|
|
Friends
of Lake Tahoe P.O. Box 1464 Tahoe City, CA 96145 |
The document below was
written by Friends of Lake Tahoe and reviewed, modified, and approved by the
leading nonprofits in the Lake Tahoe Basin for distribution at the annual Lake
Tahoe Summit in August of 2012. It is
designed to introduce the reader to some flaws of the TRPA’s RPU and suggests
political leaders to contact regarding opposition to the RPU. The document:
Compliments of the Following Non-profits
Dedicated to Lake Tahoe:
The Tahoe Area Sierra Club, North Tahoe Citizen Action
Alliance,
Friends of Lake Tahoe, North Tahoe Preservation
Alliance,
and
the Friends of the West Shore
Help Us Save The Lake: It is time to return to the principles that created the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) has lost sight of them and its mission. The TRPA’s current Regional Plan Update (RPU) is testimony to this fact. While Rule #1 is “do no harm to the environment,” the proposed RPU is devastating.
The compact’s language characterizes the Tahoe Basin as having “unique environmental and ecological values which are irreplaceable.” And, it specifies “increasing urbanization” as the threat to those values. The compact empowers TRPA to establish “environmental thresholds carrying capacities” (thresholds) to protect the Basin and to adopt a regional plan that will “achieve and maintain such capacities while providing orderly growth and development consistent with such capacities.” TRPA has drastically strayed from it is singular overriding purpose: to assure threshold achievement.
“Greenwashing” its activities with the term “smart growth,” it now promotes the intensification of development, complete with taller and more densely packed buildings. The TRPA has forgotten that the compact does not charge them with stimulating economic growth but rather “orderly” development consistent with achievement of the thresholds. Its RPU, while a short-term bonanza for resort developers, is a disaster for the lake and the long term economic health of the region.
Lake Tahoe is also one of only three congressionally designated Tier Three (“Outstanding National Resource Water” [ONRW]) bodies of water in America. This is the highest classification of purity for protection and mandates “no degradation” to water quality. This has also been ignored by the TRPA. Water quality continues to decline.
With roughly
half of the Thresholds are already out of attainment, the proposed RPU will make
matters worse:
· Air: Increased traffic accompanies growth, despite “greenwashing” the issue with bicycles.
· Water: TRPA currently ignores, as do local governments, the enforcement of “Best Management Practices” (BMPs) that keep pollutants from entering the lake. The RPU fails to even mention the problem of urban storm and outfall pipes dumping into the lake.
· Scenic: High rise development will drastically alter lake and ridgeline views.
·
Soil
Conservation: The more land that is
paved due to construction, the less natural soil will be available for water to
soak (infiltrate) naturally into the ground.
Instead, trees are removed and with more pavement comes more
contaminated run-off into the lake. The
proposed RPU allows for developed parcels to increase hard coverage from 50% to
70% inside town centers and anywhere in a local Community Plan.
· Local governmental authority over large projects: Abdicating it primary responsibility, TRPA’s RPU shifts control to the local governments in the Basin, reestablishing the growth conditions that necessitated the compact in the 60s. Currently limited to projects less than 15,000 sq. ft. for mixed use (commercial and residential), local governments will soon enjoy sole authority over 90,000 sq. ft. projects. Seeking tax revenues, counties will build and build if allowed.
· Densification: Not only bigger and higher, but also denser. Tourist Accommodation Units (TAUs), for example, will increase from 15 units per acre with kitchens to 40.
· Noise: Often forgotten as an environmental threshold, any sense of alpine serenity is affected by urbanization.
·
Local
Community and Regional Character: Clearly
threatened by the RPU, is this the Tahoe you want?
Political Contact
List: The Current RPU Must Not be Approved.
The Individuals
Listed Below Need to Hear From You Regarding the “Regional Plan Update.”
It is doubtful that they are aware of the problems
of the RPU identified on the reverse.
The Honorable Governor Jerry
Brown, State Capitol, Ste. 1173, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 445-2841, Fax:
(916) 558-3160 *
The
Honorable Governor Brian Sandoval, State Capitol Building, 101 N. Carson
Street, Carson City, NV 89701; Phone: (775)
684-5670; Fax: (775) 684-5683 **
California
Senate President pro Tem Darrell Steinberg, State Capitol, Room 205,
Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 651-4006, Fax: (916) 323-2263 *
California
State Senator Ted Gaines, State Capitol, Room 3056, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone: (916) 651-4001, Fax: (916)
324-2680
California State
Assemblywoman Beth Gaines, State Capitol, Room 4009, Sacramento, CA 95814; Phone:
(916) 319-2004, Fax: (916)
319-2104
John Laird, Secretary,
California Natural Resources Agency, 1416 Ninth Street, Suite 1311, Sacramento,
CA 95814; Phone: (916) 653-5656, Fax: (916)
653-8102, Email: secretary@resources.ca.gov *
Leo Drozdoff, Nevada Director
of Conservation and Natural Resources, 901
S. Stewart St., Ste. 1003, Carson City, NV 89701; Phone:
(775) 684-2700, Fax: (775) 684-2715 **
Jared Blumenfeld,
Administrator for EPA's Pacific Southwest Region (Region 9), U.S. EPA Region 9, 75 Hawthorne Street, San Francisco, CA, 94105; Phone:
(415) 947-8702, Email:
blumenfeld.jared@epa.gov **
The Honorable U.S.
Senator Dianne Feinstein, One Post Street, Suite 2450, San
Francisco, CA 94104 *
The Honorable
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer, 501
I Street, Suite 7-600, Sacramento, California 95814
The Honorable U.S. Senator Harry Reid, 600 East William St, #302, Carson City, NV 89701 *
The Honorable U.S. Senator Dean Heller, 305 North Carson Street,
Suite 201, Carson City, NV 89701
California Congressman John Garamendi, 228 Cannon HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515; Phone: (202)
225-1880, Fax:
(202) 225-5914 **
California Congressman George Miller, 2205 Rayburn HOB, Washington, D.C. 20515; Phone: (202)
225-2095,
Fax: (202) 225-5609 **
*Highest Priority ** Next
Highest