Placer County embarking on consolidating community plans in basin

When it adopted the budget last fiscal year, the Placer County Board of Supervisors directed Planning Services staff to begin the process of updating community plans within the Lake Tahoe Basin.

There are nine County Community/General Plans within the basin. Most are joint planning documents between the county and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency adopted nearly 20 years ago.

TRPA is in the process of updating its Regional Plan, and all Community Plans within the basin must be consistent with that plan’s update. Given the age of most of the county’s plans, and the need for consistency between the two jurisdictions, the Planning Services Division believed it the appropriate time to update Placer County’s nine Lake Tahoe Basin Community/General Plans, which are:

* West Shore General Plan;

* Tahoe City Area General Plan;

* North Tahoe Area General Plan;

* Tahoe City Community Plan;

* Carnelian Bay Community Plan;

* Tahoe Vista Community Plan;

* Kings Beach Community Plan;

* Kings Beach Industrial Community Plan; and

* North Stateline Community Plan.

Placer County is proposing to consolidate its nine plans into one over-arching Tahoe Basin Community Plan with general policy guidance. As part of the Community Plan, four “Plan Areas” have been identified and delineated. The four Plan Areas will have separate, individually tailored zoning-design guidelines, which will be developed with community input.

Those plans include:

* West Shore Plan Area, which runs from the El Dorado County line to the Sunnyside area;

* Tahoe City Plan Area, which includes Tahoe City, Tahoe City Gateway, Lake Forest, and Dollar Hill;

* North Tahoe West Plan Area, including Carnelian Bay and Tahoe Vista; and

* North Tahoe East Plan Area, which covers the Kings Beach and Stateline community.

A significant part of the county’s overall work program for the Community Plan Update will be to conduct public outreach so community members and other interested parties have input on the new planning documents.