Letter: TRPA policy killing Tahoe’s economy

To the community,

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency recently completed their Regional Plan update.

Possibly influenced by other environmental agencies — TRPA created a new 20-year build-out plan to dramatically cut residential building allocations for Tahoe by 57 percent — 300 to 130 total — for the Tahoe region.

This harsh new number (130/year) was conceived using a completely “fabricated calculation — designed to achieve a desired result”.

For El Dorado County, allocations were cut by 73 percent — from 119 to 29 this year.

The city of South Lake Tahoe allocations also severely cut — only nine this year.

On the TRPA website they proudly boast, “The Best Lake Tahoe Clarity in Ten Years”.

They also are preparing to offer homeowners a new and unprecedented relaxed Deck/Driveway Coverage Program with simple permitting stating, “We want to share our great environmental progress with homeowners.”

What TRPA is not advertising is their “silent slaughter” of an entire local economy, construction industry, and revenue for local county agencies, businesses, utilities, schools and fire departments, and thousands of local jobs.

Until this year we had a residential allocation system that achieved both TRPA’s goals and building industry for over 12 years. One can only speculate TRPA is slaying the allocation program because they have failed to enforce a mandated BMP program.

One consistency we can always count on is the “inconsistency” of TRPA.

This agency needs to find a “balance” between protecting our beautiful lake and allowing a local business economy to survive.

This severe restriction of land use truly rides the fence for litigation by parcel owners who lose their right to use their property.

John Adamski, Meyers