Sustainability is an umbrella term getting thrown around frequently these days. Ever wonder what ‘sustainability’ actually means and how to do it here in Truckee/Tahoe? As the population grows – regionally it is expected to double by 2025 – are we doing all that we can to ensure that this presently enjoyed quality of life is sustained? If you have delved into the concept of sustainability, you probably realize that the term simply means keeping the positive qualities of an area intact for future generations.
Some may suspect ‘sustainability’ is just a guise for promoting the agendas of tree hugging, anti-growth vegetable oil-swilling greenies. Others may see it as a nice idea in the abstract, but not really achievable. A group visited recently that begs to differ on both parts.
A unique opportunity is currently underway, where a group of volunteers (essentially) will offer a fresh ‘outsider’s perspective’ on the sustainability of our region’s future. The definition of what comprises the local region might surprise you; in fact, this was the first hurdle in recent discussions.
American Institute of Architects (AIA) brought these ‘outsiders’ to the area, bestowing them with the name Sustainable Design and Assessment Team (SDAT). The group’s stated goal is ‘… helping communities create a sustainable relationship between humans, the natural environment, and place. By achieving balance between cultural, environmental, and economic systems, communities can sustain a place as a stage for human settlement.’
The SDAT team held several meetings in Reno and Lake Tahoe in late September, gathering public comments, collecting pertinent information, and presenting to the region the ideas of the SDAT review process. They will then determine how ‘sustainable’ the region is by evaluating six core factors: current socioeconomic well being, water quality, water quantity, energy, transportation, and land use.
SDAT helps communities understand their region’s structure in various contexts –for example, as an ecosystem, such as the Lake Tahoe-Truckee River-Pyramid Lake aquatic system. It also explores interactions between ecological, sociological, economic, and physical systems; visualizes potential futures with and without a plan in place; articulates the qualities of a region; advances the principles of sustainable communities; and defines various stakeholders’ roles and interests (from both the public and private sectors).
In order to provide the most objective assessment, the team members are from outside the particular communities – they hold no political agenda. They listen and then use principles of sustainable design, gleaned from areas around the world, to make informed suggestions specific to the Northern Nevada/Reno-Carson-Tahoe region.
They’ve determined the ‘region’ encompasses Lake Tahoe communities, Truckee, Reno, Sparks, Carson City, and Minden – and have dubbed it ‘Northern Nevada.’
The team met at the North Shore Conference Center in Kings Beach September 25 and 26 to gather public input from local citizens. Representatives from the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, local architects, local business people, professors and teachers, Town of Truckee planners, and others, attended, listened, and commented.
Some 20 members of the Tahoe region attended the September 26 meeting, introducing the evaluation team and methodologies. The following day, at a workshop from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., the same number of attendees shared a table for the day’s duration and hashed through a ‘Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats’ (SWOT) analysis of each of the six core factors.
The process was at times contentious but generally the group reached a consensus after much discussion. AIA specialists (including architects, urban designers, planners, hydrologists, economists, attorneys, and others) moderated, questioned and clarified public comments as needed, and recorded the responses.
Foremost, there was considerable disagreement among attendees on whether ‘Northern Nevada’ really is a cohesive region. SDAT panel member Dr. Warren Flint then asked the group to imagine Lake Tahoe without Reno, Sparks, Carson City, or Minden. ‘Imagine it as just Lake Tahoe and Truckee. What would it be like? Ask yourself: how would Tahoe look if there was nothing but desert east of the Sierras,’ he said. Where do you shop? Where does the traffic come from? Where do the tourist dollars come from? Where does the area’s labor come from? Where can you afford to live? Where does Tahoe’s water flow?
After the group agreed that it is useful and indeed necessary to speak of the area as a whole, the SWOT analysis moved on. A few samples of the comments include:
- Retired UC Davis professor and current Truckee Planning Commissioner Bob Johnston, who helped write the first erosion and sedimentation study pertaining to this region in 1969, said that ‘lots has been done but not enough’ (referring to the sustainability of the Tahoe Basin). For example, there has not been a decrease in the number of miles traveled around the lake, he said. Plus a lack of rent control has pushed out the locals who live and work here. He asked the SDAT panel to consider whether or not the region could afford to slow development permitting and increase the density.
- Neil Christini, TRPA’s Socioeconomic Policy Director, voiced concern for the institutional framework needed to effectively nurture a sustainable socioeconomic policy for the Northern NV/Lake Tahoe region. He wondered what other collaborative processes are necessary to better understand the regional economic capacities, given influences of urban areas like Reno and Sacramento.
- Kings Beach resident of six years and local Civil Engineer Mike LeFrancois asked the panel to find alternatives to tearing down affordable homes – some of which admittedly need repairs – to put up unaffordable homes. This is a disturbing Tahoe-wide phenomenon, said LeFrancois.
Upon its completion in Kings Beach, the same two-day long process was moved to Reno and repeated. A final meeting for the general public was held Thursday, September 28 at the Reno McKinley Arts Center, which summed up the comments received in the Reno and Kings Beach forums.
The AIA will return a report (watch for extended details in Moonshine Ink) in 45 to 60 days. They will include recommendations and observations, and they will return in a year to see what, if anything, has been done.
See http://www.aia.org/liv_sdat: for info and email communitiesbydesign@aia.org to comment.
See http://www.aia.org/SiteObjects /files/Final%20SDAT%20RFP%20revised.pdf for the complete explanation of the AIA’s SDAT
program.
