NORTH LAKE TAHOE

Eastern Placer Future, the nonprofit organization leading the effort to incorporate North Tahoe, celebrated its accomplishments to date with a press conference on Feb. 26 at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach. 

After almost four years exploring the potential to incorporate North Tahoe, a key milestone was recently reached in the process. Following the completion of an independent fiscal feasibility study funded entirely by community contributions and collecting and verifying over 2,300 signatures from local registered voters, on Feb. 17 Eastern Placer Future submitted a formal incorporation application with the Placer County Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO). This is the furthest any incorporation effort in North Tahoe has advanced. 

Eastern Placer Future Executive Committee member Andrew Ryan spelled out what this means: “This filing does not create a town and it does not predetermine an outcome and it does not bypass public input. What it does is formally ask a question: Will we be better served by local self-government with five locally elected officials working on our challenges? The LAFCO process is designed to answer that question through independent financial analysis, environmental review, and multiple public hearings.”

Eastern Placer Future is unclear yet if incorporation will make the ballot for the November election. If it misses the deadline, a special election next spring is a possibility. One thing that has changed since the group started the incorporation process is the map of the proposed town. The map initially left out USFS lands between Tahoe and Truckee, but LAFCO informed the group that the area must be included. View the map at easternplacerfuture.org/resources.

~ MS