TRPA approves 6,000 seat Tahoe South Event Center

STATELINE, Nev. - The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) board today unanimously approved the Tahoe Douglas Visitor’s Authority Tahoe South Event Center planned for the parking lot area of Montbleu Casino Resort in Stateline. Edgewood Tahoe has donated the 13.3 acres at the corner of Lake Parkway and Highway 50 needed for the center.

During a virtual meeting Wednesday, public comment was submitted by email with an overwhelming number of them in favor of the project. Months of stakeholder meetings led to some changes, resulting in proposed conditions of approval which would minimize, offset, and mitigate the environmental impacts from operations of the Events Center.

An environmental assessment (EA) was created instead of a full environmental impact statement because of major revisions:

1) Changes to the assumptions regarding VMT (vehicle miles traveled) and trip generation based on hotel/motel occupancy rates. The draft EA only considered occupancy rates for hotels/motels located in the Stateline area of Nevada and the revised EA includes consideration of occupancy rates in the City of South Lake Tahoe as well.

2) Changes to the assumptions regarding the type of events expected to be held over the year. A table is now included in the EA that describes the type and number of expected events as well as the number of attendees. This change better informs the expected traffic generation from events at the Event Center.

3) Consideration of the VMT/trip reductions associated with year-round paid parking and year-round free transit. The draft EA only considered reductions in VMT/trips from seasonal paid parking and transit.

Planned is a free transit system that will be year-round after five years, and seasonal winter and summer before then.

Continuous daily service year-round will be in a service area between the Round Hill, Nevada area on the north and the Bijou Center, Calif area on the west, including a one-way loop around Pioneer Trail, Ski Run Boulevard and US 50. Part of that plan also includes on-demand rides that will be available within the core service area using a rider mobile application for making ride requests. At the time of ride request, rider will receive an estimated wait time based on current outstanding ride requests and real-time vehicle routing.

There will also be a fixed route between Montbleu and Round Hill Pines Beach Resort.

"The City of South Lake Tahoe was impressed by Douglas County's commitment to subsidizing the transit side of things," said SLT Councilwoman Brooke Laine, the City's representative on the TRPA board. She said the appreciated a free and frequent system and the City is looking at ways to match the Douglas County commitment, but with the current pandemic situation how much that can be is unknown.

Another key point to the plan is a paid parking system at the casinos on a consistent, year-round basis with free parking for employees.

"The community’s incredible support for TRPA’s approval of the Events Center is especially encouraging in these extraordinary times," said Lew Feldman who represented the applicant, Tahoe Douglas Visitor's Authority. "TDVA very much appreciates our residents’ enthusiastic endorsement of a future that will positively impact our workforce, environment, and catalyze implementation of free transit. The Events Center will enable our town to host indoor, year-round youth sports, performing arts, group business, cultural and educational events and provide a venue for community gatherings, as well as a facility to provide shelter in the event of a wildfire or other disaster impacting our community. Finally, many thanks to the numerous community organizations, non-profits and small businesses that took time to weigh in on this transformative project."

The League to Save Lake Tahoe said they appreciated being part of the process but neither approved or disapproved of the center.

"We don’t object to the project in its current state, but we do object to the process, which failed to adequately include public input, require safeguards to protect the community and environment, or coordinate with other project planning efforts, such as the Mainstreet Management Plan and Highway 50 Loop Road Project,: It also relied on analysis that left significant amounts of uncertainty regarding traffic impacts, creating a shaky foundation for a project of this scale," the League said in a statement.

"With an expanded public transit component and strong accountability measures, the project not only holds great economic promise for the South Shore community, it will also lay a foundation that we can build on to improve transportation in the Stateline casino core in the future," the League added.

There is one more step for the approval process, a vote by the Douglas County commissioners planned for April 2 at 1:00 p.m. If they approve it, work on the event center will start in May 2020 with a planned Spring 2022 opening.

Project Descripton
The proposed Events Center building would consist of two levels: an event floor level and a suites and offices level. The building footprint is approximately 88,000 square feet and the total floor area is approximately 138,500 square feet. The proposed Events Center design has a maximum height of 85 feet and complies with the maximum height limits within 100 feet of U.S. Highway 50 (i.e., over 80
percent of the portion of the Events Center located within 100 feet of U.S. Highway 50 is below 56 feet in height). The facility’s flexible design offers a variety of venue configurations for events including conventions and conferences, sports, trade shows, performing arts and musical concerts. The maximum seating capacity is 6,000, which would include floor seating for a concert or performing arts event.

During trade shows, ice skating shows, and sporting events, such as hockey, basketball and volleyball, up to 4,200 seats would be available. To reduce traffic loads and competition with other area venues during the peak season, which runs from June 15 through Labor Day, a 2,500-seat limit would be implemented for the Events Center. A year-round paid parking program and a transit service are also proposed. In addition, the Events Center is designed for “shelter-in-place” (i.e., as an emergency shelter) during an emergency in the event of a natural disaster The Events Center could host up to 130 events per year with most of the events likely occurring in spring, early summer, and fall months.

The Events Center’s proposed exterior design is in response to its position as the gateway to the south shore. Through a combination of building materials, colors, façade articulation and setback from the roadway, the Events Center will incorporate architectural design strategies and site planning principles to upgrade the character and quality of the nearby built environment.

The space surrounding the Event Center would be enhanced with a new lawn area, public plaza and pedestrian paths connecting the Events Center to the adjacent streetscape. Pedestrian connections will be provided from the street level to the Events Center to enhance the walking environment and create public gathering spaces. A key feature of the enhanced streetscape design is a transit pull-off with shelters to maximize the benefit of public transportation opportunities. The project also includes the undergrounding of overhead utility lines located along MontBleu street frontage.