South Lake Tahoe's Measure T deemed unconstitutional

Friday was the end of voter approved Measure T in South Lake Tahoe.

During a January 27 court hearing in Placerville, EL Dorado County Superior Court Judge Jim Wagoner said that Measure T was fundamentally flawed, unconstitutional and unenforceable.

A group of local citizens, "Let Tahoe Decide," gathered enough signatures to put the measure on November's ballot that would tell City Council how to vote should the Loop Road ever go before them for a vote. Their initiative prohibited the Council from approving or supporting the project without the voters getting a chance to tell them which way to vote. In November they told them to vote against it.

Newly elected SLT City Councilman Jason Collin filed a lawsuit on July 14 prior to his filing candidacy papers to stop the anti-Loop Road Measure from being submitted to the voters in November.

In August, the same judge ruled against the lawsuit filed by Jason Collin and allowed the measure to be placed on the ballot.

"I'm obviously disappointed in the ruling," Collin told South Tahoe Now at the time. "I still have a lot of concern about an initiative being pushed forward that has fundamental flaws and misleads voters."

From the beginning, the City agreed with what the judge ruled on January 27 and what Collin said in his lawsuit, that Measure T was flawed.

The Loop Road project (named the US Highway 50 South Shore Community Revitalization Project) proposes a change in direction of Highway 50 as it approaches the casino corridor and moves traffic behind Raley's and through a neighborhood near Pioneer Trail. This plan has been talked about since the 1970s and 1980s, but it wasn't until the Tahoe Transportation District took it over in 2009 that it gathered steam. To date they have held 140 meetings on the subject and have adjusted the scope of their plans according to public input.

"There is no possibility of appealing his (Judge Wagoner's) decision," SLT City Manager Nancy Kerry told South Tahoe Now. The only group that could appeal would be the City, and they will not do so.

Kerry said the measure tied the hands of the Council for an indefinite period of time and prevented them from doing their job, and the judge agreed.