Area Plan

MEYERS, Calif. - Three businesses are trying to get awarded the single cannabis retail license being offered in the Meyers Community Center District. After the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors voted in May to add two Meyers Area Plan zoning districts that would allow cannabis business, the process began to award a license.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There is a long agenda for the South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting at 9:00 a.m. on Tuesday, August 11. They will be voting on a resolution to create a designated Free-Speech Area at Lakeview Commons for peaceful protests, along with a selection of a new mayor and mayor pro-tem, and discussion of a draft Five Year Capital Improvement Plan.

EL DORADO COUNTY, Calif. - The Board of Supervisors unanimously approved on May 12 an amendment to their ordinance for the retail sale, commercial distribution, and commercial indoor cultivation of recreational adult-use cannabis as it pertains to the Meyers community.

Originally, no zoning in Meyers qualified for these activities as their Area Plan zoning didn't match up with the approved areas for El Dorado County's legal activities could fit.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The old Super 8 motel on Lake Tahoe Boulevard and adjacent Lotus Pho restaurant in South Lake Tahoe are currently closed as pre-construction activities have begun on a four-story 120-unit Hampton Inn and Suites.

The asbestos abatement has been completed as have the pre-demolition permits and the current two-story building is set for demolition soon. Once that happens, crews will be waiting for the May 1 grading date to get started on what is promised to be a "facelift to the area."

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There have been changes over the past eight years with the annual outdoor music festival in South Lake Tahoe, SnowGlobe, and many of them are meant to mitigate sound that affects nearby neighbors.

The festival draws thousands of electronic dance music and festival fans from around the world December 29-31 each year.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The California Tahoe Conservancy and their State and local partners invite the public to a community meeting to discuss opportunities to help address the housing crisis in South Lake Tahoe on Wednesday, December 11 from 6:30 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.

CTC owns two properties at the one, one 9.75 acres and the other 1.6 acres in 1989 for the purpose of using the non-sensitive portions of the lots for purposes consistent with the now current area plan.

Caltrans addressed what they reported to be an increase of accidents at the intersection of US50 and SR89 with a $7.3 million roundabout in Meyers, and today there was a ribbon-cutting with local partners to officially open it up.

What used to be a T-intersection with one stop sign is now a three-leg roundabout with a bypass lane. Years of studies, planning, environmental reviews, and engineering led to this past summer's build by Q&D Construction.

During their meeting this week, the California Tahoe Conservancy Board directed its staff to move ahead with due diligence for their nine asset lands in Meyers. Of the Conservancy’s nearly 4,700 properties in the Lake Tahoe Basin, the Conservancy has designated 17 properties as asset lands that could support sustainable compact development consistent with local area plans and the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan.

MEYERS, Calif. - During the next meeting of the Meyers Advisory Council some important issues for residents of El Dorado County will be covered, including presentations on a parcel tax hike for both Lake Valley Fire Protection District (LVFPD) and the County.

On Monday, July 29 from 3:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., the Council will hold their meeting in the 2nd-floor conference room in the California Conservation Corps (CCC) Building in Meyers. It is open to the public.

Snowglobe 2018 is now in the books. There have been some successes as well as some difficulties. This year saw the introduction of professional sound engineers to help reduce the sound and new field protection to prevent further damage to our new play fields. The sound is reported to have been improved for many though the people who live nearest this event in Pioneer Village, along the Bijou Meadow, around Johnson Lane and in Sierra Tract continue to be bombarded by three days of sound.

In classic Tahoe style, when there is a problem we study it. In the past five years, the housing issue has been studied on several fronts. In that time, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, Placer County and the North Tahoe-Truckee area have all conducted Housing Studies and the City of South Lake Tahoe updated its Housing Element. What has been the result of all these studies? This column highlights the key recommendations from those studies and where we are now in terms of implementation.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council will be continuing their July 17 discussion and voting on the new cannabis ordinance at their next meeting on Tuesday, August 21.

If approved, the new ordinance will replace the existing medical marijuana ordinance.

To enter the cannabis industry in South Lake Tahoe, businesses will have to obtain a Use Permit, a Development Agreement and a Public Safety License.

No more than two retailers, two microbusinesses and two cultivators. No person can own more than one cannabis business, and no more than one cannabis business can exist on a lot or parcel.

With another building and construction season approaching, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) is launching a new Parcel Tracker available online to the public. Part of the Lake Tahoe Info portal, the Parcel Tracker provides a wide range of information for property owners and people considering buying or investing in property at Lake Tahoe.

Conserving and restoring Lake Tahoe’s natural environment and revitalizing its communities requires a delicate balancing act. Historically, building consensus around how to strike that balance has been one of the region’s greatest difficulties.

Lake Tahoe reached its strongest-ever consensus on that balance with the 2012 Regional Plan and its focus on sustainable redevelopment to restore natural areas, bring legacy development up to modern environmental standards, and create walkable, bikeable, and vibrant town centers.

Meyers, the commercial, public services, and recreation hub of unincorporated El Dorado County at the South Shore may soon have a new area plan.

The Meyers Area Plan is the comprehensive long-term plan for the Meyers Community and, if approved, will replace the original Meyers Community Plan (MCP) adopted in 1993. The MCP currently serves as the comprehensive land use and zoning plan for the community of Meyers, consistent with the Lake Tahoe Regional Plan and the El Dorado County General Plan. It was originally meant to last a decade, not the almost 25 years its been in place.

The Final Draft of the Meyers Area Plan was released today along with the associated joint environmental document. This draft updates 20-year old policies to streamline permitting for small projects, improves consistency between El Dorado County and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) policies and standards, promotes recreation and bicycle/pedestrian improvements, establishes zoning to better reflect current conditions, conserves land around the Upper Truckee River, formalizes a local citizens advisory council, and integrates design standards and guidelines.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In the works since 2002, construction has begun on a new housing development project underneath the gondola in South Lake Tahoe.

Demolition began Wednesday on the 40-year-old McDonald's building at the Y, making way for a new building that will not only be home to a smaller and more efficient fast food restaurant, but one that is also full of environmental improvements as well as an new alpine-look consistent with the new City design standards.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Governing Board on Wednesday unanimously approved Placer County’s Tahoe Basin Area Plan and the Tahoe City Lodge Project.

“This is the fourth area plan approved at Lake Tahoe and an important milestone for implementing the 2012 Regional Plan,” said Joanne S. Marchetta, executive director of TRPA. “With this plan, we can take significant steps to improve the environment and strengthen communities on Lake Tahoe’s North Shore.”

Just after 7 a.m. on a recent Sunday, bumper-to-bumper traffic lined North Lake Boulevard in Kings Beach, a regular weekend sight in the community of about 4,000 people on Lake Tahoe’s north shore. While snow attracted the visitors on this weekend, just as many people show up in the summer to enjoy beaches and trails.

Approval of two major projects in recent months has heightened concerns about growth on the north shore, and it’s against this backdrop that Placer County supervisors will consider this week how development should occur in their corner of the Tahoe Basin.

Since the Tahoe Valley Area Plan was approved in 2015, several projects are being either already in the works or being planned, and land is being opening for development.

During Thursday's Planning Commission meeting, one of those projects was approved.

The monthly meeting of the South Lake Tahoe Planning Commission on November 10 will have four major projects to consider, along with hearing an appeal of a vacation rental permit denial.

All candidates for South Lake Tahoe City Council were given the same questions. With just one day to go to the elections, we will be featuring their answers and a video of their interview with Tahoe Regional Young Professionals through the day.

Brooke Laine, 52, Branch Manager, US Bank, Born and raised in SLT

Discuss your interest in serving on City Council. What is your prior experience in working with civic, community or governmental organizations?

When one sees a vacant lot in the Lake Tahoe Basin with a California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC) sign placed on a tree within its borders, it normally that means the parcel will remain vacant.

And in most cases, that is true.

In the basin, CTC owns 4,780 parcels of land totaling 6,400 acres, many of those parcels are about 1/4 acre in size. In the 1980s and 1990s, most of these smaller lots were purchased due to their being deemed environmentally sensitive. If a lot, or a portion of a lot, was once considered to be sensitive, they are permanently protected and cannot be built upon.