The controversial Martis Valley West project is now being challenged by two lawsuits.

Sierra Watch, Mountain Area Preservation and the League to Save Lake Tahoe have joined forces to prevent the housing development in Truckee from going forward. The lawsuit was filed Nov. 10.

On a 4-1 vote this fall, the Placer County supervisors approved the 760-unit project. The conservation groups want a Placer County Superior Court judge to overturn the supervisors’ decision.

The developer is Mountainside Partners of Truckee, with the land belonging to Sierra Pacific Industries.

Houses would be built on a ridge bordering the Lake Tahoe Basin. The project is not in the basin, but it will impact the area. That is the overriding concern of litigants – that the impacts to Tahoe have not been addressed.

“The Martis Valley West proposal poses a direct threat to Lake Tahoe and its famous clarity. For years, our groups have attempted to collaborate with the developers and Placer County to find a solution that protects the Lake,” Darcie Goodman Collins, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, said in a statement. “Asking the courts to enforce the law is a last resort, but the developers have done nothing to address their project’s threats to Tahoe.”

The other lawsuit was filed in October by Davis-based nonprofit California Clean Energy Committee on grounds that environmental review was not sufficient.

— Lake Tahoe News staff report