To the community,

Last week the Placer County Community Plan Team members received notification of a county-initiated board item (see below). This issue must be vetted properly by the Placer County Community Plan Team members as well as the Tahoe public at large.

Happy New Year to all of you —

The purpose of this email is to inform you of a county-initiated board item that will be presented to the Placer County Board of Supervisors on Jan. 7 in the Auburn Board Chambers. The board item is a proposal of an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting certain uses within the existing Community Plan areas of Tahoe City, Kings Beach, and North Stateline, which currently make up the TRPA Town Center areas within Placer County. The interim urgency ordinance would place a temporary prohibition on specific uses until updates to the Community Plans have been adopted. The proposed prohibited uses would include: hospitals, day care center/preschools, churches, schools – business and vocational, schools – colleges, schools – kindergarten through secondary, animal husbandry services, collection stations, single-family residences, service stations, auto repair and services, and contract construction services.

As most of you are aware, redevelopment of Town Centers has been identified as a high priority in TRPA’s updated Regional Plan. In Placer County, the Town Centers of Tahoe City, Kings Beach, and North Stateline have been targeted as receiving areas for development in a manner that concentrates densities within the Town Centers to create vibrant communities, while also fostering environmental threshold gain in the basin. Therefore, redevelopment with appropriate land uses within the Town Centers of Placer County is critical for revitalization, to foster sustainable communities, and to remove development off environmentally sensitive lands within the Basin.

Placer County appreciates and values the considerable input your Plan Teams have provided in the Community Plan Update visioning process. With the visioning efforts completed to date, the county also recognizes the importance of ensuring that the community’s vision for the Town Center areas is reflected in the Community/Area Plans in order for it be realized in the built environment. That said, with the establishment of an interim urgency ordinance, the Tahoe basin stakeholders and residents can be assured that Placer County is committed to honoring the communities’ investment in visioning, Area Plan and Community Plan Policy Framework efforts.

As the county moves forward with the Community Plan update process, county staff has determined that certain uses currently allowed within the Special Area districts of the Tahoe City Community Plan, the Kings Beach Community Plan and the North Stateline Community Plan are not in keeping with the visioning efforts of the Area Teams, conflict with the TRPA Regional Plan and the Placer County Tahoe Basin Community Plan Policy Framework. As a result, the county has concluded that certain land uses have the potential to impact the public health, safety and welfare of the residents of the North Lake Tahoe Region. Therefore, per Government Code Section 65858 (a), county staff is proposing an interim urgency ordinance prohibiting certain uses until the compatibility of such uses within the Town Centers can be appropriately addressed in the Community Plan update. The interim urgency ordinance will authorize the county to refuse to accept new applications for the term of the ordinance and to focus on finalizing its updates to the Tahoe City, Kings Beach and North Stateline Community Plans that are currently under way. Updates to said Community Plans will include review of existing allowed land uses for compatibility, and developing criteria and standards for such uses that may be appropriate in light of the character, purpose of, and Regional Plan requirements for the Town Centers within Placer County.

For your reference, I have attached the staff report and ordinance for this Jan. 7 board Item. You can also find the staff report package and Board of Supervisor’s meeting agenda online.

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact either myself or Paul Thompson, Tahoe CDRA at (530) 581.6200.

Thank you,

Crystal Jacobsen, supervising planner Placer County Community Development Resource Agency.

 I sent the following email to each Board of Supervisor member:

With all due respect, this item should be removed from BOS agenda Jan. 7 and rescheduled as a Tahoe “special” meeting. The short notice as well as the importance of the ordinance should be discussed with as many of the Area Plan Team members as possible. This is a formal request to schedule a Tahoe location meeting with enough advance notice to allow Area Plan team members as well as the Tahoe general public at large to attend.

I also sent this link to all Community Plan team members 20 pages for your review link to staff report.

Community Plan team members and public at large please join me in requesting this be heard in Lake Tahoe — the proper venue for this issue to be vetted. Send email to bos@placer.ca.gov as soon as possible, but no later than Jan. 6 at 5pm.

Thank you in advance for your support.

Ellie Waller, North Tahoe West Plan Team member and concerned citizen