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Development & The Potential For Disaster

Fortunately a tanker from Grass valley was able to get on the scene of a fire near Squaw Valley very quickly today. Photo by Jim
Fortunately a tanker from Grass valley was able to get on the scene of a fire near Squaw Valley very quickly today. Photo by Jim

As the fire season in California comes to life, we get used to seeing daily images on the news media about the latest fire and the harrowing evacuations necessary to protect the public. Today, a small fire broke out along Highway 89 north of Squaw Valley in heavy timber. Fortunately, a complete cadre of local agencies came together to contain the fire at less that one acre. They were also lucky to have resources from the Grass Valley air attack base already in the air fighting the nearby Trailhead fire.

We were lucky today. The winds were blowing. Tahoe roads were pretty full with tourists during one of the busiest holiday weeks of the summer. Had today’s fire blown out of control, we could have experienced something like was seen recently in Fort MacMurray, Alberta.

A recent letter in the Sierra Sun highlighted these concerns.

Lake Tahoe, Truckee and Martis Valley are being used as a cash cow for Placer County at the life-threatening expense of residents, visitors and the lake.

One day, a wind-blown wild fire will surely enter the Tahoe Basin. Where will you go … how does anyone fleeing for their life realistically plan to get out of here if the North Shore and it’s only two escape routes are gridlocked?

I have been in the midst of a 100,000-acre, wind-blown wildfire. Here’s a reality of emergency evacuations from wind-blown wildfires — few things go according to plan. People panic, and wind-blown wildfires aren’t predictable.

I spent the better part of three days and nights moving horses during this fire. One minute the fire line could be a mile away; a few minutes later, I was in a hail storm of windblown embers landing all around me while embers were blowing past me faster than I could run or drive.

The ground got so hot I couldn’t stand still and every time I tried to inhale I wasn’t sure my lungs wouldn’t explode from the heat. Then it got worse.

Now, envision a windblown wildfire of that, or greater magnitude on the North Shore of Lake Tahoe with only two, single-lane, canyon escape routes. There is Hwy 89 to the west and Hwy 267 to the east, both single-lane, canyon roads surrounded on both sides by drought-stricken, explosive pine trees.

Various government agencies such as TRPA, Washoe County, Placer County and the town of Truckee are currently in process of reviewing or have approved applications of a number of new developments in our region, including: Village at Squaw Valley, Homewood, Boulder Bay, Highlands II and III, Railyard, Joerger Ranch, Brockway Campground and Martis Valley West.

Mountainside Partners (formerly East West Partners, notably bankrupt at the Ritz, Old Greenwood and Grey’s Crossing at one point) is ramrodding, and so-far successfully fast-tracking, a proposed 760-unit gated development adjoining their also-proposed 550-space campground.

Both of these proposed developments — the 550-space Brockway Campground and the adjoining 760-unit gated Martis Valley West development — parallel the west side of Hwy 267 from the ridgeline, including into the Tahoe Basin for the campground project.

Martis Valley West developers claim their emergency evacuation model shows an orchestrated emergency evacuation time of 1.3 hours.

There is simply nothing orderly about a wind-blown wildfire. Let us consider reality — thousands of fleeing residents and visitors chased by burning embers and exploding trees from all around the North Shore, including the communities east of Tahoe City, like Dollar Hill, Dollar Point, Cedar Flat, Tahoe Vista, Carnelian Bay and Kings Beach, perhaps even residents and visitors from Crystal Bay or Incline Village, rushing toward Hwy 267.

Now add hundreds of out-of-area campers staying at the Brockway Campground with their RVs, trailers and boats. All it will take, anywhere along Hwy 267, is a single accident, a stalled RV, a jack-knifed boat and everything will come to a life-threatening onslaught of stalled humanity being pushed from the rear.

Hwy 267 will be a death zone. This is North Shore Emergency Evacuation reality … and this is the very reality Placer County is fast-tracking toward approval — common sense, safety and wellbeing be damned!

Most notably missing from various public forums are any representatives from the Northstar Fire Department., North Tahoe Fire Protection District, Calfire and Caltrans. How can his be?

The developers are seeking a 20-year building permit for Martis Valley West. They plan to log more than 20,000 trees and move an estimated 11 million cubic yards of earth, absolutely decimating natural wildlife corridors.

These developments, Martis West and Brockway Campground, are insanity. The irreversible threat to the environment, the displacement of established wildlife corridors, the threat to public safety and the threat to Lake Tahoe itself from the added carbon emissions from gridlocked traffic should surely be evidence enough to sway our supervisors, planners and TRPA toward common sense realities and to stop them from approving of these two insane, destructive and dangerous developments. The entire Lake Tahoe and Truckee areas are already at capacity overload.

Stand up on July 7 at 2 p.m. at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach at the Placer County Planning Commission meeting and tell Placer County to listen to the people and deny Martis Valley West.

Robert Heinz is a Tahoe City resident and has lived here since 1997.

As Mr. Heinz suggests, it’s important that we take a stand and let Placer County know that enough is enough. Combine all of the proposed developments at Martis West, Homewood, Alpine Meadows and Squaw Valley – and you will be bringing far more people than ever into the Tahoe basin during fire season.

The Placer County Planning Commission is expected to vote on the Martis West Plan at their meeting on July 7th at 2 pm at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach. The Commission was also expected to address the Village at Squaw Valley project by July, but no date has been set for that meeting yet. It’s been encouraging to see large numbers of people showing up at recent development meetings – we can’t let our guard down.

The future in Lake Tahoe? The Fort McMurray evacuation in Alberta this summer has many people thinking about the potential for disaster.
The future in Lake Tahoe? The Fort McMurray evacuation in Alberta this summer has many people thinking about the potential for disaster.

17 thoughts on “Development & The Potential For Disaster”

      1. That limited means of egress are a fact in north Tahoe and further large development will exacerbate this fact.

  1. As a resident of Tahoe City for 32 years this article touches on one of my greatest fears… Fire and inability to evacuate. We need to make the public more aware of this danger and the consequences of further development!

  2. I appreciated the great truths in this and from several other agencies: League to Save Lake Tahoe, Mountain Area Preservation to name a couple. Forwarded the info. Thanks for all you do.

  3. Even without these projects, it wouldn’t unrealistic to envision a scenario where people would be trapped in their vehicles while trying to escape a fire. We can’t handle a busy weekend with predictable traffic, let alone an all-out panic and everyone trying to get out at once.
    But the whole evacuation thing is just one small reason we should be fighting these projects tooth and nail, especially the Martis West project. That project will not benefit anyone that lives here in any way, save maybe a few contractors (and even many of those might be from outside the basin). Even the old argument of “it will increase tourism and provide jobs” is meaningless. We don’t need more tourism. We don’t need more jobs, unless they pay very well and are not seasonal and they help the people who live here, which will not be the case. We need places to live, and a sustainable year-round economy that doesn’t cater to the whims of 1%ers.
    So yes, while the threat of wildfire is very real and definitely a valid concern, there are many reasons to stand up to this greed that is ruining this special place.

  4. Thanks UA, again. I think it’s time to get very clear and direct with Placer County. They do NOT act in the public interest when they blindly approve more developments that increase our fire evacuation risks and diminish our environmental health and safety. I find Placer County irresponsible to the citizens of the Tahoe region. The Martis and Brockway plans are reckless. The Squaw Village proposal is careless in it’s grotesque scale. The gondola will ruin Five Lakes. And in Alpine we have Alpine Sierra and White Wolf developments moving through the “approval process” (it’s no longer a “planning process”), bringing 76 more houses into a canyon that can’t evacuate what we already have built here. The fire specialists are unequivocally telling us the big fire(s) “will happen!” Let’s get active, it is us that must define and protect the Public Interest, as Placer County is proving to lack that capability.

  5. Fire in the Tahoe/Truckee area is a very real threat at all times, but especially now after 4 years of drought.
    Traffic becomes gridlocked on a regular basis in the winter, with storms and hoards of visitors trying to get home. At times it is nearly impossible for emergency vehicles to navigate the choked roadways. Why do you think CalTrans and CHP hold the trucks at Verdi if not to help with the congestion on Hwy 80 and to help ensure that we who live here can get to or receive help.
    There is NO WAY that more housing units should be approved until these concerns are addressed!!

  6. I’ve been down here on the Glizty South Shore for “a few decades” and it really is sad how “we’ve” turned one of the most beautiful lakes on earth into a giant housing development. Money speaks, and voice of the locals falls on deaf ears. The fire danger is real, but regardless, we should save the Basin for the sake of it beauty.

  7. I could not get to work in Truckee Tuesday morning around 11:30 am due to gridlocked traffic of exiting tourists on 267! I could not imagine the scenario of a wildland fire with EVERYONE trying to evacuate at the same time! This is very scary!

    1. Thanks in large part to SierraWatch’s efforts to rally our citizenry. Support SierraWatch. It will be us collectively that can stop the reckless, oversized developments being proposed. Placer County needs to be held accountable to us, not the developers.

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