It’s been about six years since KSL Capital purchased Squaw Valley promising a “renaissance.” Since then, many people have discovered that those plans included a lot of things that many believe that Squaw Valley and the North Lake Tahoe region do not need:
- A 90,000 square foot 96’ tall indoor waterpark with waterslides, indoor waterskiing, fake rivers, arcades, and a 30 lane bowling complex
- 1,493 new bedrooms spread among a series of highrise condo hotels (many of which would be nearly 100’ tall) surrounding the existing village
- 21 timeshare mansions on undeveloped land in the mouth of Shirley Canyon
One year later, KSL Capital, via Squaw Valley Ski Holdings, purchased Alpine Meadows. With that has come the dream of connecting the two resorts, resulting in the proposal for the unpopular Base To Base gondola. The gondola would traverse through a section of the Granite Chief Wilderness. It would also change the Alpine Meadows experience forever.
Although Squaw Valley Ski Holdings was successful in spending $850,000 to crush the Olympic Valley incorporation movement, they have not crushed the spirit of the community. There’s been growing opposition to the Village at Squaw Valley plan. More than 350 people made comments during the Environmental Impact Report process that opposed the plan or asked for significant reductions in the plan. The local Municipal Advisory Committee also recommended that Placer county deny the plan in May.
The Placer County Planning Commission will be considering the proposal on August 11th. The time and location the meeting has still not been set. Our friends at Sierra Watch released a short film this week that captures the true spirit of their “Keep Squaw True” movement. We hope it inspires a large number of you to get involved and let Placer County know that this is something we don’t want or need for Squaw Valley, or the entire North Lake Tahoe Region.
I support the message but the voice over in this film sounds like someone promoting the latest Hollywood action thriller. To my mind the tone is wrong. The film overall is disappointingly thin visually and in its content. It’s probably better than nothing but it could have been so much better. Sorry.
The video has no mention of the gondola project, odd. Or is that not an issue for kero squaw true?
Its technically a separate project. But if the Village project is not approved or is seriously reduced, the gondola likely not be built.
That’s not what I heard in attending an initial meeting about the gondola project. Should we assume that, or fight both simultaneously? (I vote for the latter.)
And Mark, clarifying: do you work for Sierra Watch? I want to say thank you and kudos for the film.
No I do not work for Sierra Watch but I certainly respect their work in protecting the greater Tahoe region for everybody.