Opinion: Keep Nevada part of TRPA
By Jesse Patterson
Nevada senators introduce bill to Save Lake Tahoe. Now, we have to make sure that it passes. Special interests who stand to benefit if Lake Tahoe loses its environmental protections will fight hard to stop this bill.
Nevada legislators need to hear from you. If you have not already done so, sign this petition to tell our elected officials that Lake Tahoe is for everyone, not just big money interests, and must be protected.
The Save Tahoe Bill, (SB229) introduced on March 11, will keep Nevada committed to the bi-state agreement that has protected Lake Tahoe for the last 40-plus years by completely repealing SB271, a bill that pulls Nevada out of all bi-state protections currently safeguarding Lake Tahoe.
SB271 was pushed through the Legislature in the last few minutes of the 2011 session and set a timetable for Nevada to leave the bi-state agreement in 2015. A promised environmental analysis looking at the impacts of this course of action has never materialized putting the future of Tahoe in jeopardy.
Why is repealing SB271 important?
The lake needs a uniform regulator. Lake Tahoe is divided between two states but it does not know jurisdictional boundaries. Nor do the threats facing the lake. The two states must work together for the long-term protection of this unique national treasure.
Why does the lake need the TRPA?
The TRPA regulates development uniformly on both sides of the state line. The TRPA has stopped runaway urban sprawl and casino growth that threatened conservation lands. Tahoe’s future is uncertain if the agency disintegrates.
The TRPA’s successful boat inspection program has been the only defense against quagga and zebra mussels, which will cost millions to tackle if they establish. It only takes one mussel to destroy Lake Tahoe forever. We cannot take that chance.
The TRPA and its partners have secured hundreds of millions of dollars in federal restoration funds that have made a big difference at the lake. Our congressional leaders need to know that protecting and restoring the lake are top priorities for both states before they push for more investment. The bottom line is we aren’t going to get more money if the two states act like squabbling siblings.
Join the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the Nevada Conservation League and thousands of others who care about the future of Lake Tahoe in supporting SB229.
If you haven’t already done so, sign our petition. Or, email the members of the Nevada Senate on Natural Resources and ask them to vote YES on SB229.
Thank you for telling Nevada elected officials that Lake Tahoe should be protected for future generations.
Jesse Patterson is deputy executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.
WhileI agree that an organization such as the TRPA is a must for Lake Tahoe, I have doubts about your organization.
If the TRPA a is so necessary why have you sued them.
I’m afraid you’re speaking from both sides of your mouth The hyperboles do not help your case.
Chris,
After re reading JoAnn’s list, I got the impression she wasn’t taking credit for these improvements. She was just stating all the positve things that had occured here in the the last ten years or so in SLT. Sure, the City and other local agencies helped with these projects which resulted in bringing new businesses to town through permitting and all the red tape, trying to move things along to help build our economy and provide jobs.
Are we over regulated? Yes, and there’s a reason.
Starting in the late 1950’s going thru the mid 70’s there was a building boom and nothing was regulated. Housing tracts, commercial buildings along 50, all being built with no planning, inadequate water, sewer, electrical supply, rarerly enforced building codes, the casinos all going hi rise. Now we’re stuck with all this and trying to fix it as best we can.
The City of SLT formed in 1965 to try and get a handle on the towns rapidily growing population. Several years later the TRPA was formed to help with enviornmental concerns. Many more agencies, committees and groups came into the picture. All trying to protect this pristine place we call home, Lake Tahoe.
Do I always agree with how the city councl votes? No. Do I agree with all the TRPA regulations? No. These entities are here for a reason, that being trying to improve SLT, whether it be economicaly and hopefully enviourmentaly for our full time residents, businesses and our guests from out of town.
Chris, I welcome you to South Lake Tahoe and I hope your business thrives.Take care newcomer, Old Long Skiis
Hi Chris-
You are touching on the main issue. It takes the businesses and tourists to support the taxes that pay the salaries of this TRPA bureaucracy. They can not just keep raising the taxes on the residents to support them from their lofty removed perches.
Why drive away these support aspects of the local economy with unreasonable restrictions on reasonable people and why pander and allow special interests to “Get-away-with” projects that only benefit a few?? TRPA like all Gov. bureaucracies are corrupted over time. Time to put the local control in the hands of HONEST locals. That is the real issue, finding them!!
The free market anti any regulation on development people are the quagga mussels on land of the basin. They have only one purpose in mind=greed.
My neighbors want to enlarge their structure without adding additional coverage. They want to build under their existing deck. They have an architect and submitted plans.
Every time they wander into the TRPA office they get a different answer as to what they (TRPA) want.
There are fees, but according to TRPA they are guidelines not the actual fees. If they were adopted by the board they should be firm. They should have been posted by the organization.
There appears to be no guidelines to follow. Each time you speak to an employee you get a different answer. Sometimes the same employee will give you a different answer on different days.
Having worked for city governments I do not understand how the same office can give out different answers to the same questions. Is there no check list, guide book or training for the employees?
This type of incident is why TRPA is so hated.
They are bullies and everyone hates a bully!!
who still believes your rising tide lifts all boats reaganite republican stupidity? save all your rich folk trust me sludge for those that don’t know exactly who you are and what you want to do.
LilPeter, aka Smedley Butler…
though your current name probably suits you best
chrisula, dont hate me cause I belong to http://www.smallpenisgunclub.org
My, what a contentious lot so many of the people that comment here are.
Attack this person or that person, dislike different ideas, their politics, question their intelligence, name calling, accusations based on heresay and your self perceived high intellect of ones self.
Some people just like to complain about everything and anything, disagree with anyone that doesn’t fit into their own “perfect” little world view.
Goodnight and goodbye, Old Long Skiis
I think Nevada has done a much better Job than California at managing Lake resources.
I would Like to see Nevada get out of the TRPA. I think it will improve the economy for all around the Lake, while still protecting the Lake and open spaces in the surrounding area.
The one great thing the TRPA could have done was limit the size of private residences. But NO the really well healed still built the 10,000+ square foot get always. What a waste of space.
Chris, Well said, all the way through. I do have one question though, about your loop road comments. Do you really think that in order for a business to survive, that one needs to force potential customers to drive right past it? I think that holds true for a true “drive thru” town, one that might be a spec on I-5 that is nothing of a destination for anyone, but just a pit stop along the way. But I can’t imagine that SLT and the Tahoe Village are anything like that. The area that would have the highway removed is a destination site where anyone who lands here for a vacation would gravitate to, availing themselves to all businesses present. BUT, it has to be a conspicuous gravitation point, something so attractive that you don’t feel you’ve had the whole experience unless you’ve toodled about the town, and shops, restaurants, etc., in an awesome après-ski, or summer evening environment.
My fear with the loop road (off-subject I know), is that decades of haggling will result in a compromise that pleases no one, and offers very little real improvement. The last comment I made on the topic was astonishment that this highway around the area, with all of its pain and expense involved, would still leave a road cutting right through the same area. I mean, really?? No damned difference at all! More work, and much higher vision needed, I’m afraid.
Back to TRPA, I’m admittedly not an expert, but when I bought a property six years ago, my first impression wasn’t good. I wish I could find more evidence that their activities have made the Lake less polluted, but my only experience with the group has been warnings of thousand dollar fines if I trim a branch off of one of the trees on “my” property, high atop the Kingsbury grade 10 miles from shore, and tales that many of the hundreds of homes lost in the Angora fire might have been saved, had the TRPA not forbidden owners to cut defensible zones around their homes. My impression is that initial good intentions have grown over the decades into incredible overreach, that the TRPA gets more satisfaction from control over property owner rights than it cares about the lake, and that its usefulness has passed. As a Nevada property owner who cares about the environment as much or more than anyone in the TRPA, I hope Nevada can cut them loose, and that this latest bill fails.
TRPA
Tahoe Regional Plutocracy Agency
What ever happened with the boat dock that the lady who hosted the fund raisers for them built without a permit? Did she just pay a fine and keep it? Double standards and double talk! When I opened my business here in the early eighties, just meeting their standards for a sign was a nightmare. Follow the money. When you sweep away all the cover and clutter, what’s left is wealthy individuals who just want things their way with no regard for others.