Loop road OK to discuss, but not Lakeview Commons name
By Kathryn Reed
Two issues not on the May 1 South Lake Tahoe City Council docket received more public comment than the entire published agenda.
Operators of businesses in South Lake Tahoe near the state line descended upon the City Council chambers Tuesday to give the electeds an earful about what they think about the proposal to reroute the loop road.
Another group voiced its support of renaming Lakeview Commons Tahnu Leweh, which in Washoe means the people’s place.
Angie Watson, an owner of several apartment complexes that would be impacted if the loop road were to go through, said she wants to keep her property and not be bought out.
“We don’t want to sell,” she told the council.
Mike McKeen with Powder House, Curt Carlson with Tahoe Bottle Shop, Barbara Parina with Sidestreet Boutique, and Umang Patel with Tunderchief were the business owners who all said the loop road is a bad idea.
JoAnn Conner, president of South Tahoe Chamber of Commerce, said, “We feel it will hurt California businesses to help Nevada businesses.”
The council under the recommendation of City Councilwoman Angela Swanson agreed to have a special workshop about the loop road on May 29 from 6-8pm at Lake Tahoe Airport.
The Tahoe Transportation District at its regular May 11 meeting is expected to be discussing the loop road. (Swanson is the council’s rep to the TTD board.) The meeting begins at 9:30am at Embassy Suites in South Lake Tahoe.
All things related to TTD besides the loop road – like the trial ferry service on the North Shore this summer and BlueGo bus service – are scheduled to be discussed at the May 15 council meeting.
With Lakeview Commons, this was the first time El Dorado County had formally approached the city about the request to consider the naming. Judi McCallum, assistant to Supervisor Norma Santiago, read a letter from her boss into the record.
The letter states the naming on Aug. 19, 2008, was supposed to be temporary.
Santiago on Tuesday night told Lake Tahoe News, “According to our lease, we have the ultimate naming authority. We will figure out how to do that.”
That is not how the city interprets the records.
When Swanson at the end of the meeting asked for a future agenda item to discuss the naming of this reconstructed area at El Dorado Beach, she didn’t receive a second. That means the council is good with the name Lakeview Commons.
The Board of Supervisors will take up the Lakeview Commons name issue May 8.
It was agreed by the council that at a future meeting the council would like to hear about potential funding sources to complete what was known as the 56-acre project and to talk about reconvening the steering committee. The project area includes Lakeview Commons and the land on the other side of Highway 50.
Santiago sounds like she’s pulling the “it’s mine, it’s mine” angle and telling the city she doesn’t care what any of us have to say about lakeview commons. Move on to more important things, the site was named so be it. Norma is pushing her agenda to grant some special favors for who knows what reason. The city has spoken and our County rep should support that.
How about putting this much energy into bring jobs to our community, and investing in it. Or better yet, go get the millions from Red Hawk that were promised for our town, why haven’t we seen any of that money? Spend your time and energy fixing up what’s broken not making a mess out of something that doesn’t need our elected officials wasting their time on.
I have a new spelling for EDCO. It is
Egul Torrahdo. Might be hard to pronounce, especially for our beloved tourists, but who cares.
We are overrun by tourists already and don’t need any more business.
BTW, the g and u are silent in Egul, but you knew that.
Regarding the 56-acre project, my recollection is the property belongs to a mix of the city, county, and state. Name changing would more than likely take numerous focus groups and meetings. Lakeview Commons is a great name for the completed portion and thanks to everyone who helped get this part of the project finished.
I agree those who serve the public have far more important business that demands their attention.
Angela – no one has any money for anything. Isn’t that what you keep telling us? Perhaps the money tree will bloom while we talk about it some more.
I like the name LakeView Commons — it says it all! And it is beautiful!
Agree that our government leaders have more important jobs to attend to.
Let me guess there is just enough money for planning and permitting the Loop road?
Don’t feed the green pig!
There is nothing common about that view. The original name is El Dorado Beach. A bunch of consultants came up with that name and there’s already a ‘commons’ on north shore.
And it seems like the city heads are wanting to just give away our assets, programs and now businesses to support the Nevada side of the corridor.
It will always be El Dorado Beach to me.
Typical Government! Was the whole agenda about how to spend the peoples money? Why don’t you talk about ways to raise money? And I am not talking about parking meters!
I’d like to know how much money was spent on consultant’s to come up with the Name Lakeview Commons?, will El Dorado County reimburse the city those cost if they get their way of renaming it yet again? How many consultants do our politicans need? We elected them to do a job, not farm it out to “consultants”
At first, I was firmly against adopting the new name supplied by the fine Washoe folks. It just seemed too hard to pronounce, and something that needed explaining, especially to visitors. But then I started thinking about Hawaii and other locales that have difficult-to-pronounce names and places. Residents just need to embrace it as our own, and tourists will do the same while gaining an appreciation of the area’s rich history. In that context, it’s really not that difficult.
Of course, once the politicos sink their mitts into it, all bets are off. Plus, there’s the unavoidable issue of Commons Beach, Commons Park, etc … on the North Shore. I think that would be the larger challenge for visitors.
El Dorado Beach at Tahnu Leweh.
That’s my vote.
No matter what it is officially named locals will call it El Dorado Beach or Regan Beach. So what is the goal here in regards to the name ? If it is to honor our past, let the Washoe name rule and add an historical marker with info about the Washoe tribe and lets move forward.The tourists will find it informative and our local schools will have a good field trip.
Tahnu Leweh is the best choice. It invokes the history of the Lake which is a big thing for tourists.
And its meaning is really cool.
Commons sounds like a British term. Last time I checked, Tahoe historically didn’t have a big British influence.