As a resident of the Olympic Valley community since 1978, I oppose the Village at Palisades Tahoe Specific Plan, which is being resubmitted by Alterra. It should have been rejected in 2016 and now, 8 years later, the same old plan is even more dangerous.
When Alterra gained control of Palisades Tahoe and other ski areas, it promised that all the destinations it acquired would be able to retain their culture and uniqueness.
Now Alterra poses the greatest threat to our community and our valley by ignoring requests for collaboration, and by continuing to seek maximal profit to the detriment of our community and threatening to violate the essence of what is/was Olympic Valley.
I feel threatened by the Village project. It is inappropriate because it is too big and too impactful for our cherished valley. My top 10 concerns include unacceptable and significant impacts to traffic, fire, evacuation, 25-year build-out, no affordable housing, Shirley Canyon propane farm, stretched-thin water supply, inadequate mitigation and monitoring, and an undefined water park. Reducing the size reduces most impacts.
However, my biggest concern with this development proposal remains cloaked in uncertainty. Palisades has not yet specified what would be in the Mountain Adventure Camp (MAC), which may include a 10-story, 90,0000-square-foot water park that could consume 32,000 gallons of water per day, according to Placer County’s July 2015 water supply assessment, and is the project’s recreational anchor. With a list of over 30 possible amenities, this facility could become a terrible nightmare. Consider this worst-case scenario: Palisades Tahoe/Alterra gets county approval for the development. After lawsuits are settled, they sell the entitled parcel to a water park developer like Great Wolf Lodge in Manteca. With this green light, Olympic Valley can claim the tallest indoor water slide in America. There is a big difference between a recreation center and a themed water park.
I have been an ER doctor at Tahoe Forest Hospital for over 40 years. In medicine, we recognize the concept of signal versus noise. A signal is specific, like a broken wrist from snowboarding, which entails simple evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment. Noise could refer to an elderly person on 10 medications feeling weak and dizzy whose accurate diagnosis is elusive and could be innocent or life-threatening. Alterra’s request for approval of empty polygons, especially the MAC, is noise.
This proposal must be rejected. We cannot rely on some subsequent approval process to ensure the legacy that is/was Olympic Valley. As a prominent environmental lawyer told me years ago, “Once the camel’s nose is in the tent, you know what comes next.”
This uncertainty that jeopardizes the future of our valley, its culture, its history, and its identity must not be allowed. Alterra must disclose a specific detailed plan of what exactly it envisions to achieve its goals, particularly the water park. Stop the noise. Keep it true.
~ Ed Heneveld has been a full-time resident of Olympic Valley since 1978, and is a recently retired ER doctor at Tahoe Forest Hospital. He has served on the Olympic Valley Municipal Advisory Council for 20 years, and started Friends of Squaw Creek, now Olympic Valley Watershed Alliance, in 2002.
I totally agree Ed. In addition to the issues you cite, the impact on Washeshu creek could be devastating. Trout Unlimited, The Truckee River Watershed Council and countless volunteers have devoted many hours trying to restore the creek and meadow that over development in the valley have caused. We have made some progress in restoring the meander but there is still much work left to do using Beaver Dam Analogs, willow planting and other techniques to restore it’s riparian corridor and mitigate erosion. More development in the valley just puts additional pressure on the creek and will distort its natural flow, reversing the progress we have made over the past decade. It’s best to leave Mother Nature alone and let her heal. We already have too big a footprint in Olympic Valley. Time to say enough is enough!
Of greatest concern to the general community, especially Truckee, are the lack of workforce housing and the traffic impacts. Traffic is too often gridlocked in Truckee, posing a serious threat to public safety, and the additional workforce will be looking for housing in Truckee among other places, exacerbating our already severe housing crisis. Let Palisades build–it’s not exactly a pristine mountain valley–but require adequate affordable housing and greatly increased funding to construct a reversible bus lane on 89 with every 15 minute service on weekends and holidays.