Opinion: Explaining why Washoe Meadows State Park is being reheard

To the community,

Since the October meeting of California State Parks and Recreation Commission where the decision was unanimous to accept staff’s recommendations., the director of State Parks, Ruth Coleman, approved the Upper Truckee River Restoration and Golf Course Reconfiguration project. The approved project is the proposed Preferred Alternative described in the Final Environmental Impact Report (EIR): River Ecosystem Restoration with Reconfigured 18-hole Regulation Golf Course (Alternative 2 Slightly Modified). On Nov. 23, 2011, a lawsuit that objected to the procedure used to process the approvals for the proposed project was filed on the project.

The Parks and Recreation Commission will take the opportunity to reconsider the approved project at its January meeting. In light of the lawsuit, the commission wished to ensure that they have a process in place that will stand the test of a legal challenge in order to not delay what is the clear and proper choice for improving the environment of the park area and the lake. This is too important to the future of this area to not ensure it can proceed in a timely fashion.

All comments, letters, transcripts, and presentations from the October 2011 hearing will be incorporated and included by reference in this reconsideration. Although there is no need to re-present materials the commissioners already have received, the public is invited to attend the meeting and offer testimony if they so desire. A revised notice of determination (NOD) will be filed. The commission meeting will be at the next regularly scheduled meeting on Jan. 27, 2012, at 9am in the Community Room of the Brentwood Community Center, 35 Oak St., Brentwood.

Under statute, an agenda item must be heard within a radius of 100 miles of either Sacramento, San Diego, Los Angeles, San Francisco, San Bernardino, Eureka, Redding, Fresno, Ukiah, Monterey, San Luis Obispo, or Santa Barbara, whichever is closest to the project. In this case, since the project is in South Lake Tahoe, that city would be Sacramento, and Brentwood meets that requirement for the meeting location.

Cyndie Walck, California State Parks