Letter: Questions regarding Meyers hockey academy

Publisher’s note: This letter was sent to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and is reprinted with permission.

Dear Ms. [Audrey] Jepson,

I received your notice of a public hearing for this project scheduled for June 22. I believe some clarification is required.

The notice contains the same language as before in the last paragraph, indicating that this item is again on the consent agenda, and may be approved without additional discussion.

Which is it? A public hearing or another attempt to pass the project without the discussions many of us have asked for earlier?

I would like to see the following addressed in discussion:

• What is the rationale to use earlier studies and permits issued 20 years ago on a “go forward without any further attention” basis when so much about the proposed project and the local area has changed?
• The hockey academy concept described on the website www.tahoehockeyacademy.com earlier referenced in correspondence is not a “recreational facility” as originally permitted, it is now a high school with nearly a hundred possible students. A school which charges in the range of $50,000 per year for tuition, room and board. Doesn’t the school have a conflict with the plan area statements which are in place for this area?
• Did the El Dorado County approvals address the school aspect of the project as opposed to recreational facility proposed in the original project?
• The project maps on TRPA’ website are not clear. The basketball courts shown are also shown as overflow parking. I was not able to clearly identify 40 plus other parking places defined on the drawings.
• Has an analysis been done to indicate the impacts on the city ice rink (and the public that also uses it) of an additional nearly 100 possible daily hockey training sessions?
• Have any traffic studies been done to identify emergency ingress/egress alternatives in either fire or avalanche conditions.
• Caltrans is planning a roundabout at 50 and 89 in 2018. This major project will have an affect on the ability to get bus and other traffic onto 50 from the project location.
• Is Tahoe Hockey Academy bus and other traffic planning to use South Upper Truckee Road to Portal to 89 and thence to Highway 50 to avoid the difficult intersection at Highway 50 and South Upper Truckee Road? This would negatively affect about half the residents of Christmas Valley.

Thank you for your attention.

Ed Morrow, Christmas Valley