TRPA staff recommends denial of private Glenbrook pier

Friday, Aug. 18, 2000 | 10:21 a.m.

In an effort to protect the Lake Tahoe Basin from unnecessary urbanization, Tahoe Regional Planning Agency staff is recommending denial of a permit to build a $500,000 pier about 150 feet from the existing community pier in Glenbrook Bay.

"The basic rationale is that it doesn't make good planning sense to permit a pier right next to another multiple-use pier when the applicants have access to the existing pier," said John Marshall, acting TRPA executive director.

Liquor merchant Larry Ruvo, casino lobbyist Harvey Whittemore and casino and winery owner Don Carano, who own property closer to the community pier than any other property owners in the upscale neighborhood, want the private pier so they can use it on their own terms.

Whittemore and Ruvo failed at an earlier attempt to build a pier in the middle of Glenbrook Bay.

Many Glenbrook residents opposed the plan, saying it could pave the way for at least 15 other piers to be built in the bay.

Besides prompting a lawsuit, the proposal reached the Nevada Legislature in 1999 when Whittemore slipped in an amendment that could have helped the pier-building effort.

The "Piergate" amendment was approved in the Senate but was stripped out in the Assembly after The Associated Press disclosed the attempted revisions.

A year later, the TRPA's planning commission recommended that the governing board pass a ban on building piers on part of the bay. But Ruvo's land, just south of the existing pier, was excluded and that allowed for the second plan.

TRPA staff reports say the proposed project doesn't comply with multiple-use provisions and has unmitigated scenic impacts.

It also crosses a recreational property easement owned by the 228-member Glenbrook Homeowners Association, the project's most vocal enemy.

Whittemore claims that not allowing the pier violates their rights as property owners.

"Five years ago, when we bought this property, we had full expectations that we would be able to build a pier," he said.

As submitted, the project calls for a 298-foot pier to be built from Ruvo's lakefront parcel at the south end of the bay. The dock would include two large low-level boat lifts.

Neighbors argue the project, if approved, could pave the way for construction of other piers in the pristine bay.

"If their project is approved then ... theoretically we could have three or four piers in that one little cove," said Doug Jones, president of the homeowners association.

"It doesn't have anything to do with winning or losing, it has to do with the environment that we live in and in this case you have 97 percent of the people who live here wanting to preserve the bay."

The TRPA governing board will consider the permit when it meets Wednesday in South Lake Tahoe.