Public offers ideas for loop road
Mike McKeen wants more to be done at the state line area than officials have proposed. Photo/Kathryn Reed
By Kathryn Reed
Whether people want a loop road around the Stateline casinos or not isn’t the question. The questions are what do they want it to look like and where should the roads go?
This isn’t to say realigning Highway 50 on the South Shore is a done deal. It isn’t by a long shot. Environmental documents still need to be finalized, then reviewed, revised and a final version released. Then there is the conundrum of financing what will be a multimillion-dollar project.
Wednesday night was a chance for people to reacquaint themselves with the project that is being spearheaded by the Tahoe Transportation District. What the agency was looking for is public comment that can be incorporated into the environmental documents as the four alternatives, plus do nothing are studied.
Mike McKeen, who owns the property where Naked Fish and Powder House are located, has taken that invite to offer suggestions a step further than most. He hired an architect to draw up plans for how the area could look.
This has a lot to do with some of the proposals calling for his buildings to be wiped out as well as the Bottle Shop, which is owned by Kathay Lovell.
“Businesses would thrive more with a whole new gateway,” McKeen told Lake Tahoe News.
He had copies of his plan available for anyone who wanted them.
His ideas somewhat complement what has become known as the triangle plan. It has the loop road starting near the vacant lots along Highway 50 before Pioneer Trail.
But what is different is McKeen proposes abandoning the current highway from that point to essentially today’s intersection of 50 and Pioneer Trail. The highway, which becomes the loop road behind Harrah’s and MontBleu, continues as proposed. Pioneer Trail, though, through this stretch becomes more of a pedestrian arcade.
McKeen envisions tearing down his buildings and replacing them with something more contemporary that would hold up over time.
The Bottle Shop is also proposed for demolition and rebuild under his plan.
Lovell told Lake Tahoe News, “I do like (Mike’s) thought process on this. I like the idea of a gateway. I really like the whole idea of the traffic flow there.”
And she likes the idea of keeping businesses and making the area more attractive. What she hasn’t seen are the numbers to know how everything pencils out.
Where there are old hotels McKeen proposes building affordable housing so the people who are displaced could still live in the neighborhood. He also wants a community center and parking to go on the other side of Pioneer Trail from his buildings.
Carl Hasty, executive director of TTD, said this kind of public input is exactly what the agency is looking for.
New to the official drawings is a proposed cycle track that is similar to one in Sparks. It calls for narrowing the vehicle lane to accommodate a bike lane. This segment would then possibly eventually tie into the Stateline-to-Stateline trail, Linear Park and the Greenway.
Curtis Fong, who puts on two major cycling events on the South Shore, told Lake Tahoe News the proposed changes to 50 would not affect his events. He also likes anything that makes roads more bike friendly. What he worries about is the proposed roundabout at Lake Parkway.
“I’m always concerned as a cyclist about the traffic circulars, especially a double lane,” Fong told Lake Tahoe News.
Brenda Knox of Meyers embraces the roundabout, saying they make traffic flow better and can be visually appealing.
Some people said they were there to take all the ideas in and hadn’t made a decision on the loop road, while others said it is imperative the area make progressive changes that will bring a visual and economic vitality to the area.
More than 70 people attended the Nov. 12 open house at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel.
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Notes:
• More about the proposals may be found online. This website also allows people to make comments.
• The environmental documents are expected to be released in the first quarter of 2015.
• Advocates are promoting the loop road so the casino corridor can be more pedestrian-bike friendly, with the bulk of traffic going to the east around the casino corridor.
This is the kind of excellent and creative community input that helps move useful progress forward. By accommodating those who would be impacted and making what they had even better afterwards, there are wins all around.
Having visited many towns and cities with interesting, walkable commercial districts that are not bisected by a busy traffic corridor, I can vouch for their appeal and attractiveness.
I have never bought the idea that the loop road will only serve the Nevada casinos. What can be created and enhanced in the stateline area as a walkable district will draw its own clientele, and allow for major gatherings of various sorts year round in addition to its improved commercial appeal.
Roundabouts are also great, and keep traffic flowing where it otherwise grinds to a stop. Have experienced many of them in Europe and increasingly in the US, and there is not a better way to keep the flow going. The bicyclists’ concerns about these should be heard, however, and resolved as best as possible.
My concern with the loop road has always been the impact on existing facilities – but if these owners buy in and help suggest a way around these, as Mr. McKeen is doing, then good on them.
Nice work, Mr. McKeen! And thanks to all those at the TTD. Keep the ideas coming! I look forward to learning more about this rerouting process… it is truly going to reshape our town!
Intelligent traffic flow, improved bike lanes and access, pedestrian walkways, an inviting business gateway to our town.. A built environment to match and possibly even enhance our natural surroundings… Sounds good to me!
I was their last night and I looked at everything that was on display.
there was pictures of before and after for most of the project, I asked 2 of the TTD folks what Moss rd. would look like ?
their response was ” where’s Moss rd.”
as I see it that is where all of the displacement will happen, you could call it the Blood Bath.
it is hard to imagine that they have not planed for that area, I think they just don’t want you to know until after it happens.
Any plan that is put forward should come with a detailed plan on road closures during construction.
If left to their own desires they will close 50 and the Loop Road at the same time. All we need is for them to back-up traffic to Echo Summit again.
I would also like someone to comment on what went wrong in Sparks. The entire project is/was a disaster. I understand our leaders think Livermore is a destination resort but I have my doubts that a company that doesn’t have the decency to tell it employees they filed bankruptcy will invest the tens of millions needed to remodel their HWY frontages.
Does any one remember the wild claims about the Lakeside Inn area becoming a pedestrian utopia? I lost three summers out of my life waiting for them to complete a couple hundred yards of sidewalk that gets little use. What about the artists renditions of the Harvey’s tower reflecting the clouds and lake?
Maybe we should asked the tax paying public whether they want this project or not. Pretty sure I remember the answer last time the question was asked.
TTD has admitted that there is funding through the planning process so that’s what they’ll continue to do. Get paid to plan. The problem is in the implementation. Who in CA (except our new supervisor) wants to go around all the CA businesses and route traffic directly to Nevada? When will the ‘treating SLT like the red-headed stepchild’ of the Stateline interests ever end? Probably never. It’s like an abusive cycle for the last 50 years.
While I like and support many of these changes to improve the highway corridor at Stateline, I wish TTD and other entities were working equally hard to make Hwy 50 better and safer for locals and visitors throughout SLT and Meyers. I think there would broader support for this project if the benefits were not concentrated on such a small area when there is such obvious need throughout the Hwy 50 corridor.
Tahoereader, so we should do nothing because we cant afford to do everything?
Moral I have an idea, let the people of SLT vote. Continue or stop the time and money on this project and spend it on our streets and Meyers.
How can the input of property owners be considered “public”? Regardless of their plans, they have vested interests, do they not? I can’t believe that this is the best use of public funds in a city where roads are literally falling apart.
And, they didn’t know where Moss Road was? OMG.
Well said Buck in regards to the loop road. Let the people vote and I would add let folks have a voice in this huge change to our community other than one meeting at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. Sure there’s probably been closed door meetings done without the public being notified, and all the while the agencies along with an out of town developer getting all their ducks in a row to push this thru!!!
TTD along with TRPA and CTC have what appears to be unlimited funding and no ovesight! So basically? they do whatever they want!!!
These agencies are here to PROMOTE development in the Lake Tahoe basin . They’re NOT HERE TO PROTECT THE LAKE OR THE SURROUNDING AREASI !!!
Welcome to the San Jose of the Sierras! Wait till they get started in Meyers and North Shore. Bad news!!! OLS
Why do so many people see change and claim the sky is falling?
It seems simple to me, at least in a macro-sense: the area is broken and needs a’fixin.
We have folks taking a proactive approach and contributing to potential solutions…
…and then there are others.
Look at all the money being invested on the Nevada side right now: Montbleu ($20mil), Hard Rock ($50mil), Edgewood ($??mil). Let’s try and get it right here on the California side too. This one road town could really use the makeover.
Can’t we be more than just a town that most visitors only see when driving along the highway?
Ryan how are you going to see more of the Village and the Raley’s center by a loop road that goes on the back side of these businesses where the loading docks are located? Why did we bother to face highway 50? And yes let the TTD upgrade our side of state line if they need a 75 million dollar project. Water quality projects are needed all over SLT/Meyers.
Ryan, a loop road and its economic benefits hinge on the current commercial property owners reinvesting in their own structures and methods to draw people in. Otherwise all we end up with is a bypass road that may or may not improve storm water runoff. Has anyone committed you know of? By the way, have you heard of any funding for the loop road yet?
I’m still wondering where the $$ is coming from. I say to the TTD , as Cuba Gooding said to Tom Cruise, “show me the money.”
My view is that the loop road is going to do more harm than good! An unnecessary new project which will move people from their homes thru emminet domain and hurt local business because of this new road routing traffic around and behind their buisinesses.
So who profits? I would say the casinos and Edgewood what with their new developmement alreading starting for a hotel, er , excuse me it’s now called a “lodge with cabins”.It’s all in the semantics my friends!
I wouldn’t be surprised if they changed the name from “loop roaod” to “historical trail thru native lands”.
So much b.s. to push these projects thru! OLS
people any funding that may or very well may not come for this project would most likely come from federal or state funds or both. We can not use any of these funds to fix our city streets period! on another note there are rumors out there that caltran may have changed its mind about not funding the sidewalks and resurfacing of 50.
Isnt it great news about the college getting 5 million from a private donation to do a college center!!!
Great to see another great project involving the citizens to help plan! South Lake Tahoe is moving in the right direction!
OLS I am curious on your reasoning iwhy this project would do more harm then good. On the simple fact that eminent domain might be used? That some local businesses might be impacted and Nevada interests might benefit. Let me offer a different view for your consideration.That this project will do ore good then harm. That Eminent domain might not be used, that some local businesses might be positively impacted and that California interests might benefit.