Cove East, Keys Marina to get more free parking
By Kathryn Reed
Increasing the allowable coverage by 33 percent for parking at Tahoe Keys Marina will require shifting the entrance of Cove East about 20 feet closer to the Upper Truckee River.
The California Tahoe Conservancy board on Dec. 12 agreed to allow the marina to cover up to 60,000-square-feet of the nearly 1.5-acre parcel. In January 2011, the coverage allocation was 45,000-square-feet. And at that time the entrance to the popular Cove East walking path that leads to Lake Tahoe was not going to have to be altered.
The land behind the fence is destined to become parking at Tahoe Keys Marina-Cove East. Photo/LTN
The marina plans to build the parking lot this summer. It is designed to be free parking, though there is a caveat in the lease agreement that allows for the marina to charge if it wants to. The Conservancy would receive 20 percent of any revenue generated from paid parking.
“This doesn’t affect what the city is doing and that seems to be changing year-to-year,” Bruce Eisner, with the Conservancy, told the board.
South Lake Tahoe implemented paid parking on Venice Drive, the road to Cove East and the marina, this summer. Now the meters are gone, which the city said was always the plan so they would not be damaged by snowplows.
Councilman Tom Davis, the city’s rep to the CTC board, could not make the meeting for personal reasons so he could not enlighten everyone what the city might do with Venice in the future, especially considering a new free lot is going to be built.
Additional parking by the marina owners is allowed in the master plan that has been approved by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. The plan allows for 303 total parking spaces. The new lot will add 120. The spots are designed for marina and Cove East users, not Fresh Ketch patrons.
Eisner said the parking situation would be reviewed annually to ensure people using CTC land have adequate access to the parking spots.
Marina owners must build the lot and bathrooms, a lane for watercraft inspections and then maintain the area per the 30-year lease. Two unisex bathrooms on the north end of the lot, which is closer to the marina, will be constructed.
The parcel is between the current parking area for the marina and the trail. It’s vacant land. The dirt is fill from when the Tahoe Keys was developed in the 1960s.
Laurel Ames with the Tahoe Area Sierra Club was the lone member of the public to talk to the issue.
“It’s the wrong kind of public access in the wrong place,” Ames told the board. “It’s the wrong time to be adding pavement at the lakeshore.”
She believes it would have been more prudent to wait to see what comes of studies on the nearshore that might say what is contributing to the decline in clarity, and questions the increase in vehicle miles traveled. That then becomes an air quality issue.
And the Conservancy anticipates more people will come because parking will be less of an issue and the lot will put people that much closer to the trail.
From the lot there will be links to the Cove East trail so people won’t have to walk back to the entrance on Venice Drive.
I appreciate what the Sierra Club objectives are; however, I am a senior who wants easy access to public trails and beach access paid for by public taxes – BEFORE I am too old to walk these lovely areas. I also resent all the paid parking because the City does not know how to manage finances, and ends up charging everyone for everything. For so many years, I parked along Venice Drive to take a long, lovely walk to the lake & back for free (paid for by my property taxes, etc.) for FREE. Now, the City double-dips to charge us to enjoy improvements also paid for by our taxes.
We need more creative “thinking” in SLT…
Only in South Lake Tahoe……… Who says government corruption is only in large cities?
Free parking to encourage both locals and tourists to enjoy our beaches and the Lake. That’s what we had everywhere in the City a year ago until the misguided “Parking Management” ordinance was changed.
If the Council doesn’t remove the parking kiosks at our beaches on their own, then everyone should support a ballot initiative to remove them.
I am a birder. I bird cove east often. There are a few bird species I regularly see only in the beginning section of the trail. a great basin sage. rabbit brush and grass habitat zone. I would not like to see this area black-topped so close to the newly created wet-land the conservancy made in the first phase. There is a little bit of a buffer zone now between the incredibly noisy Marina and the river. I think it should be kept in place. The cove east project has been a good project up to now. The land is recovering and birds and amphibians are returning. Please don’t undo this rebirth.
I find it interesting that some of the people who are opposed to paid parking will opine in other threads the lack of or below par (in their estimation) city services.
Many don’t want to pay more for municipally provided services, but love to scream that they’re not getting the services THEY expect and “deserve”.
Biggerpicture, When making comments please give facts not inferences.
As far as city services, I believe most services meet the needs of the city. Fire- responsive, Police- responsive, Garbage- Highly reliable, snow plow- timely but I wish they didn’t bury me in my driveway, roads- in need of repairs but being addressed.
What we don’t need are ordinances passed by the council which drive tourists away from our city and locals away from our beaches.
What a terrible injustice and hardship it is for some people to have to pay for parking at one of their ‘vacation homes’
This parking lot was made necessary because Bill Crawford was able to push through because he held another vote hostage to his getting trailer parking banned. That created the need for this parking lot. There is no need for it at all actually, we (local boaters without money for a slip) only need a place to park our boat trailers. The trailer parking ban made it financially impossible for people like me to use our local boat slip. Congratulations Bill.
The Keys Marina in the past had a locals pass for the boat launch, pay $300 and you are good for the year. It was far more affordable than $1500 minimum for a slip, and the City Council destroyed that. Now the Keys Marina is trying to get some parking back so people can actually use the launch.
TeaTotal, I don’t have a vacation home, I live here, and yeah, I don’t get to use those beaches anymore. I cant afford it.
And it all comes down to “unintended consequences”… again.
It’s going to be free parking except that the Marina can charge if it want to, in which case a percentage goes to the Conservancy? So there’s a big incentive to make it not free, and the Conservancy gets paid for giving land back to the pavers. This all starts with the City’s parking meters, but shame on the Conservancy for selling itself out. I’m with Sierra Club on this one.
Go sierra club! This is why they are here. To be the ones to question these kinds of ubsurd actions. Thank you laurel for being on top of these projects that make no sense. Maybe we need to inform the audubon society, have them go to this site for their annual bird count. Maybe there are some special birds there that can stop this action. GO SIERRA CLUB
Copper, it started with Bill passing the trailer parking ban while holding the council hostage for a budget vote they needed. That deal included this. This project isn’t needed, they just need to open up trailer parking on Venice.
The City’s BIG idea to put parking meters on streets near lake access and at Lakeview Commons has been a bust. Right now the meters are covered with snow and have snow berms around them. The four parking enforcement employees they hired are driving around our neighborhoods looking for any kind of minor infraction to write a ticket for. Just yesterday the enforcement truck drove by my house three times and a neighbor got a ticket for not being far enough over on the street.
The community deserves to have a vote on this issue.
The Conservancy has gone rogue. It was funded with taxpayer dollars from state bonds with the purpose of improving water quality at the lake. Now it’s mission is self-preservation. They are reselling lots, at a profit, to developers, lots they bought for watershed preservation, so they can continue to keep themselves fully employed. Now they have ok’d new pavement very near the Upper Truckee River with the condition that they get a cut of the profit when the owners charge for parking. You know that they will – the Conservancy is counting on it. The only reason it’s not announced now is fear that public opinion would stop this bad plan in its tracks. Laurel Ames is Lake Tahoe’s great hero! Shame on the Conservancy. They have lost sight of their purpose – it’s time for them to go out out of business. They have become another self-dealing, self-perpetuating bureaucracy.
Yes I agree we should get a vote. The council should put this on the ballot to see if they were doing the right thing for the locals. The parking mgmt program people just driving around to ticket locals is ridiculous.
BMP’s either work or they don’t. If BMP’s and the new tough codes don’t work on the parking lot,the rest of us shouldn’t be required to install them.
I have been told that the parking patrol people also look for people illegally replacing their windows. Apparently a permit is now needed to replace old windows with new. Yes, Laurel Ames is a great advocate for the lake.
Buck, The Council should recognize that the “parking management” program they approved is hurting them, tourists and locals. They should overturn their decision by themselves without forcing a ballot vote at their next meeting in January.
If they allow the issue to go to the ballot, it will be negative for their own re-elections next year and after seeing the Tribune polls of over 80% against paid parking, I wouldn’t want to run against that opinion.
Didn’t they just pay a bunch of money for a restoration project out there based on the land, buildings and runoff. Now they want to change the equation therefore making the project they just got done with moot.
Can we get more bike racks to encourage bicycle parking?
If, as I’ve been told, this entire “meter maid” parking enforcement for profit as well as code enforcement, has been dumped on the police department, then South Lake Tahoe is in danger of losing (unless they already have) what has, for at least 40 years, been the premier law enforcement agency in the entire expanded Tahoe area. Not to dis Chief Uhler, but the very fact that someone thought it best to go outside the PD to find a Chief is likely further evidence of its decline.
If someone wants to connect that issue to budget cuts and reduced competitiveness in the effort to hire, and retain, top personnel, I probably wouldn’t argue.
“Free” Parking? Nothing is free.
Really. So dogs pose a threat to the wildlife environment of the marsh but a parking lot doesn’t?
The marina has the money to rearrange lots and parking, yet doesn’t replace the tattered American flags at the entrance (all summer long). Shameful.
john s. makes the obvious and very good point…