Placer County Planning Commission votes against Martis Valley Project

“Last night’s vote by the Placer County Planning Commission to reject the proposed development at Martis Valley West is great news for all who love Lake Tahoe," said Darcie Goodman Collins, PhD, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe.

The Placer County Planning Commission has voted to recommend denial of the Martis Valley West Parcel Specific Plan and the certification of the project environmental impact report.

The Martis Valley West project proposes to build 760 residences and 6.6 acres of neighborhood-serving commercial business near the existing Northstar Village development between Truckee and Lake Tahoe. In order to build at that location, the project proposes to give up the allowable density of 1,360 residences on a larger parcel across state Route 267 (known as the east parcel), and instead put that 6,373 acres of land under permanent open space preservation.

Commissioners expressed continuing concerns about the project's traffic and evacuation plans.

By voting to not adopt the Martis Valley West Specific Plan and to reject its inadequate environmental review, Planning Commissioners showed that they had heard the concerns expressed by hundreds of community members and stakeholders, who for months have expressed alarm that the proposal offered no solutions to the negative impacts of the project, according to Collins.

"Developers must not be allowed to get off the hook of proposing projects that threaten Lake Tahoe without providing solutions or adjusting their proposals to reduce such threats," said Dr. Collins.

The project now goes to the board of supervisors.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe is urging the Placer County Board of Supervisors to vote the same as the commissioners, and demand that the Martis Valley West project’s proponents go back to the drawing board to develop a project that represents better community planning with stronger safeguards to protect Lake Tahoe.

"This decision should send a message that while Lake-friendly redevelopment has a welcome place in Tahoe’s future, principled decision makers will reject projects that significantly threaten the Lake’s clarity, including those coming down the pipeline in the near future,” said Collins.