Tahoe Regional Planning Agency wants to revisit 3 South Shore commercial projects

Three South Shore commercial projects and a temporary moratorium on subdividing lots in certain areas of the Lake Tahoe Basin may be reconsidered by Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's governing board in an attempt to sort through the agency's role in the area's affordable housing problems.

TRPA boardmember Jim Galloway, a Washoe County supervisor, requested that the three projects - construction of a Staples office supply store, a 55,000-square-foot Safeway store and a new building for the Meyers Post Office - be brought back for discussion.

"I am not in favor of putting additional conditions on those projects - I don't think the TRPA should be in the affordable housing business," Galloway said. "But there has to be a discussion and it has to be on the record."

The 14-member governing board approved the plans for the three projects at the May 25 meeting. Later that day and after considerable discussion on affordable housing issues, the board placed a temporary moratorium on subdividing lots in the Lake Tahoe Basin to protect potential affordable housing sites from being built into condominium complexes. Suggestions were made that casinos and ski areas be involved in the efforts to provide low-income housing opportunities to their workers.

TRPA boardmember Dave Solaro, an El Dorado County supervisor, asked last week that the memorandum that set the subdividing moratorium in motion be reconsidered.

The memorandum, which the governing board continued to a fall meeting for decision, proposed that local governments in the basin have demonstrated a fair-share commitment to providing low-income housing. Postponing action on the matter put the subdividing moratorium in effect immediately.

Galloway contends that these topics need to be explored before South Shore's three projects can be allowed to continue.

"I'm trying to narrow this down. Are you trying to put affordable housing conditions on expansion projects? If so, why not now?" Galloway said. "If you start making policy by piecemeal, you'll never know where your overall policy will lead you."

Solaro called Galloway's request to revisit the projects unfair.

"This is unfair to the South Shore because all three projects are at the South Shore," Solaro said. "I think the projects are critical to the economy at the South Shore and we need to move forward."

Safeway is moving forward. Construction began Monday on the site adjacent to the existing store at Johnson Boulevard and U.S. Highway 50.

"We got the plans stamped and the full sign-off by the city," said Gary Oswald, a Safeway business consultant. "We already signed our lease documents and made substantial financial commitments before any notice by the TRPA on the reconsideration."

Lyn Barnett, chief of TRPA's project review division, said the motion to reconsider does not put a stay on the project; however, the builders should proceed with caution and at their own financial risk.

Whether or not the board reconsiders the moratorium and the three South Shore projects will be decided by majority vote at the start of the regularly scheduled meeting on June 28 at 9 a.m. at the Tahoe Seasons Resort, located at the corner of Saddle and Keller roads in South Lake Tahoe.

The TRPA code allows for decisions to be reconsidered as long as they are brought back to the agenda at the board meeting immediately following the action.

Affordable housing discussion

What: Tahoe Regional Planing Agency board meeting

Where: Tahoe Seasons Resort, South Lake Tahoe

When: June 28, 9 a.m.