Hello skiers and riders,
It was another mini-powder day at Alpine Meadows, and Andy and I would love to tell you all about it. Instead we are choosing to take a stand to protect Tahoe, and encourage you to take a moment to do so as well.
Placer County approved the Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan in November of 2016, after 4 years of contentious public meetings, online disputes and other unpleasantness. There were many questions about the approval process, and the approval was taken to court by Sierra Watch. Placer County was forced to rescind the approval of the project based on flaws in the environmental studies, proven by Sierra Watch lawyers in 2022. Everyone hoped that would have been the end of the project.
Unfortunately the monster project has been revived, with essentially no changes, other than being renamed the Village at Palisades Tahoe Specific Plan. The project was resubmitted to Placer County last fall and the approval process has begun again.
What would the project include?
- Up to 850 housing units with almost 1500 bedrooms
- Over 200,000 square feet of new commercial space
- An indoor recreation facility that will likely include a giant indoor waterpark, a bowling alley and a cinema.
- An employee housing facility for up to 300 employees, likely in a dormitory style
- Various trail improvements, a transportation center and a restoration of WaSheShu creek.
The developers want us to believe that there will be very little environmental impact, as the primary development will take the place of current asphalt parking lots. They also want us to believe that they adequately studied the impacts of traffic, water availability, wildfire evacuation problems, and the impact of increased tourism on the clarity of Lake Tahoe.
According to the developers, nothing much has changed since the initial approvals were made in 2016. But we know that is not true. The Ikon pass was announced in 2018, and pass sales have shot through the roof since that time. We’ve been through a pandemic, a long term drought, the rise of the short term rental market and an era where “going to the office” has no meaning anymore.
If you have spent much time in Tahoe over the 6 years since the Village at Squaw Valley project was first approved, you know that everything has changed. There’s far more traffic. Locals can’t find a place to live where they work. Jobs go unfilled, not just at the mountain, but in our stores, restaurants, the Post Office, and medical officies. Everyone has forest fire dangers on their minds and hundreds of people face insurance cancellations every year. We are nowhere near the same place as we were in 2016.
Major complaints about the development from members of our local community include the size of the proposed water park, the inclusion of a roller coaster, and the developers apparent belief that non-winter amenities are something that is mandatory for the success of a destination ski resort. This can be expanded to say that such amenities are also not needed for a summer destination mountain resort.
Locals, and frequent visitors, also appear to believe that the number of proposed residential units is too large. If constructed, the environmental impact to Olympic Valley, and the surrounding communities, will be devastating. The valley can barely stand the number of people that use it today.
Some development in Tahoe is ineveitable. If it didn’t happen, just about all of us would not be here, either to make a life, or just to recreate in the area. We may not all agree on what the right amount of development may be, or what it looks like. There is one thing we should all agree on: Tahoe is not the same place it was in 2016. Palisades Tahoe should willingly go back to the drawing boards, and work with the local community to come up with a completely revised plan that we can all live with.
Tomorrow is the final day to make public comments via email to Placer County. The momentum is growing to stop the current proposal before it gets another rubber stamp by Placer County officials. Reports are that more than 1000 letters have been written asking Placer County to deny the currently proposed project. We’re asking for your help today to double or triple that number.
Email comments should be sent to cdraecs@placer.ca.gov no later than 5 PM on Monday January 30th.
If you want to read more details about the community uprising to save Tahoe, here’s some resources:
https://www.sierrawatch.org/tahoe-truckee-true/take-action-to-keep-tahoe-truckee-true/
https://www.sfgate.com/renotahoe/article/palisades-tahoe-revives-development-plan-17744126.php
Between Andy and myself, we have been enjoying the beauty of Tahoe for more than 100 years. We know that many of our readers have done the same. Please take the time to send an email in the next 24 hours. Thank you!
Mark Fisher
Owner of UnofficialAlpine.com
Andy Wertheim
Originator of the Unofficial Alpine Meadows Ski Report
One particular issue I have is that the employee housing, creek restoration, transportation center and other improvements should be priorities for Palisades Tahoe. It is reprehensible that they are holding these improvements hostage in order to gain support for the Village project.
Seconded….and that’s a long reply from me…
Email sent!
Fk Alterra Mtn Corp AMC = Already More Crowded and all of em in upper mgmt who want more and more money from their greed driven insanity.
Comments already sent.
They’re ruining the peaceful serenity and beauty of this area we call home all in the name of corporate greed. Go figure.
But does Placer County Supes even care? Doubful, all about more tax revenue and salary increases for them as well eh Cindy Gustafson?
Way to go Sierra Watch and CA 3rd Dist Court of Appeals. SHUT THEM DOWN AGAIN.
Speaking corporate greed. The President and COO of Palisades Tahoe appears to be caught up in this by promoting the project and writing letters to all the employees to support the project. She should be ashamed of herself considering she use to be responsible for overseeing the Guest Experience among other things as a V.P.
I participated in more Placer County Planning Commission and Supervisor meetings than I can count during the first go round. The PlanCom, who have only an advisory capacity, were somewhat engaged with the public, while the Supervisors had made their decision since day one and were openly contemptuous towards those of us who expressed doubts about the project. Our CA AG at the time, who is now the US VP, made a last minute backdoor deal that gave the Supes cover for approving the project. Our local representative got cudos for voting nay while having been meeting with the developers behind the scene. I don’t see how anything has changed in this regard so we should be directing our support to those who will inevitably be fighting this in court.
Yeah I have never forgiven Harris for that transgression.
What did Kamala do?? Never heard that part of the story.
Mark, while I am a bit wary of overdevelopment, I feel compelled to point out a contradiction in your thinking. This post reminded me of yours of a few days back on the various alternatives that Altera should weigh given the overcrowding, including the (unlikely) option of buying another mountain. The one option you did not consider is more housing closer to the mountain. 1500 new beds means the possibility of up to 1000 or more people not needing to access the mountain via car. Another 500 units of employee housing will pull several hundred additional cars off the road. In fact, I think additional housing at the base is perhaps the only way to reduce the congestion. Consider most other destination ski resorts, here and abroad….people drive there (or bus or train), leave their cars for the duration, and either walk or take local transit (e.g., the Mountaineer). With limited housing at the Palisades base, people are forced to drive from far away. It seems to me that that is the vision that Altera is striving for. If I had a choice of staying in some Air BNB in Truckee or Dollar Point or even further away, or staying at the foot of the mountain, I know which option I would take. In my view, the development will not add visitors, but simply pull visitors closer to the base and reduce their dependency on cars.
I think that is not as correct as you think. A huge part of the entire market is day trippers, not just at AM or PT, but also at all other Tahoe resorts. It has always been that way. This number is a couple of years old….80,000 Ikon pass holders within a 4 hour drive of AM/PT…that is your day tripper market. They are not looking for a place to stay. If anything, with the overabundance of short term rentals, there is more vacation housing available in Tahoe than at any time in history. People dont come for only a day because they can’t find a place to stay, it’s the total cost of staying for more than a day that means they come just for a day here and a day there, stopping at fast food on the way up and down and bringing sack lunches. Building 1500 beds will put potentially 1500 more bodies on the mountain, but not reduce traffic on the roads one bit.
For more details I suggest you review the Position Paper the Friends of Olympic Valley has submitted to the County . Link below
Email sent. Thanks for encouraging others
to do so.
Sorry, John, we have to agree wholeheartedly with Mark. Most visitors are “day-trippers”. They have no interest in spending the night in Olympic Valley. Maybe you should look at the Caltrans Video cams on the weekends and see the fiasco on the Truckee Bypass, cars parked 3 abreast trying to get off I-80 at the Central Truckee exit, as well as trying to get off I-80 at the Factory Outlet Stores. Driving to Auburn on Saturday the 21st, we witnessed traffic stopped on Eastbound I-80 backed up halfway to the Donner Lake Interchange from the Donner Lake exit. Alterra has no plans whatsoever to solve this problem. They’re too busy counting their money. BTW, we sent Placer County our “4 cents’ worth” to Vote No on this stupid proposal. Keep telling it like it is, Mark!!!
Given that Placer seems determined to approve this development, perhaps we can get Alterra to limit the number of Ikon Passes. It would be a good ask in any case.
Sierra Watch is reporting that more than 1400 letters have been submitted, relative to about 300 submissions in 2015 during the first approval process. They also think this may be a record for EIR commentary in California.
RE the bulk of skiers being day trippers on weekends, you have obviously never tried to drive up here from the Bay Area on a Friday evening. These thousands of cars are not planning on turning around and going home m in the next 8 hours—as witness the reverse commute on Sunday pm. Thousands of families are coming up every weekend with their kids for ski teams or just to ski. They are staying in ABBs or ski leases in Tahoe Donner or Dollar Pt or West Shore or elsewhere. Do you really think the 10000 or more people who jam the roads every weekend are coming all the way up from Sacto or SF just for the day? No way. More lodging at the base area will absorb some … but hardly all … of those folks.
We own here. We hear things. We miss Alex’s weekend Saturday nites skiing until nine. Being up top skating and eating and drinking until your family Skied down the mountain by nine! My daughter might sell our home. It’s is not the same as when Alex owned it. No hot tub , pool, or skating on top???? No breakfast place? NOT COOL!!
Many of us have owned for many years. We do not accept what the corporation is doing. Our kids will move!! Get better transportation for the South Americans! Help us , help them! They are way better then the locals!! In winter, of course.