Clock ticking on South Shore loop road time line

By Kathryn Reed

STATELINE – In two months the Tahoe Transportation District board expects to know which alternatives for the loop road will be studied in the environmental documents, what businesses in the affected area think about the economic analysis, and it hopes to have finally appeased the South Lake Tahoe City Council with a nighttime airing of the issue.

Much of Friday’s TTD board meeting centered on what the newly created U.S. 50 South Shore Community Revitalization Project Business Review Committee should actually do.

This group has been tasked with reviewing the economic analysis that has been prepared. While it was stated they would perform a “peer review” of the financial document, that phrase was loosely used with acknowledgement it has many meanings.

They will determine the pros and cons of the economic analysis.

Their exact tasks will be outlined in a letter still to be written.

The following people will be on the committee, with those with an asterisk having until Feb. 15 to complete their form. Next to their name is the business or property they represent and classification/criteria they meet, according to TTD. Parenthetical information is from LTN.

• 986 Park Hotel, Chris Minnes, small local owned tourist accommodation. (Minnes manages the property. The owners are from Southern California.)

• Heavenly Mountain Resort, Pete Sonntag, large corporate recreation provider.

• Lake Tahoe South Shore Chamber of Commerce, B Gorman, local collective business representative.

• Tahoe Prosperity Center-Carson City rep, Lee Plemel, regional collective business representative. (TTD employee Alfred Knotts called the TPC a neutral party.)

• Sidestreet Boutique, Barbara Parina or Tara Parina, local small retail.

• Edgewood Companies, Mitchell Mize, local recreation provider-large commercial property owner.

• Tahoe Beach Club, Bob Mecay, large tourist accommodation. (Their project is undeveloped at the end of Kahle Drive in Stateline where the trailer park is.)

• Naked Fish landlord, Mike McKeen, small commercial property owner.

• Village Center landlord, Terry Hackett, large commercial property owner.* (TTD calls it Crescent V Center.)

• Dog Dog Cat, George Richter, local small retail owner.*

• Duck Tours, Shawn Kerney, small local recreation provider.*

• Holiday Inn Express, Pete MacRoberts, large corporate tourist accommodation.

• Raley’s, TBD, large corporate retail.*

• Stateline Brewery, Debbie Brown, local restaurant-dining.*

• Pacific Crest Gallery, Rosemary Wool, local small retail.

• Basecamp Pizza, Ted Kennedy/Ray Villaman, regional-local restaurant dining.*

• MontBleu, Jack Fisher, large corporate tourist accommodation.

• 7-Eleven-Subway landlord, Glyn Burge, small commercial property owner.

The board agreed to see if someone from the commercial real estate industry wants to be on the committee.

McKeen suggested Kathay Lovell, who owns the Bottle Shop, and Dave Jinkens, a consultant to opponents of the loop road, be added.

The economic analysis, according to TTD Executive Director Carl Hasty, will also undergo independent review by HDR consulting, which he said has expertise in resort finance.

While the TTD board will consider the committee’s recommendations, they are only that. Nothing that group suggests is binding. The committee is expected to meet Feb. 27, March 6 and March 20. Meetings will be open to the public. The facilitator has yet to be named.

Mark Rayback with Wood Rodgers, the firm hired by TTD to do work on the loop road project, will be the project engineer going forward.

The loop road is a proposal to make Highway 50 near Heavenly Village and then beyond the Stateline casinos into a city street and turn the city street behind Harrah’s-MontBleu into a state highway.

There will be a meeting in a month before the South Lake Tahoe City Council to discuss all things loop road. The expectation is a bit of history will be told, why the loop road is being considered and the alternatives still being considered.

Norma Santiago, El Dorado County’s TTD board member, wants the public to understand “no decision has been made.”

“This is just the kickoff for land use and economic vitality choices for that area,” Angela Swanson, who is the city’s rep to the TTD board, said. The city will begin working on its Stateline area plan in March, too.

Dates to know:

• March 12, 6pm South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting to discuss loop road; Lake Tahoe Airport.

• March 22, 9:30am Tahoe Transportation District meeting to receive progress report from Business Review Committee; Market Street office in Stateline.

• April 12, Tahoe Transportation District meeting to hear final report from Business Review Committee. (Time, location forthcoming.) Board likely to decide what should be studied in environmental documents.