STATELINE, Nev. – The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) held their governing board on Wednesday, discussing current projects and the strategic plan, as well as hosting an evacuation and wildfire response panel.

Current projects

TRPA received presentations on both the Emerald Bay Pilot Transit Program, spearheaded by District 5 Supervisor Brooke Laine, and the Barton Hospital environmental impact statement (EIS) scoping period.

Public comment was split on its support for the transit program, with some support and some skepticism. Some worried that the number of shuttles wasn’t enough to accommodate visitors, while others wondered about the parking options at either end of the shuttle’s route. The TRPA made a motion to approve the funds from El Dorado and Placer County, as well as the city of South Lake Tahoe to the Transportation District for the purposes of the project.

During discussion of the Barton Hospital EIS, representatives from Barton discussed more reasons for why the new campus was needed. Lana Henderson, director of the emergency department and infusion center at Barton, spoke to the limited space in the current campus. “To put into perspective, our current emergency department is roughly 6,000 square feet, where we should be closer to 16,000 square feet with the patient volumes that we care for,” she said.

Dr. David Young, cardiologist at Barton Health, added, “As we expand our cardiology service line to improve increased imaging equipment, better ability to perform invasive procedures, which ultimately leads to less transfers and better care within our community, the space that we have currently is just inadequate and we need to expand.”

Strategic planning and workplan for FY26

Kim Carringer presented on the strategic plan priorities that will be taken into consideration for TRPA’s 2026 fiscal year. First, Carringer said that the TRPA wanted to prioritize practice, clarity, efficiency and time management in board discussions, recommitting to the committee structure, and having better navigation for the board agenda ad packet.

For the fiscal year, Carringer said that they plan to focus on the thresholds of lake and watershed restoration, forest health and wildfire, and transportation. She also highlighted the focus on aquatic invasive species management.

Evacuation and wildfire panel

Kat McIntyre began the item with a presentation on the Tahoe Basin forest health and wildfire priorities, where she said in the next year, the TRPA will be reviewing and assessing best management practices for development and building in wildfire prone areas, as well as supporting and replicating the FireSmart community pilot from Incline Village in other areas.

“We know that the current forest health thresholds are antiquated and do not measure or assess the progress and the work that our partners are doing in a meaningful way. We want to continue to collaborate and convene [our teams]… and continue to support and advocate for funding things like thinning around evacuation corridors and critical infrastructure, as well as water infrastructure,” said McIntyre.

The panel had Chief Jim Drennan from South Lake Tahoe Fire and Rescue, Douglas County Sheriff Dan Coverley, emergency management administrator for Washoe County Emergency Management Kelly Echeverria, emergency services manager for El Dorado County Office of Emergency Services (OES) Troy Morton, and Chief of Law Enforcement for CalOES Don O’Keefe.

In the past decade, many of these members and their organizations, along with others, have continued to coordinate with fuel management, mutual aid and resource sharing. Chief Drennan spoke about the development of the South Shore Fuels Division which allows fuel management without regard for jurisdictional lines. Other panelists spoke about the increase in community preparedness and education.

Around the basin, these agencies have also started to do targeted outreach to Spanish-speaking populations, as well as preparing videos in English, Spanish and Tagalog, and adding American Sign Language overlays. Other technology to alert people includes social media, perimeter maps, and an alert system called Rave—which are all used in conjunction with fire modeling, camera tracking, and AI detection of spot fires.

Panelists also discussed evacuation and reintegration practices, as well as how far the agencies had come with collaborating with one another on mutual aid. Several people agreed that better communication through a regional single point dispatch system would help coordinate their responses even better.

The panel also discussed the funding changes to emergency management—while California and Nevada recognize the importance of emergency services, on the federal level, mitigation grants have been cut or even eliminated.

The item concluded with Jeff Cowen, who works as co-chair of the Tahoe Fire and Fuels Public Information Team (also called FirePIT), presenting a resolution proclaiming May 2025 as the Lake Tahoe wildfire preparedness month, supporting the work of partners in educating and inspiring people to protect themselves, their communities, and the resources of the Lake Tahoe Basin from wildfire. The motion passed unanimously.

The next TRPA governing board meeting is June 25^th.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.