http://www.justiceontrial.org/blog/ - Lake Tahoe’s Environmental Protection Agency- A Different Kind of Green

Lake Tahoe’s Environmental Protection Agency- A Different Kind of Green

Posted by: Justice On Trial

Lake Tahoe has become, unfortunately, a prime example of developmental destruction of habitat, for profit. Many view the Lake Tahoe Basin as a reservoir of profit, protected an impotent government agency partially sustained by its own fee generation; a police force paid for by funds levied upon potential lawbreakers.

Since the Tahoe Regional Protection Agency (T.R.P.A.) was established in 1969 by Richard Nixon to protect the Lake Tahoe Basin, it has been the primary buffer between all developers and their prey. In 1980, Public Law 96-551 expanded the T.R.P.A’s mission and powers and in that same year issued a permit for a project named “Sandy Beach Campground” in Tahoe Vista, on the north shore of Lake Tahoe. The project’s permit was for 25 campsites, however, 49 sites were cleared, and roads were added without permits and were for over 13 years.

The T.R.P.A. determines the use of any Tahoe Basin property by applying rules and standards of “coverage,” in square feet (sf), of the land by paving and permanent structures. “Sandy Beach Campground’s” original permits and a 1984 survey, determined the maximum coverage was 81,000sf for the parcel. By factoring in the illegal roads and campsites in 2000, a second survey concluded coverage had expanded to 92,000sf with no permits to substantiate a 10%+ increase of coverage. The historic records and permits for the 25 campsites/81,000sf, according to T.R.P.A. officials, were mysteriously “misplaced” and were not “discovered” until late 2009, 29 years later and long after the T.R.P.A. approved a new project, manifestly too massive for the parcel, by T.R.P.A.’s standards.

Nine months after the 2000 survey, a partner in Tahoe Vista Partners, LLC (TVP), Timothy Wilkens, ordered a new survey. Amazingly Wilkens’ survey resulted in 174,000sf of coverage, coincidentally verifying, to the T.R.P.A, that coverage was more than sufficient to accommodate TVP’s monstrosity project when previous surveys, the original permit, and all other documents related to the parcel did not. TVP’s plans to build thirty-nine, 2000-3200sf time-share units, euphemistically referred to as “luxury fractionalized housing,” densely packed on this tiny site, requiring a staggering 164,000sf, more than double the 1980 permitted 81,000sf coverage. The project would also result in removal of 2/3 of the trees and grading of 95% of the site, unheard of ratios of destruction.

Despite the T.R.P.A’s newly announced mission to “Go Green,” a permit was issued for Wilkins’ hulking project, generating huge fees for the T.R.P.A. Vociferous Tahoe Vista community protests were ignored. The “Friends of Tahoe Vista”: and “The League to Save Lake Tahoe” banded together and filed suit against the T.R.P.A. and Placer County requesting an investigation of the proper and legal coverage for this site.

The T.R.P.A. is now prepared to save the huge fees, rather than this prime piece of Lake Tahoe real estate, by approving a “compromise position,” arbitrarily granting TVP/Wilkins “revised coverage” of 125,000sf; 65% over their own established maximum. A project of this scope, a clear violation of the T.R.P.A.’s rules and standards, would create severe traffic and parking problems, burdening public services in this small community, and endangering Lake Tahoe.

Lake Tahoe’s residents’ impassioned opposition to this monster project, justified only by massive T.R.P.A. fees, appears to have had less effect on T.R.P.A. officials than retaining the fees paid by the Wilkens’ Group. Residents of Tahoe Vista, unlike the Biblical hero David, are locked in a battle against not only the goliath but the also the law enforcement agency that has the power to stop him

Submitted by D.Tessin