By Kathryn Reed

With the current budget situation in California, the California Tahoe Conservancy is struggling to do more than maintain the status quo.

“Bond money has virtually run out. The remaining funds are earmarked,” CTC Executive Director Patrick Wright told his board last week. “We are probably facing one of the most challenging times for the Conservancy.”

Although Gov. Jerry Brown’s proposed budget doesn’t send chills through the agency, it is giving people pause for what the future may hold because by the 2012-13 budget the bond money should be gone.

“Our success is dependent on the governor and Legislature making the budget work,” Wright said.

A large unknown is what will happen with the proposed water bond that has been delayed in being put before the voters. Tied up in the proposal is money the CTC would get for various environmental improvement projects.

Wright mentioned the nearly $1 million grant awarded last month to the Tahoe region as part of the Sustainable Communities Program. The Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization received the $995,000 grant.

Karen Fink, senior planner with the TMPO and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, in the proposal wrote, “The ongoing Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Regional Plan Update (RPU) recognizes the need to transform the outdated, rigid regulatory framework into a system that integrates environmental, land use, transit and housing programs, and encourages redevelopment as a means to meet economic, community and natural resource goals. The Lake Tahoe Prosperity Plan identifies the need for redevelopment to lead the transformation from a declining, seasonal, casino-based economy to a vibrant, year-round, ecotourism and environmental innovation based economy.”

Other items from the Jan. 20 CTC meeting include:

• The acceptance of $200,000 from the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation for costs associate with restoration plans for the old Tahoe Pines campground in Meyers. (CTC acquired the property in 2007 and had plans to rehab the area.)

• The board authorized spending up to $1.08 million to thin 395 acres of Conservancy-owned land throughout the basin this year.