Letter: Agencies creating a Tahoe residents don’t want

To the community,

Why I went to the meeting Feb. 6:

After reading the Catalyst Project document, I was shocked. This wasn’t a catalyst for commercial growth, it was an immense planned development. I realized that this project could never happen because there wasn’t enough commercially zoned land for a new 4-acre project. Then a Lake Tahoe News’ story came out, magically, 5.78 acres of California Tahoe Conservancy lots are going to be sold, right in the general vicinity of this Catalyst.

So I went back and crunched some numbers, and saw that once again, this project could never get off the ground because of lack of commercial floor area (CFA). Since I have personal experience with this commodity, I understood that there was simply not enough CFA allotted to Meyers. That was until the new TRPA Regional Plan was explained to me. Goes something like this: CFAs, TAUs (tourist accommodation units), hard coverage (asphalt) and soft coverage (compacted dirt), are government commodities that control growth and create revenue. These commodities are very valuable. And if I were to make an analogy, it’s like how gold and silver are to the paper dollar, they fluctuate depending on demand. If the feds went out and printed a gazillion one-hundred dollar bills, it would upset the economy. Well, that’s kind of what the TRPA did.

They are supplying up to six times the commodities like CFAs or coverage for one commodity purchased, or a 1 to 6 ratio, or a 1 to 2 ratio, or a 1 to 3 ratio, depending on location. Also, this surprised me, transferring/converting stuff, residential stuff to commercial stuff? CFAs converting to TAUs? Meyers stuff being sold/traded with North Shore stuff? Really? Answer: Yes.

Yes, they are trading or selling commercial floor area and want to sell or trade more coverage across the lake and across the board. TRPA Code 50, 50.10.1

The TRPA has also changed our zoning title, our commercial area is now a “town center”, increasing density, which basically means, they could cram more stuff (see above) into a smaller space.

With these changes, the numbers work, this mega resort could actually fly. Wow! But wait, neighbors would still have to be notified if something like this was in the planning process, right? No, under the new plan, to add insult to injury, they don’t have to tell us anything.

Lastly, never underestimate the Meyers community. I was so proud to be among all those people who showed up [Thursday] night, reminded me of 20 years ago when we stood up and said, “We will not be the parking lot for Lake Tahoe!”

I was proud then and am proud now. By the way, this Catalyst calls for a 465-unit parking garage to “capture the gasoline vehicles and incentivize them into electric cars”.

Good grief.

Angela Olson, Meyers