Lake Tahoe’s future development up for a vote: plan to add up to 128 new piers generates controversy
Posted by: Aqua Blog Maven on July 12, 2008 at 7:28 amFrom KGO Channel 7, San Francisco:
After more than 20 years of debate, a plan for future development on the shore of Lake Tahoe may soon become a reality. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is scheduled to vote on a final draft next month, but some environmentalists say the plan doesn’t do enough to protect the lake.
It’s been about 50 years since an explosion of development began around Lake Tahoe. Restaurants, hotels and casinos lined the shore; boats filled the lake; and environmentalists sounded the alarm — just as they’re doing now. “We are in a battle for the life of Lake Tahoe,” says Michael Donahoe of the Sierra Club.
In 1969, President Nixon signed the Tahoe Compact, creating the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to oversee all development at the lake. The agency spent years drawing up a regional plan but one area was so controversial it was left out: the shorezone, where Lake Tahoe’s water meets land.
Lake Tahoe is designated as an “outstanding national resource.” That gives it the highest level of federal protection and makes placement of every pier and every buoy a big deal — such a big deal that it’s taken two decades to decide how many to allow, and how to regulate them.
“I’ve always thought every issue had some kind of middle ground that people could agree on. Not this issue,” says John Singlaub of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency.
Read more from KGO San Francisco by clicking here.
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