Community and Council looking forward to Tahoe Valley Area Plan

Twenty years and many meetings later, the Tahoe Valley Area Plan unanimously passed the first of two final hurdles at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

In the first reading to adopt the three resolutions which make up the plan, Mayor Hal Cole and the City Council thanked everyone who was part of the long process to start shaping things up at the "Y". "This plan will have an impact for years to come," said Cole.

"The community plan is huge and I don't think the public know how big it will be," added Tom Davis.

Prosperity and improved environmental restoration are the planned outcome of the process.

After the community meetings that Project Planner John Hitchcock has spent over a year presenting, the Tahoe Valley Area Plan has transformed to resemble what both the community and regulatory agencies have said they wanted to see. The plan will allow for more bike lanes and sidewalks, an improved stream environment zone (SEZ) and a scenic and functional greenbelt. The industrial areas at the "Y" can now be a work/live area and parcels less than one acre can now accommodate a secondary unit.

A large part of the plan is increasing the ability to process storm water. While this may not be a glamorous topic, the plan allows for multiple uses of the stream zone so walking, biking and vegetation will look more like a park that storm water treatment.

Barton Hospital and the surrounding medical community will be connected to the rest of the area and new retail businesses can take advantage of some lenient rules that come with the plan.

Dr. Steve Leman of Barton Health has been a part of the Tahoe Valley Planning process for the last two decades. "I've been waiting for 20 years for the adoption of this plan," he said. "I'm really delighted John Hitchcock and his team could pull this together and see it to completion. It is balanced, creative, comprehensive and professional."

Leman said he was looking forward to seeing a spruced up "Y" area.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe was part of the planning process and thanked Hitchcock and the City for working with them on the plan.

The lone audience member Tuesday was Laurel Ames of the Tahoe Sierra Club. She said she was concerned that the SEZ was reduced, the flood plan wasn't adequate and that there wasn't enough alternative land coverage.

On June 16, 2015 the City Council will be voting to give the Tahoe Valley Area Plan a final approval.