TRPA bans condos, subdivisions in affordable housing areas

Thursday, May 25, 2000 | 9:19 a.m.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rejected a staff recommendation and voted on Wednesday to implement a moratorium on the division of property in those areas.

The ban, effective immediately, will be reconsidered at the board's October meeting.

Acting TRPA Deputy Director Gordon Barrett had cautioned the board that initiating the ban would interfere with the staff's ability to continue its work on the Environmental Improvement Program.

That program includes $908 million in erosion control, stream restoration and similar projects aimed at stopping the lake's deteriorating water quality.

League to Save Lake Tahoe representative Rochelle Nason said affordable-housing construction should be left to local jurisdictions, while others called for a regional approach.

"Leave this issue to those who are better capable of handling it," Nason told the board. She recommended that the rehabilitation of deteriorating units be the primary focus and that better transit be provided "so people have options to live in or out of the basin."

Other board members said major employers - casinos, ski resorts and hotels - need to take more responsibility for housing their employees.

TRPA Chairman Larry Sevison, a Placer County supervisor, said he would "hate to see Alpine Meadows, for example, have to bus employees, who work various shifts, from Reno."

Board member Kay Bennett, a Carson City supervisor, said Ski Incline ran two buses daily from Carson City for employees last winter because of the difficulty of finding employee housing.

Bennett expressed frustration with the fact that the board has discussed the issue for five years, saying, "there's talk, but there's no implementation."

The board agreed it will work on the housing issue with local jurisdictions and an ongoing citizens committee to try to come up with workable criteria by the October meeting.