Letter: Tahoe needs to wake up and engage
To the community,
Two contentious mega projects — Martis Valley West and Squaw Valley — just got approved by the Placer County supervisors despite raucous public outcry, objections by all area conservation groups and the California attorney general.
In the case of Martis Valley West, even objections by the county Planning Commission couldn’t stop the money train. Any kindergartner would know that the Squaw developer’s claims of reducing traffic by 10 percent makes no sense.
Projects of this complexity are the devil’s playground and even with huge groups of local citizens objecting, the governance structure in place for Tahoe doesn’t represent local interest.
What’s really insulting is the California attorney general got bought off for the mere price of $440,000. Kamala Harris backed off her criticism on impacts to Lake Tahoe if TRPA got the money. What a joke. Is this the new version of pay to play? Crystal Bay added two fire hydrants and replaced a short run of water lines on a short block for $470,000 plus. The $440,000 probably doesn’t pay for the time spent by the public at these meetings.
How does this pittance mitigate any of the valid concerns regarding traffic, wildfires, and environmental stewardship? There is no specificity about what exactly the monies are supposed to pay for and all we know is that the money will be sucked into the TRPA black hole. Sadly, it will probably fund more TRPA public relations personnel.
All of this is a pathetic reminder of how out of control our train wreck local government has become. No one is willing to make the tough decisions and the decision-makers don’t even live in the basin. Aspen, Colo., has awoken and instituted a moratorium on building in areas of town until a master plan can be brought forth. The public can’t trust anyone except for ourselves. We must build a local framework. North Lake Tahoe must incorporate. Contact preserve@ntpac.com if you want to help.
Ann Nichols, North Tahoe Preservation Alliance
Yolo, Placer, and Eldorado, Counties border the 1-80 corridor from SF to Lake Tahoe.
Since the early days, before the 1960 Olympics at Squaw Valley, the Lake Tahoe ‘community’ has consisted of bartenders, maids and dealers. Mtn personnel, skiiers would come and go with the snow.
The money comes directly from the wealthy people in SF. The rest of you, incorporated or not, are peons, period.
I lived in Aspen 1966 -67, before it became a major traffic gridlock. Back then, everyone dropped their cars off when they arrived, and took the shuttles. During subsequent years, traffic increased to gridlock levels, causing air and visual pollution that turned the beauty into the beast. Aspen waited way too long to stop the nightmare. I hope stakeholders in Placer County step up to do something before their irresponsible Board of Supervisors ruin North Tahoe. Contact Senator Feinstein, Al Gore, and anyone who has had a positive position on Lake Tahoe, and get together some $$ from business folks (like FaceBook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, etc.) who might step up to preserve the splendor of Lake Tahoe environs.