Washoe Meadow State Park EIR up for certification
Certification of the environmental impact report that will alter Lake Tahoe Golf Course and Washoe Meadow State Park in Meyers is scheduled for Oct. 21 at 9am.
The public meeting is at the golf course at 2500 Emerald Bay Road.
The main issue is restoration of the Upper Truckee River. In order to do the work desired by landowners and environmentalists, some of the land from the state park and Lake Valley State Recreation Area (where the golf course sits) needs to be swapped. The theory is restoring each section of the river to its natural meander will reduce fine sediment from reaching Lake Tahoe.
The Upper Truckee River is the main tributary into Lake Tahoe.
The public will have a chance to comment at the meeting.
The EIR is available for review at the Sugar Pine Point State Park in Tahoma, the State Parks office in Sacrament and at the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency office in Stateline. It is also online.
— Lake Tahoe News staff report
I wish to correct an error in the article in the 3rd paragraph first sentence it states “In order to do the work desired by landowners and environmentalists…”
The “landowners” DO NOT want the expansion of the golf course into the park. The park is the home for a variety of wildlife, more since the Angora Fire. Now they will be displaced. The price will be not only do these animals loose much of their habitat, but there potentially could be more human/animal conflicts resulting in their destruction.
Many residents attended meetings and offered alternatives that would benefit both the golf course and the wildlife. Many residents spoke out against the “Chosen Alternative 2,” but never once were any of the people whose lives will be affected by this project listened to or given any consideration.
As a result, the residents formed the Washoe Meadows Community to stop this project. They attended meetings at the golf course and at TRPA. They hired attorneys and ran a petition campaign where more than 500 property owners signed saying “NO” to this project. Despite tremendous efforts, all have failed to stop the corruption machine.
Alternatives for re-configuring the golf course WITHOUT expansion were the desired choice of the residents. Keeping the wildlife habitat intact (designated by the Park Service in 1984) and perhaps additionally making it an Audobon bird viewing sanctuary were the desires of the “residents.” We, the residents, do have names and faces, but we are invisible, just as are the animals whose habitat will be encroached upon to those in power.
It may play out to be another series of negative unintended consequences. There are theories that this will change the economy in South Lake Tahoe. It won’t do anything of the sort but it would take pages to present the case.
I hope other concerned residents will post their opinions here or attend the public meetings.
Thank you.
I believe the synopsis is totally false. Environmentalist and the land owners in the area have NO PROBLEM with the river restoration at all and welcome it. What we are against is taking a SIGNIFICANT area of pristine meadow which is used regularly for hiking, horseback riding and biking and handing to a single rich golf developer to greatly expand a golf course in the hopes that in more than 10 years the State will get some money from him (he gets paid back all of his investment before the State sees a dime). We should not be destroying beautiful lands that can never be replaced to put money in the coffers of a developer and a sport that has fewer and fewer participants every year.
I could not care less about golfers. Golf courses are not in short supply. New courses are being built every year.
Why must a meadow be destroyed so that you can hit a ball around on manicured grass?
I know I commented already, but as I took my regular walk in the Washoe Meadow just now I got sadder and angrier at the article. I wish they would just be honest… this isn’t a land swap, it is a land grab and the golf course will be greatly expanded on to what is now the park side of the river. They will need to re-designate the land for this use which is virtually never done and the best and most usable part of the park will be gone for use forever. At the same time a huge new sign went up in front of the park and I wonder where the money for that came from. They said the old sign was 15 years old. How old are the signs showing the citizens where the beauty of Washoe Meadow is…. oh wait there are none! If someone told the reporter that the landowners and environmentalists want this and that there is a land “swap”, they just pain lied. Fix the path of the river…PLEASE, but don’t give away the beauty of the meadow.
Unfortunately, Lisa, it’s too late. It’s been a done deal for years. All that garbage about public comment was just for show. They decided what they were going to do and nothing the public says or does was going to change that. It’s typical and it’s shameful.
My problem is with the river restoration… These projects are ridiculous… Got siphoned down to a river project near the airport while mtn biking the other day. What on earth are these people doing.. Talk about land disturbance… And I need BMPs ….