SLT General Plan seems uninspiring

6/09 tahoe mt. news

By Kathryn Reed

None of the above. That was the option of the nearly two dozen interested residents who spent a Thursday night figuring out what the blueprint for South Lake Tahoe should like for the next 20 years.
Three alternatives were presented at the May 21 meeting. All groups nixed the first option, which is essentially the status quo. Some of the six groups wanted a hybrid of two of the alternatives.
Choice No. 2 is to focus on the Y and Stateline, with little attention paid to the entire town that exists between those five miles.
Option three spreads out the commercial floor area throughout the city. (Tahoe Regional Planning Agency rules use CFA instead of traditional zoning like commercial and residential.) Social gathering areas would also be interspersed in this scenario.
Everyone seemed to agree the town needs to be more pedestrian and bike friendly.
Not all agreed on the need to boost the permanent population.
Discrepancies occurred over the need for affordable housing, despite state law.
Larry Mintier with Mintier Harnish is the consultant doing the general plan update. He and his associate clearly favored alternative No. 3 during their initial presentation. Information provided in newsletters is slanted toward that option, too.
The May meeting was the last public meeting before the City Council votes on its preference this month. The next step is to prepare the environmental documents. Those will come back for public comment. The final general plan is expected to be voted on late this year or early 2010.
The city wants to adopt its general plan before TRPA figures out the regional plan. The thinking is the city then has leverage over the federal agency.
More information is at www.sltgpu.com.