Placer County’s code amendment was paused, for the moment. At their meeting on Thursday, instead of voting, the Placer County Planning Commission decided they needed more information. There were objections to the lack of environmental analysis, 71.5’ high buildings, more density, reduced parking and continuous building walls up to 500’ long (more than the length of a city block) to name some top complaints outlined by Mountain Area Preservation, North Tahoe Preservation Alliance, Tahoe Area Sierra Club, League to Save Lake Tahoe, Friends of the West Shore and Tahoe Sierra Clean Air. In addition, private citizens attended in person and called in to make comments.
John Hester, of TRPA, was in attendance. It was learned that Placer County has been working with TRPA on these proposed changes for years. It appears TRPA is in favor of these code amendments for the entire the Tahoe Basin and is intending to update their Regional Plan accordingly.
The public has had 1.5 months to sort through 800 pages of documentation. It appears Placer County ignored the Kings’ Beach Team’s desire for 48’ maximum height on the mountain side of SR28 and 36’ on the lake side. In addition to TRPA, support was expressed by the Prosperity Council, the Downtown Association, Mountain Housing Council, and some of the developers of the 14 pending development projects.
TRPA, at their meeting scheduled on Wednesday, December 14th at 9 am will begin the process of changing the Regional Plan. The event, with links to the agenda and other information, may be viewed here. The Regional Plan Implementation Committee will be on zoom or send comments to Jacob Stock at jstock@trpa.gov.