is that TRPA is only going to do an Environmental Checklist. It’s just more-more-more. They think that’s the solution to affordable housing, but there’s no evidence. And the “achievable housing” category has no income cap. It will just make the situation worse.
Denise Davis
Thanks, Ann. I’ll fill in the rest of the TRPA meeting schedule. The Advisory Planning Commission (APC) is meeting on December 6 at 9:30 a.m. On the agenda is a presentation on the 2020 US Census demographics for the Tahoe Region. And there will be a public hearing on the economic sustainability and housing amendments to Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Area Plan (TBAP). As Ann said, the Governing Board is meeting on December 13th. The agenda is not yet available. I know that TRPA’s Karen Fink has said she plans to discuss housing amendments at the meeting.
Denise Davis
Kristina Hill do you have a TRPA comment?
Kristina Hill
Yes. I’m looking at the APC agenda right now and their staff report on demographics. They are basing their changes on the 2020 Census. We all know that was before the pandemic. Now we have the pandemic-migration people here. They are basing their whole study on the fact that the population is the same or has gone down. And we know—it’s just common sense – that the population has gone up since COVID, remarkably significantly. All their traffic and other analyses are based on old data that is so unreasonable I can’t believe they are considering it. And I’m really disappointed that the TRPA isn’t attending this meeting today.
John Eppolito
I want to make sure everybody understands that what Ann is talking about will affect Incline Village. I know Ann started over there in Crystal Bay and this new plan is Placer County, but what’s happening now is that with this new Area Plan, the same rules apply to Incline as King’s Beach. I’m not sure everybody even realizes that yet. What Ann is talking about is much worse than what she was saying 15 years ago when she started out against Boulder Bay. There is so much more to it now. I’ve told Ann privately and publicly, “Ann I used to think you were crazy. Now I realize it’s much worse than you were saying all these years. There’s so much more at stake.” TRPA has gotten in bed with Placer and Washoe Counties. It’s really a shame. They’ve lost their way. They’re not doing what they’re supposed to do.
One last thing on short-term rentals (STRs), which is somewhat related to this. Because I’m a real estate broker, I keep track of STR regulations around the lake, including South Lake Tahoe and Truckee. About 3 weeks ago, I updated what it takes to get a STR permit in all the areas around the lake. Every time I do this, what I learn is that Washoe County is the easiest county in which to get a STR permit and Placer is next. I’ve documented everything. I have a handout here for anybody who’s here. If you want the research I’ve come up with, email me and I’ll send you the document and all the links are active. The address is john@Jtahoe.com.
If you are in a position to support Ann’s upcoming lawsuit, possibly, maybe (wink, wink), please do that. She needs help. She’s been doing a yeoman’s job all these years. And she’s more right than she’s ever been, because things have gotten much worse. And also, if there’s a fire, we’re all in trouble. That’s not even being considered by TRPA and the counties. I think I saw Doug on the call. It’s much worse than it was when Ann started. Thank you very much.
Yolanda Knaak – Incline Village Resident
How many people on TRPA’s Governing Board live in the Tahoe Basin?
Denise Davis
I’ll just share my observation that Placer County tends to be the trailblazer as far as amendments and new ideas for the Basin. So always keep an eye on Placer County.
Yolanda Knaak
My question was how many people on the TRPA Board live in the Tahoe Basin?
Ann Nichols
Maybe 2 or 3 out of 13.
Denise Davis
I’m not sure. We’ll look into that and get you an answer. Let’s move along to their sister organization the TTD. I just want to make everyone aware that we have meetings on December 6. The TRPA APC meeting is in the morning at Stateline. Also on December 6, the TTD— which has several TRPA members—is meeting in Incline at the Prim Library in the afternoon. They have a Regional Partnership and Communications committee meeting at 1:30pm. They have a Finance-and-Personnel meeting at 2:30 pm. And they have a Board meeting at 3 pm also at the Prim Library. Agendas are available for all of those meetings, and I encourage you to take a look at them.
Doug Flaherty – Incline Village Resident, Tahoe Clean Air Director
Just a quick update on some information. I placed our link—Tahoecleanair.org—in the Chat. If you click on that link, you can read the Placer County writ of mandate filed 2 days ago, and also read the press release. There’s been tremendous recognition on the part of the press about this issue in Lake Tahoe. So take a look at the link. The three conservation groups are Ann’s group—North Tahoe Preservation Alliance; Friends of the West Shore, and of course Tahoe Clean Air. Thank you.
Denise Davis
Thank you, Doug. Are there any other questions about TRPA or TTD? No? Then moving on. Just a reminder that now that we are in December, we have a lot of cancelled regular meetings. So the few meetings we do have are important. My personal observation is that they seem to pass a lot of important things when we’re all busy doing other things in December. That’s just my personal observation.
Ann Nichols
I just found out yesterday from TRPA that the Waldorf Astoria wants to have a batch plant on site to handle cement. It wasn’t okay with TRPA before. But now they say, oh yeah, we’re considering it. It will reduce vehicle trips. But you’ll still have to have all the materials to make the cement. You just won’t have as many trucks with mixers. So it’s going to be noise and dirt right on Highway 28 for the next few years. I hope everyone will consider writing to Paul Nielson at TRPA, and say, ”Gee, Paul, no! Thanks.
Denise Davis
I want to remind everyone that Monday evening we have a Citizens Advisory Board (CAB) meeting at the library and online. One of the topics will be in regard to e-bikes. So if you’re interested in that please join us.
The Washoe County Planning Commission monthly meeting in December has been cancelled. The Washoe County Board of Adjustment is meeting on December 7. Their agenda is available if you want to look at that. Also on December 7, there is a Washoe County Development Code Amendment meeting online only. I noticed that ADUs are in a lot of the discussion. ADUs are accessory dwelling units, basically building an additional small dwelling unit on your property. That meeting is online only.
The Washoe Board of County Commissioners is meeting on December 12. The agenda is not posted yet. And on December 12 at the Incline Village hospital there is a walk-in clinic for immunizations. It is sponsored by the Nevada State immunization group. You can get RSV, COVID, flu, and shingles vaccines. Check your insurance. If you have to pay, it is $360. I believe that is everything on my list.
John Crockett – Washoe County Incline Library Head Librarian
Next week we have our holiday party here at the library. So following Candy Cane Lane, next Wednesday, we will have Santa here. We’ll have a craft, you can write letters to Santa. And the Paws to Read dogs will be here which is always awesome. That’s Wednesday at 4 pm. Then we have our Giving Tree up so bring in your donation of warm clothes—hats, mittens, socks—food, or gift cards. We will distribute them through Sierra Community House and they will distribute them to folks in need. So leave something by our Giving Tree through the month of December. And next week we’ll also have our holiday wrapping stations. So if you need some space or some supplies to wrap those gifts, bring them to the library and get them wrapped up.
Aaron Vanderpool
The Tahoe Film festival is currently going on. You can check that out at their website. It’s this weekend and next weekend.
Denise Davis
Yes, that’s one of many holiday activities going on. The IVCBA website has an extensive list of holiday events, so I urge you to check out the IVCBA calendar if you’re interested in going to events and getting in the holiday spirit.
I just want to remind everybody that we have donuts if you’re here in person. If that’s an enticement to join us in person, do. Again, I know we all have a lot of extra things going on in December. But we have very few regular meetings, and the few that we have, seem to focus on important topics. If you can attend, that’s fantastic. If you can listen, that’s good. It’s just important to keep on top of what’s happening
If there are no further questions or comments, everyone please stay safe. Our roads were a little slick this morning. Perhaps winter has arrived. So please stay safe and celebrate safely. We’ll see you in 2 weeks. Bye.
PARTICIPANTS
Aaron Vanderpool
Ann Nichols
Aodhan Downey
Beth & Jon Davidson
Chris King
Chris Wood
Dan Lediard
David Simon
Debbie Nicholas
Denise Davis
Doug Flaherty
Joe Campbell
John Crockett
John Eppolito
Kari Wingate Ferguson
Kristina Hill
Mary Danahey
Michaela Tonking
Nick Tone
Pam Straley
Randall Fleisher
Ronda Tycer
Ryan Sommers
Shirley Appel
Tiffany Clements
Yolanda Knaak
CHAT LOG
09:01:41 From Doug Flaherty : The link to the Placer County Writ and Press Release is now live on our website https://www.tahoecleanair.org/
09:06:17 From Kari Wingate – Ferguson : Event happening tomorrow at the Rec Center: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/candy-cane-lane-village
09:23:02 From Washoe County Libraries : 775-832-4220, dlediard@washoeschools.net, Dan Lediard, IMS Principal
09:47:08 From Washoe County Libraries : john@jtahoe.com
09:55:47 From Kari Wingate – Ferguson : The Recreation Center is a toys for tots drop off location
09:55:53 From Aaron Vanderpool : https://tahoefilmfest.com/
09:56:42 From Kari Wingate – Ferguson : Northern Lights info: https://ivcba.org/northern-lights-tahoe/candy-cane-village/
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 info
775-833-5555
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/operations/roads/Snow%20and%20Ice/snow_ice_ops_incline.php
North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District website
non-emergency fire dispatch (Grass Valley) 530-477-0641, then pick 7
Washoe County emergency alert sign-up
https://www.washoecounty.gov/em/RegionalAlerts.php
Washoe Regional Emergency Information Center
https://www.EmergencyWashoe.com/
IVGID lead and copper pipe survey
https://bit.ly/IVGIDPWLeadandCopperSurvey
(URL is case-sensitive)
FlashVote survey results regarding IVGID venue priorities
https://www.flashvote.com/ivgid-nv/surveys/priorities-11-23
Dec 2 – Candy Cane Lane and Village
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/candy-cane-lane-village
Dec 4 – IV/CB Citizen Advisory Board (CAB) monthly meeting
https://www.washoecounty.gov/CABS/IVCB_CAB/2023/files/IVCB-CAB-Agenda_Dec.-20231.pdf
Dec 5 – Washoe County Planning Commission monthly meeting – CANCELED
Dec 6 – TRPA Advisory Planning Commission at Stateline, NV
https://www.trpa.gov/wp-content/uploads/December-6-2023-APC-Packet.pdf
Dec 6 – TTD committees and board meetings at PRIM LIBRARY in Incline
Dec 7 – Washoe County Board of Adjustment monthly meeting (agenda not posted yet)
Dec 7 – Washoe County Development Code amendments meeting – ONLINE ONLY
(accessory dwelling units (ADUs) are included in several of the amendments)
Dec 12 – Washoe County BCC (agenda not posted yet)
https://www.washoecounty.gov/bcc/board_committees/index.php
Dec 12 – NV state immunization vaccination clinic at Incline hospital
10 am to 2 pm, no appointment – walk in
RSV, covid, flu and shingles vaccines available (check your insurance for coverage / $360 self-pay)
Dec 13 – TRPA Governing Board monthly meeting (agenda not posted yet)
https://www.trpa.gov/event/governing-board-meeting-6/
Washoe311 – request for service
call 311 or 775-328-2003
https://washoecountynv.qscend.com/311/request/add
all applications for Washoe County Commission District 1
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/planning_and_development/applications/apps_commish_district_one.php
Neighborhood Meetings for upcoming projects
https://neighborhood-washoe.hub.arcgis.com/
Tahoe Meadows Access Ramps
IV/CB Community 1st meetings and community info
IVCBA (Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association)
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