Tuesday’s Important CAB Meeting

This is an important meeting for our community. Two speakers will be making presentations on important topics that will be before the Washoe County Board of Commissioners (BOC) and the Tahoe Regional Planning Commission (TRPA) later this month with impacts on Incline Village/Crystal Bay.  

The Incline Village Crystal Bay Citizen Advisory Board will hold its first in-person meeting since the COVID shut downs, on Tuesday, January 3, 2023 at 5:30 p.m. at the Incline Village Library located at 845 Alder Avenue.  The meeting will be available for Zoom attendance and participation as well. The Zoom link may be accessed by clicking here and the complete meeting agenda is available by clicking here.

The developer of 947 Tahoe Boulevard submitted an application to amend the Tahoe Area Plan and the Washoe County Development Code to allow the building of single-family condominiums anywhere in Incline Village Commercial Regulatory Zone Special Area 1 (click here for the map of the area).  Currently, the commercial zone areas throughout the basin only allow for multifamily and affordable housing, along with commercial use.  TRPA increased the allowable height, increased density, and reduced coverage requirements in the commercial zones in an effort to encourage multifamily and affordable housing. Instead, should this zoning change be approved, the TRPA changes of increased height, density and reduced coverage will benefit developers of high-end condominiums.

Issues and concerns brought forward by community members include:

1. By allowing the building of luxury condominiums in the commercial zones will effectively eliminate the building of affordable housing and set a precedent throughout the entire basin. 
2. Since Washoe County staff is separately working on amendments to the Tahoe Area Plan to address the need for workforce and affordable housing in Incline Village/Crystal Bay, this proposed amendment should be deferred and evaluated with those changes. This amendment application is being requested by a single developer, for the developer’s benefit, and could conflict with the Washoe County’s proposed affordable housing amendments. 
3. There was no public outreach on this proposed amendment to the Tahoe Area Plan. 
4. This multi-story luxury condominium building has 900 sq. ft. of commercial space planned within the building to comply with the county’s requirement for mixed multi-family and commercial use (‘mixed use’) of the property. The definition and requirements of ‘mixed-use’ have not been defined by Washoe County.

The BOC had a first reading of this proposed amendment in December with the second reading scheduled for later this month. If approved, the proposed amendment will go to TRPA’s RPIC Committee, then to its APIC Committee and finally to the TRPA Governing Board in January, February and March, 2023.  

At tomorrow’s meeting, Jacob Stock, Senior Long Range Planner from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, will explain the process of amending the Tahoe Area Plan.  After his presentation, members of the public in attendance in-person or on Zoom, will have an opportunity to provide input. 

The second presentation will cover the potential Washoe County code change to allow cannabis lounges in unincorporated Washoe County. The expressed rationale/public need for the cannabis lounges is that tourists are not allowed to smoke in their short-term rental homes and hotel/motel rooms, and therefore need to be able to consume cannabis at public venues.  Some members of the community have expressed concerns about the safety of allowing persons to smoke or otherwise consume cannabis in public spaces and then drive in our small mountain community.  Sheriff Captain Corey Solferino has agreed to discuss conditions in Incline Village/Crystal Bay related to special regulation of businesses which provide services and facilities that may leave patrons impaired when driving.  This will give the community the opportunity to learn about how impaired drivers will be identified and removed from our roads and clarify under what circumstances they will be prosecuted. This presentation will allow community members to better understand the risks and potential benefits of the cannabis lounges to then provide public comment to the newly elected Board of Commissioners later this month.