TRPA eases moratorium on building, another review set in May

Thursday, Jan. 27, 2000 | 9:52 a.m.

TRPA's board of governors decided Wednesday that Washoe and Douglas counties in Nevada and Placer and El Dorado counties and the city of South Lake Tahoe in California are indeed trying to provide their "fair share" of affordable housing.

The decision lifts a month-old moratorium of subdivisions of land targeted by TRPA for affordable housing projects. Douglas and Washoe counties were singled out because the TRPA said far less progress has been made there than in California.

Agency planners were also directed to continue working to better define precise goals by which affordable housing progress will be measured in each jurisdiction, something some critics say is lacking.

"There are no rules. No one has formally defined what fair share' is," complained Bob Sellman, Washoe County's community development director. "Put together some rules. Put together some guidelines."

Wednesday's discussion underlined the continuing difficulty of promoting affordable housing at a place where soaring property values make such projects difficult - particularly in the Nevada-side counties. Washoe County officials said the answer may be to provide more busing for people who work at Tahoe but live in Reno or other communities outside the Tahoe Basin.

But Tom Davis, mayor of South Lake Tahoe, said his community is tired of providing housing for people who work in casinos in Nevada's Douglas County. "We've always felt we have been the dumping ground," Davis said.