LAKE TAHOE and#8212; The Tahoe Regional Planning Agencyand#8217;s Regional Plan Update took a step forward on Wednesday when the governing board affirmed recommendations to incorporate a package of revisions into a final plan.

Part of the package includes recommendations from a bi-state consultation group. Those recommendations took stakeholder input into account to address four major issues of discussion: delegation of authorities and the establishment of an appeals process; water quality; air quality; and land coverage questions.

and#8220;We recognize that no one got everything they wanted in the stakeholder process but all parties feel they were heard and that weand#8217;re moving closer to consensus than we ever have in the history of Regional Plan Update process,and#8221; said Clement Shute, Jr., chair of the RPU Committee and a member of the bi-state consultation group, in a TRPA press release.

In March, the Regional Plan Update Committee concluded six months of meetings, vetting policies before the environmental analysis was completed in April. A short list of issues remained that did not receive unanimous endorsement from the six- member committee, according to TRPA. Those more controversial issues and#8212; including environmental permitting safeguards, community character, numbers of building allocations and land coverage policies and#8212; were then taken up by the bi-state consultation group.

and#8220;I think what was so amazing was that in this small group of stakeholders there was a large sense that if compromise couldnand#8217;t be achieved here, it couldnand#8217;t be achieved anywhere, and it really put our feet to the fire,and#8221; said Claire Fortier, member of the Regional Plan Update Committee, the bi-state consultation group and the mayor of South Lake Tahoe, in the press release. and#8220;The process helped create more trust between the environmental community and local governments and created a base for ongoing conversations that have stymied progress in Tahoe for decades.and#8221;

The packet of recommendations moved forward Wednesday includes nine additional revisions to the Regional Plan and/or Code in response to public comments. Those revisions and the recommendations by the bi-state consultation group can be found online at trpa.org.

The Governing Board is slated to take final action on the Regional Plan Update in December.