Loop road, redevelopment ideas shaping up
TTD Executive Director Carl Hasty explains how the portion in red is land that needs to be acquired, while the blue area would be repurposed if the loop road goes through. Photo/LTN
By Kathryn Reed
INCLINE VILLAGE — Douglas County is all-in when it comes to the loop road on the South Shore. A portion of the recently approved gas tax will be going toward the Highway 50 realignment.
Tahoe Transportation District officials are tweaking some of the five alternatives to be studied in the environmental impact statement. The first draft is expected out the first quarter of 2016.
Carl Hasty, TTD executive director, told his board on Nov. 13 that meetings have been taking place with property owners that would be affected by changing the alignment of Highway 50 in the state line area.
Three of the five alternatives call for a four-lane highway behind Harrah’s-MontBleu, with the current highway from about Pioneer Trail to Lake Parkway becoming a city-county street.
Housing is being proposed in the area for the residents who would be displaced.
“We are fine-tuning what is in the development,” Hasty said.
He said with tourist accommodation units being able to be converted to commercial floor area and residential units this opens up opportunities.
Money is in hand to get through the environmental studies. Construction dollars are easier to get once the EIS is done.
Douglas County commissioners heard the presentation earlier this month and South Lake Tahoe City Council will next month.
“We want to do it. We are putting in a redevelopment area there too,” Nancy McDermid said. She is the Douglas County commissioner who sits on the TTD board. “We just hope the city comes through because they are the key to this happening.”
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Notes:
· On Dec. 1 at 5:30pm there will be a public workshop regarding the loop road at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel in South Lake Tahoe.
· South Lake Tahoe City Council will hear a presentation on the loop road status on Dec. 7. The meeting starts at 9am at Lake Tahoe Airport.
Really, Nancy, the city is key to this happening. I hope not.
I have studied the loop road project and spoken with representatives of ttd about the alternatives. My two cents….it’s an enormous waste of money.
I think there may be a error in the article, my understanding is that TAUs can not be converted to residental use
There is a fundamental problem with the Loop Road/Redevelopment process. Land Use Planners favor public hearings as the method of obtaining input and/or endorsing a project. But, as we recently witnessed with Measure “P” election, despite supporting surveys and input from the public at public hearings, the citizens soundly rejected the City’s paid parking meter program in our community. The TTD has long advocated the Loop Road and have continue to press this issue. Our City should not take any action concerning this project without first giving the Voters the opportunity to either approval or reject the TTD’s proposal. This is a significant project not only redirecting tourist traffic from local businesses, but calls for significant displacement of residents. The best measure for public support is not at public hearings in combination with special interests advocates, but the ballot.
First of all, the name “loop road” is a misnomer. The project is not a loop road system, but a re-alignment of Highway 50 to bypass the shops and motels on the California side of the stateline area. The diversion is designed to divert traffic to benefit the Nevada side. No wonder Nancy McDermid wants this project to happen and willing to help pay for the displacement of people and businesses on the California side.
Second, Austin Sass said during his campaign for SLT City Council, that he opposed the “loop road.” Let’s see if he is true to his campaign pledge.
Third, TAU’s being converted to commercial floor area and residential units creates opportunities for whom? A developer on the Nevada side?
Fourth, would the city of South Lake Tahoe have to use the eminent domain process? We all know what happened the last time the city used the eminent domain process. Business and property owners lost huge sums of money.
Another costly government boondoggle. Bureaucrats in the middle of these fantasy funding mechanisms are not capable of making rational and sensible decisions on issues such as this. Put the Loop Road/Hwy 50 realignment to a vote at the ballot box and see what the taxpayers think.
I still wonder how a local government is able to realign a major US Interstate Highway, just ’cause. . . on a whim.
Rick, get your facts straight. The realignment is being done because no other major international tourist destination in the United States has a U.S. highway running straight through and bisecting their tourist core.
Name one Rick.
Steamboat Springs. Winter Park. Lake George, Ny. Until they built the freeway-Carson City. The only way this will happen is for CalTrans to declare the loop road US Hiway 50 and to declare the current US Hiway 50 as Business US Hiway 50. In this way we can use federal funds to buy everything and do the construction required. The state (Ca & Nv) will take over snow removal and cross over to each other as there is nowhere for the plows to turn around, they will have to have a mou in place for this. By having the feds take over we can also have them pay for all the map changes, signs and infrastructure. The absolute best way is for the USDA to buy all the right of way and declare it forestry land, remove all the structures, do the bmp’s and call it a bypass road, then you would not have to deal with each state. My opinion only.
Circulation problems would be addressed simply by removing the signal at stateliness ave. that traffic signal alone is responsible for congestion. Why is this not included in at least one alternative?
The Loop Road is a no brainer. All the conspiracy theories are tiresome and petty. This town needs to get much better to be competitive. This project moves an ugly, noisy federal highway away from what is becoming the better part of town and redirects it where all the locals are already driving. Tourists will fall all over themselves to get into the new friendlier core area, get out of their car and walk around. It’s what everyone wants to do. Now just provide enough parking.
South Shore needs to demand to be better and rise above the predictable diversions. Get it done.
“…Provide enough parking”. Nevada would have to provide FREE parking. South Lake Tahoe always wants to hijack folks at the parking meter – can’t afford the parking garage they have.
Circulation problems?? Stop building sidewalks to nowhere and traffic would flow just fine.
I agree with Nic that a couple of decades waiting at the stop light at Stateline is more than enough.
Close the current hwy 50 at the intersection of Pioneer and hwy 50, all the way past the casinos to Edgewood golf course. Turn the closed road into a pedestrian area, then you can have a true village on both sides of the current road with no pedestrian issues. Make the loop around the area a counter clockwise one-way road, it can be done very easily. And a trial period could be done using temporary cement barriers and a few signs. Nothing like giving it a try before spending millions of dollars.
Five years ago Mike McKeen along with Bruce Grego led the No to the Loop Road campaign. Now McKeen has publically stated his support of the project. I wonder what has changed.
I also wonder if the project builds new affordable housing for all the “displaced” and satisfies the current landlords, if the city has a right to object and stop them from gaining financially . I would like to hear from the landlords and tenants.
I think if others believe the biggest issue we have here is the road, they are deluding themselves. Tahoe has fallen out of favor with many, and it’s not because on certain days it takes 5 minutes to drive from Pioneer Trail to Kingsbury grade.
I would hope that our city would fix the 120 miles of roads in our city first. Not one penny of city tax dollars should be spent until we have a vote on this project. I think we still have parking meters in storage when the city didn’t believe what the voters really wanted.
Will they tear out the two year old side walks behind Mount Blue?
Big thinkers at work. Side walks already over grown with weeds. The entire rout has no parking signs so who was supposed to use them???
Bring this to a vote of the citizens as we did years ago with the freeway through town. The people who live in the City should decide on this project and not Mr Hasty and his pals.