Tahoe property owners seek changes in development procedures

Thursday, Jan. 29, 1998 | 11:03 a.m.

Larry Hoffman and Mary Gilanfarr, of the Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, said land-use regulations imposed by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency need to be changed.

"I can tell you we're at the end of our patience," Hoffman told the Reno Gazette-Journal. "We're no longer going to tolerate it."

Since 1987, all private land in the Tahoe Basin has been rated for environmental sensitivity. A high rating allows a property owner a chance at obtaining one of the 300 building permits issued each year.

But the group charges that the rating cutoff, above which development is allowed and below which it is prohibited, has not been adjusted annually as it should be.

The cutoff is determined by considering a number of factors, including a county's progress with water quality and monitoring programs and the number of sensitive lots removed from potential development through public acquisition.

The cutoff point in El Dorado and Placer counties in California have never been adjusted. It was lowered for Nevada's Washoe and Douglas counties in 1996 and 1997, but TRPA planners recommended against any change for those counties this year.

Hoffman said as a result, there are 2,750 lots in the Tahoe Basin where residential construction may never be allowed and owners have not been compensated.

Some TRPA appointees agreed the system is not working.

John Upton, El Dorado County's TRPA appointee, said state and local governments are spending millions of dollars for environment projects and to purchase sensitive lands for preservation, but the evaluating system has not freed up additional lots for development as it was intended.

"It's not like we've never been doing anything, but we're not in a position to get any credit for doing it," Upton said. "We just have a set of rules than can never be met."

Larry Sevison, Placer County's representative, put it another way: "It's like saying you're enrolled in college but you're never going to graduate."

The TRPA governing board has agreed to consider changes in the procedure and plans a workshop in March.