IV/CB Community Forum Meeting Minutes

May 5, 2023

Denise Davis – IVCB Forum Moderator

Good morning and happy Cinco de Mayo, Forum. I want to let you know that if you’re here in person, Steve Dolan brought us doughnuts. So thank you, Steve!

I’m Denise Davis, your moderator. Ronda Tycer is our forum recap editor, and Amanda McPhaill is our tech guru. As a reminder, our meeting is being recorded. Before you begin speaking, please state your name. While speaking, please be respectful. Personal attacks will not be tolerated. For those online, if you’d like to share URLs, post them in the Chat Box and they’ll be included in the meeting recap. We partner with IVCB Community 1s.t.org and IVCBA.org to get information out. So, be sure to visit their websites and sign up for their newsletters. To sign up for our forum meeting notices and recaps, send an email to us at ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com.

Kari Ferguson – Incline Village General Improvement District Communication Coordinator

Good morning. I’m in my office and my camera doesn’t seem to work. Happy-Friday to everyone in Incline Village and Crystal Bay. I want to give everyone a few updates. As most of you know, Diamond Peak closed on Monday, so we had our last day of operation May 1st. It’s only the second time in history that we’ve been open into May. We had lots of families come out on the last day. I want to let you know that the uphill access is still available for folks if you have an uphill access pass. You must have a pass. You can email me questions about that. We do sell the passes during the ski season. You’re going to need to know all the maintenance and anything else that’s going on up there. Otherwise, make sure to be off the mountain until the entire season is over.

On May 2nd, we opened the Ski Beach boat ramp for limited preseason hours 9 am-6:30 pm.  We have staff on site at all the beaches. This is a friendly reminder to carry your IVGID pass, which is now called an “IVGID Recreation Pass”—which was called a “Picture Pass” before—and the other cards are now the “IVGID Recreation Punch Cards.”  So keep those passes on you. You can take a photo of your pass on your phone, which is scan-able at the gate.  That’s a big thing. The kids love it because they never have their cards with them or wallets.  So take a picture of your IVGID pass and scan it at the gate. It makes it really easy, because most people have their smartphones with them.

As to golf, we’re hoping that maybe in the next few weeks, we’ll be able to open. We’re doing some work, getting the snow removed and courses ready for that. As soon as I have a date, I will email Denise. We do have a special Board meeting regarding golf pricing. It’s at the Chateau at 6pm Monday May 8. The agenda is posted online. It includes all the pieces of the golf pricing policy they will go over. I’ll put that link in the Chat.

We also have an IVGID Board of Trustees meeting on Wednesday. I don’t yet have the agenda. But I’m sure it will be posted soon.

Denise Davis

It was posted last night.

Kari Ferguson

I’ll have to look at that and give the link to the page, because it has everything on there, so, thank you.

And lastly—we have construction. It’s huge. Jen will be talking about construction as well. There is a lot of construction. Yesterday I drove the truck for the track meet, and I will tell you, the pothole situation is real. It was a terrifying drive. I’m going to talk about Highway 28, which is the effluent pipeline. They are replacing pieces of the original pipeline. They are working on that depending on the weather. They were supposed to be working this week, but that hasn’t happened because of the weather. I’ll put a link in the Chat to that project.

The information I have is that they will be working in the evenings Sunday through Friday evenings. We are working with Granite Construction, so when you see Granite trucks that’s an IVGID project. You’ll see IVGID trucks out there as well. There are a few other projects happening that Jen will talk about.  And that’s different construction projects with different schedules. We’re working together to try to help clarify things. That’s it for IVGID.

Denise Davis

Your banner on the IVGID page said that work hours would be 7pm Sunday to 1pm Friday for the effluent export pipeline.

Kari Ferguson

 Yes, that’s what we have so far, but it’s always changeable due to weather.

Chris Woods – Incline Village Resident, Incline Citizen Advisory Board Member

Kari, I have a quick question about the uphill pass. Does the existing Diamond Peak pass or one for next year cover that uphill pass?

Kari Ferguson

No, it does not. It’s a separate pass, because you are put into a “text group” to alert you if they are doing any work, or there are different conditions, or that sort of thing. So it’s a different program.

Chris Wood

Do you need an uphill pass to hike up or down the mountain in the summer?

Kari Ferguson

No, you do not. When I get the date for when you don’t passes, I’ll let you guys know.

I’ll put the link to the uphill policy in the Chat so everyone has that. That was a good question, thank you Chris.

Chris Wood

That would be great, thank you.

Denise Davis

I just want to let everyone know that if you didn’t notice, in your IVGID bill this month is Public Works news. It has a very good article about our watershed. It’s a quick read but it’s very informative. So thanks to Public Works for all that information.

Kari Ferguson

I forgot about pine needles. If you can actually get to your pine needles, you can take those down, and you can bring truckloads as approved, and bring the stickers with you.  Or you can bag them up until, I believe, July 28. I’ll put that in the Chat as well.

Denise Davis

A quick look at the IVGID Board meeting agenda for Wednesday May 10th shows that the things on the Consent Calendar are:

meeting minutes,

setting the date and time for the public hearing on utility rates,

discuss and approve amendment for Clean Tahoe’s contract services;

review and possibly authorize District General Manager to execute a change order for KPS-3 for professional services for the “Your Tahoe Place.com” website;

review and discuss the construction contract for the Mountain course golf path restoration;

discuss and possibly approve all or portions of the management consulting engagement with Moss Adams and reallocate money.

That’s what’s on the agenda for the Wednesday May 10 Board meeting at the Administration Building on Southwood. Again, the Monday May 8 meeting is about golf at the Chateau.

Speaking about construction, Jenn do you want to introduce yourself and tell us about all the projects going on this summer?

Jenn Boyd Lemming – Whiting (?) Public Relations (with NDOT)

Absolutely. Thanks for having me. I hope you can hear me with the background noise here at the airport in Long Beach. It’s beautiful outside, so I love this airport. I’m Jen Lemmings with Whiting Public Relations. We are part of the outreach team for the State Route 431/Route 28 project, which is now in its third construction season.

Thank you, Denise and team for having us and allowing us to come to this group. Sorry we have not connected sooner. I hope most of you are on our NDOT email list already (at www.inclinehighways.com) and familiar with what we’ve been working on the past two seasons—conduit installation and paving.

What is in store for this season is finishing up the paving from Mt Rose summit the rest of the way down. That’s quite the moving target with all of this weather, and you may have seen some work already starting on Mt Rose, but they’re hoping to start paving near the end of month. The goal is to have that completed by July so Mt. Rose is completely done by July. The rest of the work will be on SR 28. And you’ll start to see on Monday—as Kari said we lost a whole week of work with the weather, and we’ll probably have some late snow coming in May as we usually seem to get. But starting Monday May 8, you’ll see some work happening at the intersection along 28. They’re starting first at Northwood and they’ll be doing the [ ] conduit work just like they did on Mt. Rose. There will be some intersections closed and side-street detours. There will still be pedestrian access. Bikes will have to share a lane with vehicles. When they’re done with that intersection, they’ll move along, and maybe need to close another intersection. So that’s going to be tight and a lot of work. That’s the main focus starting here next week, and hopefully wrapping up pretty quickly. And hopefully the weather cooperates. That will be the main part of our work for the early part of the season.

I’ll put in the Chat the link to our website and how you can get a text alert or newsletters, so you can continue to get information. Because a lot of it—we have this grandiose plan— a lot changes with weather. Things may shift as we’re pivoting and working on different areas. This is the first season, as I mentioned, so we’ll be working through October. And we’re hoping to wrap up everything as quickly as possible.

Those are our projects, but we do have neighboring projects. That may be confusing because they are in the same area. Kari mentioned that Granite Construction is doing work around Marlette Creek. We are going to be doing Marlette Creek work too, and our contractor is Q&D construction. Q&D also has the contract for the Southwest gas pipeline in Tahoe City and Kings Beach areas. Depending on where people are commuting, it may appear that they are coming across three or four work zones that are Q&D. But they are really separate projects.

The other thing we hope to have soon is a map from CalTrans and NDOT that show all projects. We’ll get that information on our website and in one of our newsletters. That will help show the bigger picture of everything going on in Tahoe. I’m happy to take any questions. Thanks for having me today. I appreciate it.

Denise Davis

Are there any questions for Jen? Pretty much wherever we go in the basin, we will encounter some construction.

Jenn Lemming

I didn’t mention that for the first couple of weeks, we are working daytime only. Then later this month we’ll begin nighttime work. So our hours right now are Monday-Friday,

7am – 7pm. We’ll shift to Sunday-Friday 7pm to 7pm. Fridays will be tricky. Early season we’ll try to work as late on Fridays as we can. So a lot of our hours will be shifting depending on the part of the season. It is confusing.

Margaret Martini – Incline Village Resident

I have a question on the Boulder Bay project, or the WALT project, or whatever you want to call it. When they’re driving those big trucks full of dirt out, will that also be monitored by the county or the state, since they’ll be going on State Route 28? Has anybody even thought about the logistics of that? Even though it’s private – it’s still a construction zone.

Jenn Lemming

Yes we’ve been in contact. Our resident engineer Austin has been in contact with the Biltmore as well as [15:54 inaudible] outreaching on many phases of the potential project. Over the years of conversation, there have been quite a few shifts in some of the team working there. So, we will definitely continue to reach out and see their plans. 

I don’t know offhand when their construction is starting. But I know that’s definitely conversations that we had and will continue to have. Good question.

Denise Davis

I see no more questions, so thanks again Jen for joining us. Have a safe flight. And hopefully we’ll see you in 2 weeks with an update. 

Jenn Lemming

Thank you. I was going to mention that if you’re interested in more Tahoe projects with NDOT, we can have Austin on the next call with me. If it’s not me, then I can send updates on our projects. But I know there have been inquiries about other things going on. I didn’t mention that on the Reno side of Mt. Rose, there will be NDOT work, too. So, that’s yet another NDOT work zone. But that should be minimal because it’s mostly going to be on the side of the road, so there should be minimal lane closures.

Denise Davis

Send me the contact info. The road construction updates can be found at www. Inclinehighways.com.

Jenn Lemming

Thank you. Happy Friday. Happy Cinco de Mayo. Appreciate it.

Denise Davis

Chief Somers, I got a text from Tia saying the blood drive is getting started late. They got delayed coming over the hill. So, other than the blood drive, what’s happening at the Fire Department?

Ryan Sommers – North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District Chief

Good morning. Not much. We’re trying to get ready for the summer season. But I’m currently out of town and it’s been raining for 24 hours here.  I’m not sure we’ll get there. But hopefully summer comes soon. We have been doing some presentations around to different organizations on our activities. One of these is redoing our Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP). Part of that process is to hold a meeting to allow for public input. So Tia will be putting out something here pretty soon. I’m envisioning the middle of June we’ll put out something for that meeting to take place so we can finish up that plan. That’s all I can think of right now, unless anyone has a question.

Denise Davis

I was in a meeting where they were handing out flyers for the CWPP May 23rd 9 am-12:30 pm at the Event Center in Kings Beach. You do need to preregister for that. At the meeting I was at, I heard there will be a lot of representatives to fill us in about what’s going on in the basin, and what we can do to be wildfire ready. Please go to https://tinyURL.com/wildfireworkshop. That URL will be in the recap. Again, you need to preregister. It sounds like it’s going to be a great meeting.

Diane Becker – Incline Resident, Washoe County Incline Citizen Advisory Board Chair

I was advised that in July or—it could be as late as August—the county will conduct an emergency evacuation drill from Incline Village. We will be evacuated to Kings Beach, to that same Event Center facility. It’s a joint participation. I have no information on the date, but want to tell everyone that.

Ryan Sommers

That is correct. We are planning to do an evacuation drill. However, going to Kings Beach is not confirmed. So I don’t want to be putting that out there just yet. Let us confirm the date, time, and evacuation destination. We are hoping North Tahoe Fire will be there because we want the authorities other than fire to see how slow the traffic is going to move through the roundabouts. So yes, Diane, that is our goal. And I appreciate that. But I want to make sure we put out the correct information. And when we’re asking people to evacuate to that center, I’m hoping that we’ll have different vendors set up—you know, the County animal control to chip your pets, or Living With Wildfire—those types of informational vendors.

Jeff Cowen – Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Public Information Officer

A member of our team is putting out information about an event. The Tahoe Regional Conservation Program has a survey going around about the Community Wildfire Protection plan, trying to help the Tahoe Fires and Field Team. Would it make sense for me to put the link to that survey into the Chat? 

Ryan Sommers

Yes, please. If you’ve got those and that’s doable, that would be great.

Jeff Cowen

Yes.  The press release is final too, so I think it’s okay to share it.

Janet Pahl – Incline Resident

Is this a voluntary evacuation plan?

Ryan Sommers

The exercise we’re talking about in July? Yes, it is voluntary.

Janet Pahl

And you should bring your pets with you?

Ryan Sommers

No, you don’t have to bring your pets. If we can get a county rep to chip them, then yes. But otherwise, no, you don’t have to bring your pet. This is just #1, to see how much time it’s going to take for you to get from point A to point B. If you want to have your pet with you, it’s fine. But we’re not going to request that you bring pets.

This is a twofold process. This will be for NLTFPD and the Sheriff Office and CERT members to actually walk around and do all the true evacuations. But it’s also for the newer homeowners in the Tahoe basin to see how long it takes to assemble and get their stuff together, and then get down to an evacuation center.

Denise Davis

There will be more information when all the details get worked out.

Ryan Sommers

I talked to Washoe’s Kelly Echeverria about this yesterday. So it is in the works.

Denise Davis

Great. Thanks, Chief. We appreciate that. I don’t see anyone from the Sheriff’s office. So, Amanda, do you want to tell us what’s going on at the library?

Amanda McPhaill – Washoe County Library Librarian

Sure. On next Tuesday May 9th we will have our last Tahoe Talk of the spring season. It’s going to be on sustainable tourism. Please come out for that. We have four guest experts. Then the following Tuesday May 16 we have our Tahoe Treks. That will feature our local author Kayla Anderson and her several trips to Thailand. She’ll be giving hints and tips and information on traveling to and from Thailand.

I also want to mention—this came in at the last minute—but the Washoe County Board of Commissioners meets next Tuesday as well, at 10am. They are going to livestream and have public comment here in this meeting room. You don’t have to travel all the way down to Reno if you’re interested in that. Their agenda is posted online at washoecounty.gov. I don’t believe there are any Incline issues. [Denise Davis – Yes there are.] There are? Okay, apologies.

I also want to give an update on our hydroponic garden. Many of you may know we got a grant from the AAUW for a community garden. It is going crazy. If you would like to not wait in line at Raley’s for a sprig of thyme or dill or basil or tomatoes for your dinner, come on in. We’ll be more than happy to cut you a piece or a stem. Whatever it is. We’re happy to give some away. The intent of this community garden is to share the produce with the community.

Keep in your back pocket the date of June 3rd. We are doing a big community block party here at the library with fun and games to kick off our summer season and our summer reading challenge program. That is from 11 am to 2 pm. We’ll be grilling hotdogs. Everything is free. So come out and join us. We’ll have lots of information booths, and community booths will be here as well.

Jeff Cowen

Yes, Amanda you mentioned sustainable tours and talks at the library. Do you know who’s on that? And I’m just curious about the timing of it.

Amanda MPhaill

We have Andy Chapman of the now-renamed IVCB Visitor Center. We have Heidi Hill Drum from the Tahoe Prosperity Center. We have Jacqui Chandler of Sustainable Tahoe. And we have Amy Bloom with the Tahoe Fund. That will be 6:30 Tuesday May 9th.

Chris Wood

I believe it’s Amy Berry of the Tahoe Fund. That’s a robust panel you’ve got going and a great idea.

Linda Offerdahl – Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association (IVCBA) Executive Director

There were some questions about street cleaning. Maybe some of you saw those sweepers out there. And there was concern with what’s going on with the sidewalks.

I spoke to Eric Crumb at Washoe County Roads.  They have that cleanup of the sidewalks scheduled. There’s apparently some little machine that goes out there and sweeps the paths. But again, the weather has probably precluded that.

The 4th of July committee and Sky Show groups are all convening. We met yesterday.  Plans are moving forward. There are lots of opportunities for community engagement with the parade and the Sky Show. Go to ivcba.org/events. You’ll find a cute little youtube on the event and information about what’s going on.

We’re working hard to make IVCBA a community website. We have created a transportation page with links to all of the transportation and stuff that’s going on with road construction. It’s a work in progress. If you see things that should be on there, let us know.

We are working with Raley’s and other employers to get more commuter van pools up in Incline. And probably somebody else can speak better to the issue for the meeting on Tuesday, but there is an appeal of a short-term rental (STR) up in Tyrolean Village. The intent of the commissioners is to have a zoom available for Incline residents when there is a relevant issue. I don’t know any more about how that will work except that it’s here at the library.

Kristina Hill – Incline Village Resident

I don’t have a question, but I want to reiterate what Linda said about the Washoe County Commissioners meeting on the 9th. There is an item on the agenda regarding a Tier 2 short-term rental (STR) in Tyrolean Village. There is a group from Tyrolean Village residents who will be going down to Reno to show our support for the appeal. A neighbor in the vicinity of the STR is appealing the staff’s decision to allow for 12 people in this chalet. As you know, the roads in Tyrolean Village are very narrow. This chalet has a garage. But the staff is allowing for 3 cars and saying that 12 people can stay in this condo—two in the garage and then one sideways in the driveway, which is just ridiculous to me. We’re okay with 8 people staying there, but not with 12 because of the snow removal. Our experience with STRs is that renters don’t have much experience with shoveling snow. The Homeowners Association doesn’t remove snow from driveways. So the renters arrive at night and need to shovel the driveway to get into the garage. They end up parking on the road and blocking traffic. So, you can watch the meeting on livestream at the library, but we’re also carpooling down to Reno to show our support for the appeal. If you want to join us, let me know.

Denise Davis

Just to be clear, I, and others, have been asking the commissioners to allow remote public comment for folks who aren’t always able to get to the Reno Chambers to make public comment in person.  Before this next meeting, the only way to give public comment was in person at the meeting, or to call and leave a voicemail at 311, or send an email.

The official message is, “Although not required by the Open Meeting Law, in order to accommodate persons residing in populated areas substantially outside the vicinity of commission chambers, additional public comment may be given by a remote technology system on agenda items concerning Districts 1, 5, or “All Commission Districts” (as specified in the subject line of the respective agenda item as “Virtual Public Comment Eligible” from the following locations: Incline Village Library: 845 Alder Ave., Incline Village, NV 89451 and/or Gerlach Community Center: 510 Cottonwood St., Gerlach, NV 89412.”

So it’s not only for us to view the meeting, but it allows us to give virtual public comment. I believe because it specified for Districts 1, 5, and “All Commission Districts,” I believe that means any of the commission meetings would be streamed here at the library. I’ll have to confirm that. I want to say I appreciate the effort to widen our ability to provide public comment, especially in winter when we’re not always able to get to the commission chambers. So, thanks for adding that possibility.

Also on the commission’s agenda for Tuesday, is the status report for the Incline Village Crystal Bay property tax refund. The total refunds processed to date–which is through the end of April:

Total Tax Dollars Refunded to Date                           $20,554.549.

Total Interest Expense to Date                                   $19,609,297

Total Refund to Date Tax + Interest Expense       $40,163,846

Also, they are asking everyone to confirm the Tax Cap status on the Assessor’s website. June 15 is the deadline to file for a partial tax abatement claim. If your tax cap is not correct for your property, you can file for an abatement by June 15. 

We had a CAB meeting May 1st. Karen Fink updated us on the TRPA’s Tahoe Living Housing and Community Revitalization Initiative, which is to provide affordable workforce housing. Does anyone who was there want to share any comments about the meeting? 

Margaret Martini – Incline Village Resident

I attended the meeting and it was a great meeting. I want to encourage people to come to the CAB meetings. You learn a lot. Denise and all the group are very well prepared, and prepared to answer questions. There’s a lot of stuff on the agenda. I don’t think people realize how much goes on in the CAB meetings. So I definitely would encourage participation. Thank you.

Denise Davis

Diane Becker who is online today is our chairperson for the IVCB Cab. Did you want to say anything?

Diane Becker – Incline Resident, Washoe County Incline Citizen Advisory Board Chair

I’ll add that next month we’re going to have another housing study presented, as well as a representative from the school district. It is an excellent opportunity to give input to the county and other local government agencies on issues of interest to you. We also each time now have both the Sheriff and the Fire Department representatives come. You can also give public comment to them. I want to add that you can send written public comment, which will then be put on the CAB website. If you can’t come to the meeting and you have something of interest, providing public comment will be very useful.

Denise Davis

And one final item with regard to the county is that I’ve been receiving quite a few emails about “older Americans month.”  There are quite a few activities and discounts this month for seniors. You can go to https://www.washoecounty.gov/seniorsrv/older_americans_month/events.php

Chris Wood

Thank you, Denise. I just want to follow up on the CAB. The agenda for next month will include a focus on workforce housing. Something called a Roadmap has been constructed to suggest how to encourage workforce housing in IVCB. That Roadmap will be discussed by a representative from the partnership, which is an organization that includes the county and some of the members of the community and people from the business community. It should be very interesting. I just want to encourage people to attend to check out the Roadmap, which will go before the Washoe County Commissioner for approval at a later point. Thank you.

Denise Davis

The deadline for comments on the Envision Washoe 2040 plan, which is the Washoe County master Plan and Development Code is May 7. Even though Incline Village and Crystal Bay have a Tahoe Area Plan, the Tahoe area is mentioned in the Envision Washoe 2040 Washoe County Master Plan. If you would like to make comments in the master plan, that website is  https://www.envisionwashoe2040.org/  You’ll need to get right on that because the deadline is the 7th.

Diane Becker

We were told initially that plan was not going to involve IVCB at all. But now that it does, there’s an opportunity to comment. Anyone who would like to comment either on workforce housing, or the change to our Special Area 1 (SA1-Commercial Zone) has an opportunity to comment. So I would encourage anyone who has comments to take a look. It doesn’t take very much time and it would be useful.

Denise Davis

That is true. I was in contact with the people in charge of Envision 2040, and they assured me IVCB was not included. But yet we are. Feel free to comment.

The Tahoe Transportation District held an Incline Village Mobility Hub Meeting on April 24 that was very well attended. Thanks to everyone for showing up and contributing your comments or just being there. Our next IV Mobility Hub meeting will be held the Monday before Memorial Day, which is not its usual date, so make a note of that. And on May 3rd the Program Implementation Committee met. I missed that meeting, so I can’t give you an update on what happened. Did anyone attend and want to fill in some blanks?

Aaron Vanderpool – Incline Resident, HOA President

I attended both the workshop and their meeting a few days later. I was appalled by a couple of the board members’ comments. I just want to let people who weren’t there know. One comment was by Wendy Hummer who claimed that the millions of tourists that pass through are polluting less than our 8000 local residents. Apparently we locals are polluting a lot more than the tourists coming through. That was one comment I felt was shocking. Then Andy Chapman – I felt like he belittled and insulted people when he said that the input we gave at the HDR workshop was a joke. So he is basically ignoring all the input that we gave at the workshop. I just wanted to let people know those two main things. I have two other unrelated things I’d like to mention at some point.

Denise Davis

Moving on to the TRPA. Jeff is still here. Judy Simon who is on the TRPA Advisory Planning Commission (APC) told us that the May 10th APC meeting is cancelled. Is that correct?

Jeff Cowen

I don’t know. That’s the first I’ve heard of it. I’ll find out. I don’t doubt it. I’m sure the APC members get the info before I do.

Denise Davis

Then May 24th is the TRPA Governing Board meeting. You’ve let folks know that the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan amendment involving 947 Tahoe Boulevard will be on the agenda.

Jeff Cowen

That’s correct. I don’t know much more. Currently the item that is coming to the Governing Board is the same item that the Regional Planning Implementation Committee (RPIC) recommended for approval 2 months ago. What that amendment did is it took the Washoe County proposal to add Single-Family Dwellings as a use to the special area commercial zone (SA 1) of the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan, but I think the RPIC Board asked that it be reduced down to just a couple of parcels where the 947 development is being proposed. So, that’s the proposal that is going to the Governing Board. We don’t know what’s going to come of it from there.

We hear that Washoe County is going to ask for the full SA-1 zone to be included in part of that change in use. And Washoe County is going to ask the Governing Board to consider returning to the original proposal of having the entire zone allow single-family dwellings as an additional use. That’s all I know now. The agenda packet will be out on May 17th, so that’s when we will know more about what our staff recommendations are and any other discussions that are going to come to the board.

Kristina Hill – Incline Village Resident

I’m just wondering if the County is asking for the entire SA 1 to be re-zoned for single-family dwellings because just rezoning the two parcels where the 947 project is proposed looks like “spot zoning,” and that’s illegal. Or is it because they feel like you shouldn’t amend a Regional Plan for one applicant? Do you know what their reasoning is?

Jeff Cowen

No, I don’t. Hopefully Washoe County can speak to that a bit better. Our planner, Jacob Stock, who brought the item to the RPIC floor might know as well. I just had a couple of emails with him last night trying to respond to inquiries from another community member. I felt like it was a bit too early for us to say what’s going to happen with the item, what the staff summary is going to say, or what the recommendations are going to be.

Kristina Hill

Yes. It is kind of nuts that the APC denied it. Then the RPIC changed it to just those two parcels for 947. And now it’s going to the Governing Board, and Washoe County is going to oppose it. What? I don’t know—crazy stuff. But the RPIC won’t hear it again?

Jeff Cowen

No, it’s going straight to the Governing Board. Yeah, good questions. We’ll get to the bottom of those I’m sure.

Kristina Hill

Yes, I’m sure.  Thanks.

Yolanda Knaak – Incline Village Resident

My concern about changing the zoning on more than just the two parcels is that a lot of those businesses in that zone rent their building. And if their parcel has a zoning change, the owner of the building could essentially evict the business and sell to a developer. So, I’m just really concerned about our businesses here in town if more than two of the parcels have a zoning change.

Jeff Cowen

Thank you, I appreciate that. I’m noting it and I’ll pass it on. I have a couple more updates. I just checked in with the Waldorf Astoria Lake Tahoe (WALT, formerly Boulder Bay) project to see what their schedule is and next steps. Paul Nielsen at TRPA who is involved with the project has let me know the project has a few additional approvals to get through the county before it is completely ready. Their intention is to only finish the connector road work that they started last year. As far as we know they aren’t scheduling any major construction this year or a lot of demolition.

I have a couple of other updates as well about programs in the basin.

The watercraft inspection operations are slightly delayed and changed because of snow and because of the continued operation of some of the resorts. We got the Myers inspection station open. That’s the only place in the basin right now you can get decontamination. You can get inspections at Lake Forest. As soon as the snow is removed from the Spooner Summit Station, you can get inspections and decontamination there. But the decontaminations on the North Shore won’t be available at Alpine Meadows until we get the all-clear from them and a chance to set up our equipment. It does not affect very many boaters. Anyone who has the inspection seal from last year on their boat doesn’t need to mess with any of that, and can go straight to the ramp.

The Tahoe Living Housing Group presentation that Karen Fink gave to the Washoe Incline Village Crystal Bay CAB last Monday was great. She got a lot of great feedback from it. She let me know she’s looking to incorporate that. I’m encouraging her to get in contact with other members of the community who gave good feedback on the initiative as part of her follow-up. Karen’s schedule is to continue to make presentations to community groups throughout the region through the summer as they continue to work on the environmental analysis, and bring it to committee and to the TRPA Governing Board hopefully by the fall.

The Destination Stewardship Plan is set to launch in June. That sustainable-tourism discussion at the library on June 9 is probably being timed knowing that the destination stewardship plan that this core team of organizations has been working on since last year is going to launch. It will be released and ready to go June 3 to 6, somewhere around there. We’re looking forward to that. What happened was that all of last year was used to gather as much community input as possible to inform the plan.

The core team of organizations that will be executing the plan worked on action strategies throughout the winter. So a lot of the action strategies that are likely to be part of the plan have already been going on, so we’re seeing the Ambassador Program around the basin, which will continue. The US Forest Service stepped up and is contributing $100,000 to pay for the “Take Care Ambassadors” to work throughout the region at trailheads and on beaches sharing stewardship behavior messaging. Microtransit support is another part of it. Additional trash pickups around the basin are also part of the program.

Denise Davis

Does anyone have any questions for Jeff? Thanks a lot, Jeff.

Jeff Cowen

You’re very welcome. Thank you for having me.

Denise Davis

Just a couple of things to announce before we circle back to Aaron and whoever else might want to comment. Recently there was an announcement from the NV State Police that they will not be providing service anymore between 2 am-5 am in Washoe County. Helen Neff asked me to bring that up. Do you have something to add?

Helen Neff

No. But thanks for bringing it up and please continue with the details.

Denise Davis

I saw earlier this week that the Incline Hospital will be offering COVID booster shots on  Thursday May 11 from 9 am to 11:30 am. But I lost that information in my texts. So, you might want to call the hospital first before you head over there if you are interested.

Did anyone attend the Washoe County School District (WCSD) meeting Wednesday night or have any updates?

Linda Offerdahl

I can speak to that. They had a much more orderly meeting. It was in the high-school theater. Holding it in the theater was definitely helpful. It was held by WCSD superintendent Sharon Enfield. Diane Nicolet—who actually represents Incline as well as Jeff Church on the School Board—and the President of the School Board didn’t present any information. They were just looking for feedback from the community. So, there was  a lot of repetition—but made a bit more eloquently—of all of the objections people had to closing the Incline Middle School. I think the crowd left feeling very dissatisfied because they weren’t really presenting any new information, and we already had one of these sessions to give them input. They’re going to have a big Q&A thing put out. And IVCBA is trying to track all of that stuff on our website. On the very top of our website is a thing on the schools and the school issue. So, as soon as we get that, we’ll put that there and I’m sure it will be other places as well. They promised to have more meetings, which is actually a big improvement over their original plan.

Helen Neff

I just want to thank Jeff for TRPA update as well as Kari, and the fire department, and the sheriff who is usually here. I’d like to bring up two other points. Regarding sustainable tourism, my homeland of Hawaii, Honolulu—the beautiful state out in the ocean – is implementing more and more reservations required for popular sites that are environmentally sensitive. You can Google online, but I just wanted to bring up that it is being implemented here in the United States to protect the environment. 

The lack of highway patrol from 2 am-5 am really concerns me during the summer months – especially because of the nighttime road construction. We all know what happened to the construction worker who was killed last summer on Highway 28 by an impaired driver when he was just trying to do his job. So whatever anyone can do to write to our governor or representatives and ask that funding be made available to the highway patrol. [inaudible 58:22]. Thank you.

Denise Davis

I did do a little research, and the governor has proposed certain things for the NV State Police. And the legislators have proposed something else. The issue is not being willing to fund them. The issue seems to be in the details. Stay tuned and contact your legislators.

Helen Neff

If they could put politics aside and make safety a priority, that would be wonderful.

Denise Davis

And the NV State Police has a huge staffing deficit right now. Everyone is concerned about it. People are aware of the issue. They just can’t seem to work out the details at the moment.

Aaron Vanderpool

I forgot to mention earlier that I am thankful Carole Black is on the TTD’s Mobility Hub Committee. I wanted also to mention that I have been through the AirBnB-STR appeal process. It was unsuccessful with our Commissioner Hill. But I want to give an announcement of what I believe is new news. I found out this morning that the Crystal Bay Post Office about 2 months from now will be remodeling to keyed post office boxes and getting rid of the combinations because the combinations aren’t as secure.  I believe they got confirmation of this happening this morning. So, be prepared for that.

Denise Davis

Steve Dolan, since you brought us doughnuts today—and I know you said you put your announcements in the paper—but do you want to tell us anything?

Steve Dolan – Incline Resident, Friends of 3rd Creek Director

The announcement I was going to make last time, I wrote about and gave to the newspaper, which published it last week. So I don’t think it will be out any longer because today is Friday. The only other thing I’ve done recently is— you can go to youtube and type in “Lake Tahoe basin BMP violation,” and check out what has gone on for the past 3 years at the old Incline Lake dam removal. Slated for this summer is further work moving into the meadow away from the dam, which could be problematic. So go to youtube and look at that. Otherwise, the thing I wrote in the paper was just about safety in the streams because they will be rising all the way through June.

Jeff Cowen

Steve, I’ve got a link to the video. Do you want me to share that in the Chat for folks online?

Steve Dolan

Sure you can. Thank you.

Steve Price – Incline Village Resident, McCloud HOA President

I’m the past president of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Veterans Club. Once again this year on Memorial Day May 29th, we’ll have our ceremony at Burnt Cedar Beach, out on the point. We normally have about 100 or so there, and some people are on the beach. We’d love to have more people come down. It’s the only ceremony I know about in our village that celebrates and remembers those people who gave their lives in defense of our country.

I’m hoping you’ll spread the word for you and your friends to come out to just spend an hour or so on the 29th to pay tribute to those people who gave the ultimate sacrifice. So, again, come on down to Burnt Cedar Beach on the 29th about 9:30. The ceremony starts at 10. It doesn’t take you long. So come down and talk to your friends and possibly share a story of someone in your family who may have died because of their participation in a war. I have one and am very emotional about that. I hope to see you there. I won’t be here – I’ll be in Italy. But our new president Commander Damian Smith will be in charge. It promises to be a great ceremony.

Denise Davis

Since it’s at Burnt Cedar, you will need to have legit beach access to get to the ceremony, correct?

Steve Price

Yes. We will have some passes for people who don’t live in the village who want to come down, but it will be a limited number.

Doug Flaherty – Incline Resident, Tahoe Clean Air Director

We encourage everybody to visit our new website at tahoecleanair.org. We present our three initiatives. Our newest initiative is to give Mt. Rose wilderness and Granite Chief wilderness Class 1 air-shed protection under the Clean Air Act. Because of the aggressiveness of the TRPA—which is pro-growth, pro-contractor, pro-building, pro-over-capacity at Lake Tahoe—our wilderness areas are suffering. There’s a lot of overuse additionally from Placer County and Washoe County pro-growth ideas. I’m not knocking Reno. We’ve got a lot of new population happening there. But we’ve got a lot of stressors on our wilderness areas. It’s time to make them Class 1 wilderness and Class 1 air-shed protection under the Clean Air Act.

Our other two initiatives are increased Environmental Impact Statements (EIS) in the Lake Tahoe Basin. The TRPA continues to use a desktop Initial Environmental Checklist, which actually prohibits gathering data for a true cumulative EIS. They’ve escaped this since their inception. It’s time for the TRPA to step up and do a basin-wide EIS, which includes a roadway-by-roadway evacuation capacity assessment during a wildfire.

The third initiative—which many of you attended our meeting we had last year—to prevent the US Forest Service from continuing to purposely use wildfire as a way to [inaudible 1:05] the forest. In other words, they use purposeful wildfire in their resource planning. That is in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit (LTMBU) plan by the way. So there are a lot of lawsuits going on from that. But that’s our third initiative. Thank you very much.

Jeff Cowen

I just want to make a comment. Thank you Mr. Flaherty. We’ve had these discussions for a while. I want to use this venue to listen and not to turn it into a debate or an argument, so I won’t. But I just want everybody on the call to know that our perspective is very different from Mr. Flaherty’s. We don’t feel that we’re failing. We are doing everything appropriately on environmental analysis. And that’s all I wanted to share.

Kari Ferguson

I want to mention about the Memorial Day event they’re using recreation punch cards to get into the beach. They’re not passes, but punch cards. I just wanted to make that clear so we’re all on the same page. 

Linda Offerdahl

I just texted Captain Beard to see if he could jump on about the NHP thing. The Sheriff and others from the substation are all down for the memorial for a peace officer named James D Hoff. I don’t know the circumstances but he is normally here, so sends his apologies.  

Denise Davis

Thanks, Linda. Yes, we usually have a couple of officers here and also attending our CAB. I assumed there was something going on because we didn’t have anyone from the Sheriff’s office today. [Post meeting: WCSO staff members were at the annual ceremony held at the James D. Hoff Peace Officer Memorial in Reno.]

Kari Ferguson

I put something in the Chat about a possible threat to kids at one of the schools in Washoe County, which could be another reason there isn’t a presence at our meeting. They are making sure the kids who went to school today are safe. As a parent, that’s what we are dealing with today.

Denise Davis

Yes, sadly, we all have to deal with that. But parents have an extra stressor. So just briefly, our next meeting will be May 19. I want to let everyone know that our hard-working recap editor, Ronda will be at some family events and taking a little vacation time, so she will try to get our recap before she leaves, but there will not be a recap immediately after our May 19th meeting. I also will be out of town at a family event, but am planning to join remotely. But in the event that there are technology issues, Amanda will bravely lead us on. I am planning to be here, but we’ll have a backup plan.

Happy Cinco de Mayo. If you plan your celebration correctly, you can go from Cinco de Mayo to the coronation of King Charles III.  

Be safe and drive carefully. It’s still snowing, but someday it will be summer. We’ll see you in 2 weeks. Thanks.

Chat Log:

09:11:21     From  Kari : BOT Meeting agenda May 8th

09:11:26     From  Kari : https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/Agenda_for_05082023.pdf

09:12:17     From  Kari : Wednesday, May 10th  Board of Trustees meeting Agendahttps://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/Agenda_for_05102023.pdf

09:13:04     From  Kari : Board of Trustees Meetings Page: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/meetings-and-agendas

09:13:45     From  Kari : Effluent Pipeline Project link: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/resources/construction-updates/effluent-pipeline-project

09:14:47     From  Kari : Diamond Peak Uphilling info link: https://www.diamondpeak.com/the-mountain/uphilling/

09:15:27     From  Kari : Pine Needle Program link: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/events/yard-waste-collection

09:16:15     From  Kari : Ski Beach Boat Ramp Link: https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/parks-recreation/outdoor-recreation/watercraft-information

09:16:18     From  Jenn Boyd Lemming : SR 431-28 Tahoe Project information and to sign up for newsletters, call and/or text us: https://www.inclinehighways.com/

09:18:46     From  Kari : Thank you Jenn!

09:24:32     From  Jeff Cowen – Tahoe Regional Planning Agency : The Tahoe Fire and Fuels Team is also urgently requesting public feedback on the Lake Tahoe Basin Community Wildfire Protection Plan (CWPP) survey. These plans help reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfires and increase the resilience of communities to natural disasters. To complete the quick survey, visit arcg.is/8zKGr0Good morning everyone!My contact:Jcowen@trpa.gov(775) 589-5278

09:38:10     From  Kari : I forgot to mention that IVGID is HIRING for all summer positions.  https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/employment

09:44:18     From  Jon Davidson : Please announce the new COVID variant vaccine for anyone over 18 @ IVCH May 11, 2023 9am-11:30 am

09:54:16     From  Chris Wood : Jon – Is this a one-day event on May 11 or continuing? If continuing, please provide the dates or a link to this information. Thanks.

09:56:20     From  Jon Davidson : One day

09:59:07     From  Kari : Not sure  if this was mentioned. I had multiple interruptions this morning during our meeting- so sorry if I missed it.     Local parents received this message this morning: Hello WCSD Families,This is an important message from the Washoe County School District.We are calling to let you know that we have received multiple anonymous tips and social media messages regarding a possible threat to a school but no school has been specified in the threat. This same threat has been circulated at districts within the state. School Police are investigating and working with area law enforcement.

09:59:33     From  Kari : rest of message: At the Washoe County School District, safety and security are our highest priority.  We take such rumors seriously, and School Police investigate each one.  Our students and families have been proactive in reporting information to us, and we appreciate it. As a reminder, if you or your student see anything alarming on social media, please immediately call police and do not share that information.  I hope you will work with us to reassure your students that we are committed to keeping our school safe for them, our staff, and our families. Making threats is illegal, and the persons responsible for this can be prosecuted for their actions. All of our WCSD schools practice safety procedures regularly and classes are continuing as usual. If you have any questions or concerns, please contact your school. Thank you.

10:02:58     From  Kari : In case you see kids out and about today- many parents did not send their kids to school today.

10:03:46     From  Jeff Cowen – Tahoe Regional Planning Agency : Lake Tahoe Basin BMP violationshttps://youtu.be/oBDM9pQvK7o

Steve Dolan video: Lake Tahoe Basin BMP violations

FORUM URLs

Our email is:
 ivcbcommunityforum@gmail.com

North Lake Tahoe Fire Protection District website
https://nltfpd.org/
non-emergency fire dispatch (Grass Valley)  530-477-0641, then pick 7

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/

road construction updates
https://www.inclinehighways.com/

IVGID effluent export pipeline project updates
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/resources/construction-updates/effluent-pipeline-project


May 7 – deadline for comments on Envision Washoe 2040 (Washoe County’s Master Plan and Development Code)
https://www.envisionwashoe2040.org/


May 8 – IVGID Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/uploads/pdf-ivgid/0508_Packet.pdf


May 9 – Board of County Commissioners (BCC) meeting
https://www.washoecounty.gov/bcc/board_committees/2023/files/agendas/2023-05-09/BCC%20-%205.9.23.pdf


May 10 – IVGID Board of Trustees (BOT) meeting
https://www.yourtahoeplace.com/ivgid/board-of-trustees/meetings-and-agendas


May 23 – Community Wildlife Preparedness Workshop – registration required
https://tinyurl.com/wildfireworkshop


Older Americans Month – Reno/Sparks/Washoe County event calendar
https://www.washoecounty.gov/seniorsrv/older_americans_month/events.php


all applications for Washoe County Commission District 1
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/planning_and_development/applications/apps_commish_district_one.php

Washoe311 – request for service
https://washoecountynv.qscend.com/311/request/add
Washoe County – Traffic and Roadway Engineering
https://www.washoecounty.gov/csd/engineering_capitalprojects/traffic-and-roads/index.php

Nevada Legislature
www.leg.state.nv.us
www.youtube.com/@NVLeg/streams

IV/CB Community 1st meetings and community info
ivcbcommunity1st.org

IVCBA (Incline Village Crystal Bay Community and Business Association)
ivcba.org

Steve Dolan URL:

PARTICIPANTS

Aaron Vanderpool

Amanda McPhaill

Chris Wood

David Simon

Denise Davis

Diane Becker

Doug Flaherty

Helen Neff

Janet Pahl

Jeff Cowen

Jenn Boyd Lemming

Joe Campbell

Jon Davidson

Kari Ferguson

Kathie Julian

Kristina Hill

Linda Offerdahl

Lisa Marechal

Margaret Martini

Pam Straley

Ray Tulloch

Ronda Tycer

Ryan Sommers

Sam Levine

Steve Dolan

Steve Price

Yolanda Knaak

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