The long-awaited plan to re-engineer Tahoe development into denser town centers with taller buildings is unfolding in a predictable pattern that has been repeated now for decades at the lake — years of public meetings and countless hours of public comment followed by a lawsuit that will put Lake Tahoe’s future in the hands of a single judge.
But this time, the legal challenge of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s (TRPA) regional plan, has split what were once environmental allies in the Tahoe Basin. The Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore sued to overturn the plan, and now find themselves at odds with the largest and most famous Tahoe environmental group, The League to Save Lake Tahoe, which has publicly criticized the legal challenge.
For the first time in recent memory Tahoe environmental groups are sharply divided, and publicly critical of one another. In a letter submitted to Moonshine Ink, four representatives of Tahoe environmental groups took a thinly veiled shot at the league by saying “a heretofore leading environmental organization … acquiesced to the deterioration of the lake and Basin in exchange for keeping the Compact.”
Many observers have speculated that if a lawsuit overturns the regional plan, Nevada legislation to pull out of the bi-state compact that created the TRPA will be passed. If Nevada leaves the bi-state compact, the TRPA, and the regional environmental protections for Lake Tahoe, would vanish.
Due to the possible dissolution of the bi-state compact, the league said it was “disappointed” by the lawsuit filed on Feb. 11, and that the litigation was not good for Lake Tahoe.
The litigation leaves many open questions. Will disagreements over the lawsuit create long-term hostility between Tahoe environmental groups, shifting the battle lines at Lake Tahoe that once predictably pitted business and gaming interests against environmentalists? And will the lawsuit prompt Nevada to continue forward with a state senate bill aimed at dissolving the bi-state compact and eradicating the TRPA?
The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which may be on the verge of disappearing, has reacted to the litigation with harsh press releases and strongly worded newspapers columns.
TRPA Executive Director Joanne Marchetta called the lawsuit “pointless litigation … by those who cling to an outdated environmental strategy” that will “kill the renewed spirit of a community.”
But what is perhaps most interesting about the latest chapter in Tahoe’s planning history is seeing whether this latest litigation is just another lawsuit in a long line of major Tahoe plans decided in the courtroom, or whether it represents a turning point in public opinion at the lake.
