After decades of development lawsuits throughout the Tahoe Basin and Truckee, change has quietly been happening over the last few years as conservation groups and developers come together on projects. While environmental leaders say litigation can be necessary to protect the environment, they believe working with the developers is a better strategy to advance their cause.
Since 2012, when new executive directors took the helm of both the League to Save Lake Tahoe and Mountain Area Preservation — two local environmental groups historically known for litigation — the environmental movement shifted. The new leaders have ushered in a more collaborative form of environmentalism. In this new model, litigation is used as a last resort and meetings with developers are commonplace to come to a consensus on development projects. In addition to advocacy, the groups are also focusing on community education, outreach, and awareness, which they say was needed to change the community’s perception of the organizations.
“The environmental movement has changed,” said MAP Executive Director Alexis Ollar. “It seemed like we were the ‘no, no, no’ group. You can’t say no to everything. Change is inevitable.”
Jesse Patterson, deputy director for the League, agreed.
“It is [about] trying to be pragmatic about environmental problems at Lake Tahoe,” Patterson said. “You have to grow with the times; we want to remain effective.”
A History of Lawsuits
The League to Save Lake Tahoe was created in 1957, one of the country’s first environmental organizations. It was formed in response to development proposals that could have created a four-lane freeway circling the Basin ridgeline and a bridge over the mouth of Emerald Bay, and added three quarters of a million people in Tahoe. From there, the organization was instrumental in forming the bi-state compact known as the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, a government agency that was “one of the first examples of watershed-based land management” in the country, according to Patterson.
And although the League helped create TRPA, it is the agency that has felt the brunt of most of the organization’s lawsuits. Patterson explained that as a watchdog group, the League needs to make sure TRPA is doing its job of managing the lake so the environment is not destroyed. While Patterson did not know the exact number of lawsuits the organization has been involved in with developers and TRPA, he said there have been at least dozens.
The last lawsuit the League was engaged in was in 2010 against TRPA and its proposed shorezone policy proposal. The League won, but has since been involved with discussions at the table with TRPA – instead of in a courtroom – over the agency’s regional plan update, which will shape lake policy over the next 20 years.
Patterson believes the regional plan update was a success. He said that because the League was involved in the initial discussions, the 20-year plan is required to go through a review every four years, and environmental benchmarks were set.
“There is more of a willingness to find common ground,” Patterson said. “We’ve seen litigation be successful in the past. But we consider it as a last resort.”
Just as the League was created based on perceived bad development proposals, the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (now known just as MAP) was founded in 1987 to prevent a Kmart from going in at the northern entrance to Truckee. The group sued Nevada County — and won. The next year, the organization helped pass an ordinance in Nevada County to keep big box stores out of Truckee. Thus began MAP’s reign as the development watchdog group of Truckee.
“Nevada County was not shaping the community the way we wanted,” said Stefanie Olivieri, MAP’s cofounder and current board vice president. “We really had no choice but to sue. We essentially broke the back of the developer.”
Through the years, the organization kept a close eye on development projects and helped develop Truckee’s land use policies. Perhaps the biggest win for the organization was the development of the Martis Valley Community Plan in 2006, which spared Martis Valley from massive development projects and reduced housing designations. But to get there, MAP was involved in five separate lawsuits at once, against Placer County, Northstar, Old Greenwood, Martis Camp, and Timilick (now Schaffer’s Mill).
“Those are five examples of great settlement agreements where we had to use litigation to get those concessions,” Ollar said.
And Olivieri believes it was those lawsuits that enabled MAP to be where it is today with developers.
“Litigation really brought the developers to the table,” she said. “Developers finally took us seriously, and learned that we are a force to be reckoned with.”
After the “Martis Valley Wars,” as Olivieri refers to them, she said developers started inviting the group to participate in conversations about development. Since 2007, when MAP was engaged in its last lawsuit, the group has engaged in several negotiations with developers without litigation. MAP was successful in securing a reduction of housing units and commercial space, as well as restoration of Coldstream Canyon as part of Truckee’s Planned Community-1, and negotiated 23 acres of permanent open space as part of Planned Community-3, also known as Joerger Ranch.
MAP, along with Sierra Watch, negotiated with Mountainside Partners and Sierra Pacific Industries for five years to create the Martis Valley Opportunity Agreement in 2013 to preserve 6,376 acres of land in Martis Valley, which would connect more than 50,000 acres of contiguous open space between Martis Valley and Mount Rose Wilderness.
“We’re willing to sit down and discuss the proposal and negotiate. It’s the way to bring the environmental perspective to the table and engage from a friendly beginning,” Ollar said.
Community Awareness and Involvement
Despite successes for the environment, both the League and MAP realized the community did not understand why the groups were engaged in so many lawsuits. The League became known as “The League to Sue Lake Tahoe” in the Basin and MAP was known as the “no” group around Truckee. Change was needed.
When Darcie Goodman-Collins became executive director of the League in 2012, she wanted to build the organization’s community outreach and create science-based programs so the community would understand how the League was helping to “Keep Tahoe Blue.” In three years, she increased the staff from nine to 16, adding scientists, communications staff, and environmental educators. Since then, the organization has grown to 6,500 members with a budget of $1.8 million.
The League also started four campaigns — combating pollution, tackling invasive species, protecting the shoreline, and promoting restoration — and now has programs built around those campaigns. They wanted their advocacy to be backed by education and collaboration. The Pipe Keepers program and Eyes on the Lake are two initiatives that the League believes the community can get involved in and really understand why the League does what it does — protect the lake. Pipe Keepers volunteers learn about storm water runoff and keep track of the pollution coming into the lake, while volunteers with Eyes on the Lake learn to detect invasive aquatic plant species and report their findings to the organization.
“The key part of these programs are the community,” Goodman-Collins said. “I feel like we have had a lot of successes in three years.”
While the League starts all its programs in South Lake Tahoe, where it is based, the programs move to the North Shore and the group has plans to bring them to Truckee as well. The organization has also doubled its number of community events and increased its volunteer base.
“People are starting to see what we do to keep Tahoe blue and what they can do to help,” said Marilee Movius, the League’s community engagement manager.
And it seems to be working. Tahoma resident Nicole Lutkemuller, a Sierra Nevada College environmental science graduate, said she cares about the invasive species issue, but did not think highly of the League until she became aware of its recent programs.
“I thought they collected a lot of money from donors and I didn’t know what they did with the money,” said Lutkemuller, who is now a League volunteer.
“Once I started getting involved and participating in their programs, it changed my view of them. They have been so involved in creating those programs. It is a more positive spin on their past perception.”
Like the League, MAP also realized it needed to change its perception in the community and started programs to get citizens involved. Ollar began holding project mixers, conducting letter writing workshops, and guiding hikes in areas that MAP preserved. MAP currently has two staff members, 857 members, and an operating budget of $190,000. The organization also dropped “foundation” from its name in 2012 in a rebranding effort.
“There was a real lack of understanding in the community about how the planning process works,” Ollar said. “We are taking the advocacy and breaking it down to education. That’s where advocacy is headed.”
MAP is now focused on open space acquisition, restoration, and workforce housing. The group is in talks with the developers of Canyon Springs, but hopes litigation will not be necessary. As more development projects are proposed in the Basin and Truckee, both groups hope the past few years of successes without litigation will continue.
“Right now there is a general sense of development anxiety,” Ollar said. “Litigation is always in the tool belt, but litigation is the last resort.”
