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. If you did not get a notice regarding today’s meeting in your email, be sure to sign up at our email address.
Kari Ferguson – Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator
Happy Friday; happy holidays. Diamond Peak is open. Hopefully everyone has picked up their new pass to get through the gate at the lifts. Very exciting. We’re gearing up for a busy holiday season with snow coming in Sunday night, I think I heard. We’ll see how that goes.
We had a Board of Trustees meeting last Wednesday. The new officers for 2024 are: Sara Schmitz, Chair; Mathew Dent Vice Chair; Michaela Tonking Secretary; and Raymond Tulloch Treasurer. The announcement will come out soon. There were also items discussed at the meeting. The video Livestream link will be in the Chat. We don’t have any more board meetings until 2024.
We have modified hours for the Recreation Center on December 24th. We will close 1 hour early. The Administration Building, the Recreation Center, and the Public Works building will be closed on the 25th. I will post the link in the Chat for our venue modified-hours. It’s a page on our website. We’ve been posting our updates there. If you have a water or sewer emergency, there’s a phone number to call, which I’ll put into the Chat. I hope you don’t have one of those over the holiday season. I want to remind everyone that the tree chipping that’s been at Preston Field is now at the overflow-parking lot across from Incline Beach. I’ll put the address on Lakeshore in the Chat.
Denise Davis
There is an Audit Committee meeting scheduled for Wednesday at 4pm.
Kari Ferguson
I see the agenda is up for that, so I’ll put that in the Chat as well. That was a reschedule from a couple of weeks ago.
Denise Davis
There are a number of continuing issues that the committee will be giving verbal updates on. So, if you’re interested in getting more detail about what’s going on at the Audit Committee on the 20th, please check the online agenda. Also, the IVGID Pipe Survey is ongoing. That link will be in the recap. Please help get the Pipe Survey done for our Public Works department.
Kari Ferguson
If you have questions or concerns about it, send me an email or give me a call. I’ll put my phone number in the Chat. We’re trying to get as many people to respond online as we can before mid-January in order to save on postage.
I’ll wear a different hat for another announcement. Incline High School [7:38 inaudible] varsity basketball game is tonight at 7:30. It’s a [7:41 inaudible] so it’s very exciting. So, come on out and cheer on the boys for varsity basketball tonight.
Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief
Chipping for the Christmas trees starts on December 22. And yes, we do get trees on the 22nd—but why, I don’t know. It goes through January 18th or 19th. The ending date I’ll have to check on.
We will not be conducting any more prescribed burns until after the first of the year. We did do some pile burning in the 2nd creek drainage area, and this inversion caught us by surprise. It’s terrible. I’ll fall on the sword for that. If you live near the 2nd creek drainage area, you’re breathing smoke, and I apologize. We’ve been working on extinguishing it the past 5 days, which goes against the objectives, but which is what we need to do for the community. With the weather event coming in on Sunday, hopefully we’ll get a little more wind and get the smoke out of there.
The only other thing that I can do really quickly is mention the Wildfire Protection Plan will not be out for public comment until late spring or early summer. They’re still trying to gather up the other agencies around the basin, which as you know is like 2 states, 7 counties, and 1400 different personalities. We’re getting through it slowly.
Shirley Appel – Incline Village Resident, Homeowners Association President
Living across from the Old Elementary School, I notice there’s been some stuff going on over there. Can you talk to us a bit about what’s happening?
Ryan Sommers
Yes. So last week for 3 days—and it’s over now—we had a building survival class. We had outside instructors come in and invited other agencies from around the basin. These instructors are in demand and very good. We wanted to open it up to other agencies. Actually North Tahoe Fire was the one that put it on, and we just helped with the building for it. So, we were in that building conducting Survival Training.
Shirley Appel
So that was the reason for the hazmat suits? I wondered if it was that or they had started work on the asbestos removal.
Ryan Sommers
When they do that, we’re not there. That’s a different contractor.
Kathie Julian – Incline Village Resident
Elaborate on the Wildfire Protection Plan? I think I missed that. I’m not sure what it is.
Ryan Sommers
Tahoe Resource Conservation District is putting together a plan that is needed for agencies to submit for grant money to conduct fieldwork. In this plan, we’re prioritizing projects around the basin that need work done. It’s a Federal requirement to have this plan. No, it doesn’t touch on evacuations or anything like that. It just touches on what work needs to be done so that it gets prioritized so we can put in for the grants to complete that work. Does that make sense?
Denise Davis
Is this the Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) that we were all talking about?
Ryan Sommers
Yes.
Kathie Julian
Okay, thanks. That puts it in context.
Margaret Martini – Incline Village Resident
I have a question for the Chief. You guys did such a really good job on defensible space all over the village. Do you submit that to an insurance agency so that our insurance is still available and stays low? Do you submit it to a nationwide database, or just regional?
Ryan Sommers
At the beginning of the summer, we went with a company Fire Aside to track defensible space evaluations (DSEs) around the community. That gave us more reliable data that you’re asking about. And then what we do with this data, is the homeowner not only has it, we will submit it to any insurance company that a homeowner is having issues with to prove that the defensible space work has been completed. We aren’t necessarily submitting it anywhere other than on request. Then we’ll submit it to where it needs to go to help the homeowner. We’re not going to send it off to any national database. There’s nothing like that that I know of keeping track. It’s more for the owners’ benefit and to protect our community.
Margaret Martini
So if our insurance company asks for that data, do they ask through us or do we refer them to you?
Ryan Sommers
I think it’s going to depend on who your insurance carrier is in the basin. If they’re local, they will ask for it. If they’re national, they won’t ask for it. They’ll just tell you we’re not going to write any policy because of where you live, or your policy is going to go sky high. At that time I would put the onus back on the homeowner or policy-owner to say, “Wait a second, let me give you some data that shows I’ve done the work around my house. Can you please re-evaluate?” Then you can connect to them.
Margaret Martini
Good. Because I don’t see the same amount of work done around the rest of the basin that I see in Incline Village. And that’s why I say thank you. It’s amazing what you guys have accomplished.
John Eppolito – Incline Village Resident
I have an escrow going right now. Your guy Ryan Dominguez came out and did the defensible space inspection. But what we came across was there were a couple of different insurance companies. One wants the defensible space signoff and one doesn’t. The one that doesn’t is one of the big name insurers. Obviously we could just go with them and it would be easy. My question is, once we get the work done—if we can get it done now before it snows some more—how long does it take for Ryan to come back out and give us that re-inspection that the other insurance company is asking for?
Ryan Sommers
I don’t know exactly what Ryan’s schedule is. But he’s drastically slowed down because of the weather that’s coming in. And if you’re up against an insurance renewal date or an escrow date, please call him, and I know he’ll work with you to prioritize that property and get it in sooner.
John Eppolito
He already did come out and give us the inspection. But now I’ve got a guy who can start today to do the work.
Ryan Sommers
Go do it. Once it’s completed, call us right back, and we’ll go back and sign it off.
John Eppolito
Thank you very much.
Helen Neff – Incline Village Resident
Does this also apply for HOAs? Because HOA insurance has gone up incredibly, and it’s really hitting a lot of people’s assessments.
Ryan Sommers
Yes. It does apply to HOAs, We are working with a few HOAs that have that exact same scenario right now. What the HOAs do with their tenants, we have no control over. A lot of people come back to us and say, “Hey, as a result of your inspection, we’re going to get a one-time assessment fee of X-amount of dollars.” I’m like, “I’m sorry. That’s between you and your HOA.” But yes, we are doing the same thing for HOAs. We are working with a few in town right now.
Helen Neff
And is it known that you offer this great service among the realtors?
Ryan Sommers
John, that’s a question for you. Are realtors well aware of our defensible space program?
John Eppolito
We are when it comes up in an escrow we’re trying to close. Until then, some probably aren’t.
Ryan Sommers
We try to do our best getting the word out. I know for a fact the local insurers all know about it. We have held meetings with all the insurance carriers.
Helen Neff
That’s the agents? [Yes] Okay, great. Thank you.
Denise Davis
Thank you, Chief, for being with us today. We don’t have anyone from the Sheriff’s office this morning. I want to remind everyone that the Red-Day/Green-Day parking information is available at 775-833-5555.
Aaron Vanderpool – Incline Village Resident
Could I jump in here, Denise? I have to run but I had an issue related to that. [Okay.] I heard Shirley Appel there. She’s usually the one speaking about noise problems in our neighborhood down there [near the Old Elementary School]. I just want to remind her and everybody that she’s not alone. My entire neighborhood… and our HOA are fed up with the noise. It’s been going on for 3 years now. We’re going to be putting together either a legal action or a petition to file an action on behalf of the whole neighborhood against these cars, because it’s getting out of hand. Thank you.
Denise Davis
Shirley said thank you Aaron. I also want to let you know that this week we had 18 new graduates who are now deputies from the WCSO academy. We have some people coming in. We have a lot of folks retiring, so it’s good to know we’re refilling those slots.
Helen Neff
This was going to be a question for the sheriff, but I don’t know if anyone else knows. I was out of town last weekend, but I got an alert on my phone that there was a crash on Northwood and State Route 28. I don’t know if it was by the Old Elementary School or by 947 Tahoe Boulevard condos. I was going to ask the sheriff. Does anyone know anything about that crash? It was Sunday evening around 6:30.
Shirley Appel
In the morning or evening?
Helen Neff
Evening.
Shirley Appel
Because I saw police lights the other morning.
Helen Neff
It was evening. Does the fire department know anything? I’ll call the sheriff.
Denise Davis
Yes, the substation.
Ryan Sommers
It’s on the highway, so call Nevada Highway Patrol (NHP).
Denise Davis
Yes, thank you Chief for reminding us about that. Moving on, a couple of quick things from IVCBA. In case you haven’t heard, the Hyatt announced that their renovation has been postponed indefinitely. Linda also shared with us that Judge Tiras has decided to retire at the end of his term in January of 2025. And with us today, we have… Come up by the microphone.
Melissa Mangiaracina – Incline Village Resident, Candidate to Replace Judge Tiras
I have been sitting in as pro tem for Judge Tiras for about 10 years now. I have lived in Incline since 1998, with the exception of leaving for law school. I’ve been here a long time. I’ve raised my kids here. I am part of this community, but there are a lot of people I don’t know. I will be putting my name in the hat for replacing Judge Tiras. I’m happy to get to know all of you [inaudible 21:37].
Denise Davis
Thank you. Thanks for joining us today. John, tell us about the events at the library.
John Crockett – Washoe County Incline Library Head Librarian
Absolutely. So our next program is a SaturYea. It’s our monthly kind of crafty program where we up-cycle book ornaments between 1 and 3 pm. We still have our wrap station going. So if you need to wrap a gift, we have the table and supplies—scissors, tape, all that good stuff—while supplies last. Coming up over holiday break we have our Yeti Escape Room. You can sign up with a group –ages 8 and up—to do an Escape Room here in the library. That’s with Russell. We have time slots on the 28th, which I believe is a Thursday, and on January 4th. Those are cool things happening at the library.
Jeff Church – Washoe County School District Trustee
We had our big meeting where we approved our Facilities Management Plan which is a well-done plan, basically with regards to closing Incline Middle School, they kicked the can down the road. They are going to form a committee. But I urge people to not join any 25-person unwieldy biased committee with too many school district employees. I think IVGID or some other organization should form its own committee. A committee is great if it’s manageable—7 or 10 people—but not 25, and not biased.
As you know, we have a new interim superintendent. The outgoing superintendent leaves February 9. We’ve rehired Kristin McNeill. I have concerns, but I voted to hire her. She can definitely hit the ground running. But that changes everything in terms of either the interim superintendent or the next superintendent making recommendations regarding Incline Middle School. It changes everything. How Incline folks want to proceed is up to them. So, that’s about it with that. Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah. My last name is Church but I’m 50% Jewish. So Happy Hanukkah and Merry Christmas to everyone.
Denise Davis
Thank you Jeff. Kathie Julian, do you want to give us an update on what happened at the Board of Adjustment?
Kathie Julian
Yes I would. I attended the Board of Adjustment (BoA) meeting as a member, and they were looking at the Waldorf Astoria (WALT) project. I know it’s a controversial project. After review, I said I could support the request that came before the BoA. It was a fairly narrow request. They needed approvals for employee housing and some multi-family dwellings—25 owned condos and 36 other condo units, general merchandise stores, vehicle storage and parking—specifically paid parking—and a transmission facility that they needed clearance for.
I spoke on two issues that I thought we needed to adjust for this to not be detrimental to the community.
The first was work hours. The County had proposed work hours from 8 am to 6:30 pm Monday through Saturday. I proposed no work on Saturday, pointing to the Department of Transportation data showing 23,000 vehicles passing through that choke point on weekends in July. I proposed that they make up for not working on Saturday by starting work earlier the other days from 7 am to 7 pm, which would add about 7 ½ hours to the workdays. Sadly, the other four members of the BoA would not buy into this, and the developer EKN’s representative didn’t support eliminating Saturday workdays. This is for the construction of the actual building. I’m not quite sure what the workdays are for grading. This was just for demolition and construction of the building. That was the first thing I would say the community lost on.
The second point was on parking. I’m not sure people understand how WALT/EKN are planning their parking. They do not plan to allow “self-park” except for the people who own a condominium. All guests to the hotel and facilities—casinos, restaurants, and stores—must use valet parking. I understand this was strongly supported by TRPA. With that in mind, EKN and TRPA advocated for only 124 spaces. County code says you should have 534 parking spaces. And their own consultant said they needed 461. I proposed the middle ground of 461 parking spaces, arguing that if you have overflow, it will overflow into the surrounding neighborhood near the Waldorf complex. Crystal-Bay residents will be seriously inconvenienced by the cars parking on their streets. Again, I didn’t get support from the other four members of the BoA. And EKN’s representative was also opposed to increasing the number of parking spaces. It’s interesting to note they were advocating, “Oh, we’ll have all this public transit. We’re going to put in 120 spaces for bicycles.” I pointed out that people coming to the casino would not be riding their bikes. But in any case, that’s where we stand.
I’m going to flag something for the community to pay attention to in the coming months. Excavation and grading will be done in May 2024. The developers have to submit hauling plans to the county to get approval for their hauling routes. I understand from EKN they will remove 154,000 cubic yards of dirt just for grading the parcel. If you Google it, that requires about 13,000 1-way trips with a dump truck. That’s going to have to exit the basin. When I checked with the county, they said the person in the Engineering Department who is looking at the hauling plans indicated it would probably have to go through Incline Village. Route 50 is the obvious place to get it out of the basin. We have to be on our toes. The hauling plans are not going to be public nor will the public be noticed in any way. They will go from EKN to the Washoe County Engineering department. So we’re going to have to watch that to make sure the community knows what is in those hauling plans, and what the county and EKN have in store for our small community when hauling all this material out during the summer months from May 15 to October 15.
Denise Davis
So the nice new roads we just got—and we all had to deal with construction delays – will be used for dump trucks.
Kathie Julian
If you Google how much a dump truck can hold, I think it’s 10-12 cubic yards. If you divide that into the 154,000—and it’s excavation over 2 years – it’s about 64 1-way trips per day, assuming a 5-day workweek. I’m not exactly clear on the excavation. They may not have excavation on Saturdays. But sadly, the construction will be on Saturdays. I throw my hands up. I had the data from the NV Department of Transportation. I tried my best to convince people. There was a sense of, “Oh, we shouldn’t get into the details.” And of course if EKN and the developer don’t support it, that makes it more difficult as well.
John Eppolito
Following on what Kathie said, and maybe she’ll know the answer because I think she was at the TRPA meeting at least via screen 2 days ago. And the parking, I guess EKN is realizing that parking is going to start being an issue in the basin. So they’re not going to offer any parking other than valet parking unless you buy one of the condos. And it sounds like they have 25 new condos approved after the original plan. Is that true Kathie?
Kathie Julian
What came through the Board of Adjustment was complicated. There are 25 individually-owned condos and 36 condominium units. What that means is the 25 individually-owned condos are traditional condos like the 18 that exist there already. The other 36 are also condos that are individually owned, but have lock-offs so that the hotel can use them and manage them as rentals. You will have about 58 “condos” that are managed much like those at Squaw Palisades and Northstar above the commercial area. These are owned by individuals but they are largely managed by the resort as vacation housing. I’m assuming that the people who actually own those condos could probably self-park, but the people who rent would do valet parking.
We pointed out, what happens if valet parking doesn’t work? What are you going to do then? They might change their business model, in which case we will have the overflow parking. One thing they did not mention, but I thought of, is there will be the Crystal Bay parking garage across the street. Maybe they’re thinking the overflow will park there. But that wasn’t mentioned. I’m sure it wasn’t mentioned because if they did include their parking in the Crystal Bay parking, TRPA would say, “Oh, no, no, no. You can’t do that. We want your facility to have as few parking spaces as possible.” When I sit back and look at this, I see that TRPA has completely unrealistic expectations of the community here.
John Eppolito
I want to elaborate on that Kathie. From that meeting on Wednesday… I believe the only media outlet that covered it was Channel 2. I have here what they wrote for the people who want a copy. I think there were at least three TRPA people who said for some of these new developments there’s zero parking requirements. Is that true? To me that was scary. Do you know if that’s true?
Kathie Julian
No, I have no idea. All I know is that there was one little piece of this proposal that was changed, which was that there are 14 employee-housing units to be developed on site. There will be small condos on site. They had in there 1 parking space per condo, I think. But there was a waiver that they could get rid of those 14 parking spaces for those 14 employee rental units, if they were able to show public transit was available.
Denise Davis
Kathie, I think Helen has some information about that.
Helen Neff – Incline Village Resident
So you’re talking about the TRPA’s Phase 2 housing amendments. If you are a developer, and if you’re going to build 100% affordable workforce housing—not the achievable level— you are exempt from any minimum parking restrictions. I believe I have that correct. But that needs to also be adopted by local jurisdictions like Washoe, Placer, or El Dorado Counties, or the City of South Lake Tahoe. That was passed on the assumption that transit will follow. And the documents say what comes first – the cart or the horse. They’re saying that by building residential buildings without parking, people will be motivated to take transit. Once there will be more people on transit, then we’ll have better transit options.
John Eppolito
So they’re just going to fly in and fly out?
Helen Neff
I don’t know the answer to that. I’ll use this opportunity to say that Francisco Aguilar—Nevada Secretary of State—was the one Governing Board member who voted against the Phase 2 Housing Amendments. His email is cisco@sos.nv.gov. His comment was something to the effect that he believed the Governing Board needed to listen more to the community and their objections. Diane Becker had a good suggestion that we should email him and give him a thank you for listening. He also serves on the Transportation committee. I know for my part I am going to send him a further email bringing up my concerns with this and asking perhaps if transit could come before the buildings with no parking, so that it’s there.
Judy Simon – Crystal Bay Resident, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Advisory Planning Committee Member
I don’t know what more I can offer. Basically, I sent our coordinators the report from Karen Fink, who is the person who’s been working on the housing amendments. I don’t know if she’s the head planner. It was a very long meeting. Some of the people in this room were there virtually or in person to testify or give their point of view. I think they finally voted at 6:30 or 7 pm. They did discuss these things, but I don’t know the final standing on some of them. The decision on maximum height in transition zones (i.e., multifamily units next to town center urban zones) was moved to Phase 3. In the town center urban zones—and I’ve never really considered Lake Tahoe urban—the maximum height is 65 feet. The bonus unit pool—which I don’t believe is legal in Washoe County—allows for 75% affordable or moderate units with 25% achievable units. I think Washoe County still requires a minimum lot of 1 acre if you want a bonus unit. I’m not sure about that. This is something I’ve spoken against.
I think TRPA is singularly unprepared to do any kind of enforcement or audit. So, if they are going to take that on, you can look for a request for hiring more staff to create that bureaucracy, which the counties already sort of have, but probably not what we need for something of this scale.
The other change they approved was development projects in multifamily zones can only get the 70% coverage incentive if they tie in to an area-wide storm-water treatment system. That was sort of a sop to the problem of building in these more delicate zones.
The Tahoe Living Working Group (TLWG), which I also try to serve on—although I’m not sure if my concerns are having any traction—is going to meet on January 31. That’s coming up. But they have not met for 6 months at least. The October meeting was scheduled and then cancelled.
It’s very interesting because our Washoe County representatives who are on these various committees, Washoe Planner Eric Young and Commissioner Alexis Hill, are fully in favor of the 65-foot height and other amendments.
Parking is an issue cutting a couple of ways, especially for the Placer people. Placer believes they would get more affordable or workforce housing built without the parking requirement. I think that is reflected in their Area Plan (TBAP). Our Tahoe Area Plan (TAP) for Washoe has the allowance for 65 ft. in height and no parking.
As I said, it was a very long meeting. I urge you to look at the website. A lot of people were opposed to various aspects, so we’ll see where this goes. They moved things to Phase 3 but essentially they approved it with the proviso to go back to the drawing board for some of these issues.
I should say Linda Offerdahl was trying to get some kind of a thing going for Incline. She had a small group meeting to talk about what we might be able to do here that would be a little different. And we heard about a Truckee housing proposal that offers a rebate to homeowners who would either rent out a room in their home or rent out their whole home (if no one is using it) to employees. Sorry I couldn’t be more forthcoming, but I’m trying to summarize about 2 or 3 months of meetings.
Kathie Julian
I think an important point to make—and it’s a point I made in my comments– this reference to “100% deed restriction” is bogus. It is a misnomer because the “implementation provision” in the county Area Plan amendments allows for counties to say, “We’ll take advantage of the increased allowances in height up to 65’, and the increased coverage up to 100%, but we don’t want the 100% deed restriction housing because we do not believe that is financially feasible. Therefore, we will suggest inclusionary housing that may only be 10% achievable—not even affordable or moderate—but 10% achievable—and we think this satisfies TRPA’s Governing Board requirements.” As in the case of the Special Area 1 in Incline Village, this is what was approved and cleared by TRPA. So, we can see that all of these changes to the TRPA code will not result in a lot of workforce housing. It will result in a smattering of workforce housing together with mixed use/mixed income… for lack of a better word… “luxury condos” – because this is what is profitable to the developers. It’s not 100% deed restricted. People should not be using the term 100% deed restricted, because that is not the reality we will see. That’s because of the “implementation provision,” which allows the counties to adjust it within the scope of their Tahoe Area Plan amendments. This is what we have to keep our eyes open for—the Tahoe Area Plan amendments—and how they will be put forth in the coming year.
Denise Davis
Just to add to that comment, it was mentioned at the Washoe County Development Code meeting that the commissioners have already directed staff to start working on the Tahoe Area Plan amendments. So, keep your eyes and ears open for that.
Margaret Martini – Incline Village Resident
I went to the TRPA meeting and sat there, and sat there, and sat there. What I took away is that TRPA is not the basin’s friend, and neither is our county commissioner. They are so pro-development, it is off the charts.
Tell me who drives 3/4ths of a car. When they’re allotting parking, they say, you only need to have .75 parking spaces per unit. How does that compute? It doesn’t.
In dealing with TRPA over the years, I have found that when you have a designated “affordable housing” place listed or you’re selling one, TRPA says, “Well, we’re really not enforcing that. It’s up to the county.” And then you go to the county and ask, “What are the income parameters for moderate-income housing?” Washoe County says, “Oh, well we don’t do that. That’s the TRPA. We absolutely don’t have anything to do with that, and we’re not enforcing it.” Then you go back to the TRPA. “What are your parameters”? “Well we’re kind of looking at what Washoe County has for “low-income” or “moderate income” parameters on their website. So you go back to the website and look at it. Then you go back to your client and say, “You most likely don’t meet the moderate income housing parameters as far as income.” Then what do you do? There’s absolutely no enforcement. And like Judy said, if they add enforcement it just adds to the bureaucracy. They’ll have the bureaucracy and they’ll say, “We do this.” But they won’t have any enforcement. You will have people who are buying these moderate-income housing units, and saying “Oh, what the hell.” And that’s what’s been happening for years and years and years with the few units that we already have. There are very few places here in Incline that we have moderate-income housing.
So, you have to look at the TRPA. It is not the basin’s friend. Look at what they just passed at the meeting. Half of the Governing Board members left before the vote. There were people in the room, and the people on the Board didn’t even care enough to stay to have their vote heard or counted. And very few of them even spoke up on it because there were hard questions and they didn’t want to answer the hard questions. I ask them to clarify what is .75 of a parking place. Just explain that to me. No, they couldn’t. Our Washoe County Commissioner Alexis Hill is so pro big development, it’s scary; and it was pretty obvious at the TRPA meeting.
I want to caution everybody. When the TRPA says something, they don’t really have any means of enforcement, and they’re not going to have it. What’s going to happen is exactly what has happened here. Your moderate-income housing is going to be sold to the people who have higher incomes. And they’re just going to go “Nya, nya, nya nya, nya,” just like they have all these years. It’s a lower priced property in a very high-priced area. It’s going to be desirable. The county is backing off. “This is not our jurisdiction; we do not enforce.” Even though it goes with your property—it’s a deed-restriction on your property—but there is not going to be any enforcement. And that’s the way it’s always been.
John Eppolito
Along these same lines, Alexis Hill was the first person to leave. I think she was just sick of hearing people opposed to the plan. Either way, she was the first committee person to leave. I’ve been selling real estate here for 26 years. The TRPA just used to be an annoyance—if people wanted to add a deck or add onto their house, or put a driveway in—and sometimes you couldn’t do it… The TRPA has changed over these 26 years. Now they’ve got into the development game. It’s not what it was 26 years ago. I think the TRPA has lost their way. I’m not the only one who thinks that. If you look at their mission statement—it’s not even a paragraph or maybe one paragraph, but it’s not what they’re doing now, not even close to their mission statement. They probably should change it.
Someone brought up Truckee. If you want to do a short-term rental (STR) in Truckee, there’s a waiting list of 1 year. If you buy a new property, you have to wait 1 year to get on the waiting list. We can’t compare ourselves to what Truckee is doing unless we take these other steps, which our current commissioner is not really interested in doing. The other thing with our STRs here, we learned in this meeting that enforcement is 9-4 Monday through Friday, not in the middle of the night when we need somebody. Our county is not even close to having a good handle on STRs like Truckee or South Lake Tahoe or Douglas County. We can’t compare those guys to us until we start to clean up our act here.
Judy Simon
I’ll just mention one other thing. I see Doug Flaherty is still here. There is a group suing Placer County to prevent these changes in their county Tahoe Area Plan (TBAP). I did raise that issue about what would happen if they prevail. They were a little bit uncertain, but maybe Doug can speak to the timeline. It doesn’t affect Washoe County.
Doug Flaherty – Incline Village Resident, Tahoe Clean Air Director
Friends of the West Shore, Ann Nichols group North Tahoe Alliance, our nonprofit here Tahoe Clean Air.org of which I’m president – filed a lawsuit against the Placer County TBAP changes, which pretty much mirror what the TRPA is trying to do. As far as the effect on the TRPA’s increases in height, density, and coverage, I think it will have a significant effect on that.
Nobody likes to threaten lawsuits, but the truth of the matter is, there’s already momentum being gained to go ahead and file a suit against TRPA as well as Placer County. I think there’s a 90% certainty that’s going to happen. The only thing these people understand is a judge’s order or taking their money away. It’s important for us to be vocal and stand up and make our feelings known. That’s very important. And what we say in those meetings is very important to give us legal standing.
So, we have a lot of battles coming up. The first will be the Placer County lawsuit, and you can find a copy of that on tahoecleanair.org. The second lawsuit will be TRPA. And then there will be lots of issues in the next few years that are going to need community support. I hate to always be asking for money, but please donate to Friends of the West Shore, North Tahoe Alliance, or Tahoe Clean Air. Lawsuits aren’t cheap, but they will happen.
I don’t know if the Fire Chief is still in the room, but he stood up in favor of the TRPA amendments. I’d like to know why.
Denise Davis
He had to leave us, so he’s not with us any longer.
Doug Flaherty
Seems like a lot of community members leave “at the right time.” Thank you.
Denise Davis
Moving on, I want to make sure we have a quick discussion here about what’s happening at the Board of County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday December 19th. Agenda Item 9 is a recommendation to provide direction to staff on amendments to Washoe County Code in regard to Short Term Rentals (STRs) This item will be “virtual public comment eligible” for Incline residents from the library only. So, if you’re here at the library watching the meeting, you will be able to do virtual public comment here from the library only.
I also want to mention that as I was scrolling through the agenda, I found an item in the consent section that was interesting. “A recommendation to retroactively approve a fiscal year 2024 Community Support grant award to the Sun Valley General Improvement District for $90,000 for operational support of the SVGID Parks and Recreation fund. Well, maybe IVGID needs to find out how we can get such a grant.
I also want to let everyone know that the “Report of Property Tax Refunds” for the month ending November 30, 2023 shows:
Total Tax Dollars refunded to date = $22,607,377.00
Total Interest = $21,608,068.00
Grand Total = $44,215,445.00
Kathie Julian
I have a question. Is there any public information about the allocation of those tax refund payments, if not to individuals, at least the sizes of the refunds to particular parties? You don’t have to answer that now. But that’s a general question. I’d be curious about who is getting all that money; or at least, what size chunks are going out to particular property owners, not identifying personal names.
My second point was on the meeting on Accessory Dwelling Unit (ADU) code changes lately. They mentioned there would be something coming up before the Board of Commissioners in the context of ADUs and STRs. That is the point you made about the direction to go in vis-à-vis STRs. And another thing for the community members to keep their eyes open and watch out for, is the proposal to allow ADUs on less than 1 acre in Incline Village and Crystal Bay (IVCB), and whether that property can use those ADUs for STRs. They are already changing the rules for manufactured housing, allowing up to 1200 sq ft of manufactured housing per parcel. That would accommodate workers and/or it could accommodate STR renters. So, as a community we have to keep our eyes out for the introduction of ADUs into IVCB and what they can be used for. Thanks.
Denise Davis
And two more things to be aware of from Washoe County. Your property valuation notices are in the mail, so please be sure to check those. If you pay your property tax in installments, those are due at the beginning of the year.
They are also looking for election workers. They are asking people to please check their voter registration cards to make sure you’re registered where you think you’re registered.
And just a quick comment… I also attended one of the online development code meetings regarding ADUs. It was interesting to me that for a long time we’ve heard that “Everything in Washoe County has to be treated the same,” and yet, the comment from the Planning Commission employees was “The ADU changes don’t concern Tahoe because IVCB has its own Tahoe Area Plan. And that doesn’t even use the exact same wording for “zoning.” Our zoning is called different things, so because those exact words are not in the Washoe County code, we’re separate. So, as always, it’s “Oh you guys are different” in some instances, and in other instances, “Oh, no, you guys can’t be different because we’re all in the same County.” So, as always to me, it was clear as mud.
Margaret Martini
I have a comment on Kathie’s question. I was on the property tax revolt from Day 1, when this all started. The reason it cost the county so much money is because the county attorney kept saying “We’re going to win the lawsuit.” So, it continued on from court to court even though the courts ruled in Incline Village residents’ favor. So, when it first started when the assessments were first raised to a higher level, those property owners in that period of time are the ones who got the refund. It was actually almost only $500,000 when it first started. But with all the interest, it ballooned to $44 million. You can thank your county commissioners and Mr. Lipparelli, the Washoe County District Attorney, for costing the county all that money. It not only cost the county a lot of money, it cost the community of IVCB. At the county level we lost a lot of respect. “Oh, all they want is money, money, money.” It was like that with a lot of people in the rest of the county. But it was the county’s own fault. It could have been cured the first year for a relatively small amount of money. So, if you wanted to know who got the refunds, you’d have to go back to those years and see who the property owners were in those years that paid the higher taxes.
Denise Davis
I believe at some point in 2024, if you have not filed for your refund, it will expire. The deadline is sometime in 2024. Thanks, Margaret.
Pam Straley — Incline Village Resident
I have a question. Whatever became of the group that was trying to break Incline Village away from Washoe County?
Denise Davis
They still exist. The efforts to move forward with the city were put on hold during the recall effort. Petition signing for the recall and trying to get another petition signed for forming the City of Incline Village was too much to deal with at one time. So the City of Incline efforts were put on hold while the IVGID Trustee recall issue played out.
Okay, any other quick comments? We are a few minutes past. So, thank you everyone for being with us today. I remind you that our next meeting will be January 5, so you’ll have an extra Friday off. Just take this time to rest, recharge, and get ready, because, as always, once we get to January 1st, the floodgates open on meetings, regulations, development code changes, and all of that. So rest up, and get prepared.
Have a good holiday season. Be safe, be careful. And we will see you on January 5. Bye.
Kari Ferguson – Thank you Denise and John. Thank you everyone. Happy holidays.
CHAT LOG
09:01:39 From LtCol Jeff Church : Jeff Church here. I may need to go but update on Closing IVMS. WCSD Board approved the overall plan but kicking the can down the road on Incline. I urge folks not to be part of any unwieldy large biased committee. We need an independent IV run committee. JEFF CHURCH
09:02:32 From Washoe County Libraries : Thank you, Jeff!
09:03:39 From LtCol Jeff Church : Part Two: Not going into detail but for those that saw the accusations vs me, we need an independent investigation. I have nothing to hide and any accusations are 100% false, Nuff said.
09:06:04 From kathie julian : Washoe County District 1 covering IVCB, list of upcoming projects that have requested accommodation from the County. These will go to Planning Commission, Board of Adjustment or just staff review:https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/planning_and_development/applications/apps_commish_district_one.php
09:08:50 From Kari from IVGID : Audit Committee Meeting agenda: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/20231220_Audit_Committee_Agenda_Final.pdf
09:09:37 From Kari from IVGID : IVGID Venue Modifications page:
09:09:52 From Kari from IVGID : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/news/venue-closures-modified-operations
09:10:32 From Kari from IVGID to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Hi, its still me being featured on video:-)
09:11:39 From Kari from IVGID to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Public Works pipe survey link: http://s.alchemer.com/s3/2023-Public-Works-Lead-Copper-Rule-Survey
09:12:07 From Washoe County Libraries to Kari from IVGID(Direct Message) : I’m sorry Kari. I’m dropping the ball today. Like I haven’t done this before! Sorry about that.
09:14:03 From Aaron Vanderpool to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : Kari is stuck as speaker view
09:14:51 From Kari from IVGID to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : never! You are amazing!!!!!
09:15:42 From Washoe County Libraries to Aaron Vanderpool (Direct Message) : Thanks Aaron. Does it look ok now?
09:15:55 From Aaron Vanderpool to Washoe County Libraries(Direct Message) : fixed. thanks!
09:15:59 From Washoe County Libraries to Aaron Vanderpool (Direct Message) : thank you!
09:16:16 From Washoe County Libraries : Sorry for the video and sound issues folks!
09:22:54 From Doug Flaherty : Please ask the speakers to speak to the mic. When they turn to speak to the audience it greatly reduced our ability hear.
09:35:32 From Kari from IVGID : Holiday Tree Chipping Program info: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/holiday-tree-recycling
09:48:52 From Jacquie Chandler : more reasons to create a ‘ Tahoe County’ so all communities in the basin work together using the TOT funds generated that will stay in the basin to solve challenges unique to the Lake environment. If Congress can create a bi-state compact they replace the TRPA with jurisdiction that allows for a Basin -only County, so the people living here can work to create County laws that serve the Lake, land, wildlife and forest in the basin
09:52:09 From Jacquie Chandler : non of the existing counties can make laws that truly serve the Lake because county laws need to serve an entire county, of which most is outside the basin, so its not their fault, as they serve people not at the lake. the lake National Treasure, needs special mitigation not needed outside the basin – this is the root problem that continues to get worse and the TRPA can’t override County laws on some issues so it all comes back to the County and the County that would serve the lake would be a county governing land at the lake
09:59:42 From Chris King : Doug – I’m a licensed attorney in California. My practice doesn’t include the expertise to lead the lawsuit that’s been filed, but I’m happy to help by reviewing documents, etc. Can you send the link to the lawsuit online? Thanks, Chris
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 19 – Washoe County BCC
Dec 20 – IVGID Audit Committee
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/20231220_Audit_Committee_Agenda_Final.pdf
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/
Washoe County Voter Registration info
https://www.washoecounty.gov/voters/register_to_vote/check-my-registration.php
IV/CB Community 1st meetings and community info
IVCBA (Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association)
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