CARSON CITY, Nev. — The Legislative Committee for Review and Oversight of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the Marlette Lake Water System met for the first time this interim on Tuesday, Feb. 15 to discuss the general purpose of the committee and give general overviews to the public about the agencies that would be reviewed through the committee.

The meeting began with the appointment of Assemblywoman Sarah Peters as the Chair with Nevada State Senator Melanie Scheible as Vice Chair of the committee.

“I just want to thank you all,” said Chairperson Peters. “It’s an honor to be serving as Chair this interim… I’m sure we will be talking about increased needs or address certain issues, such as traffic, climate change, wildfire impact in the basin. We’ll also be taking input from regional efforts around these issues as well as looking at impacts to the local and regional communities. We are charged of policy over site of the public utility. We will also be talking about communities outside, pretty distant, from the Tahoe basin and the needs of the Marlette Lake Water System.”

The next meeting will be held in May, and then multiple times a month until August. Its Chair Peter’s hope that future meetings will be held in person as they were previously.

Other topics that will be covered during the remaining meetings include transportation in the basin, along with sustainable recreation and economic development. There will discussions on regional housing and short-term rental issues. Forest and lake health with also be a topic, with conversations about wildfires, emergency management, lake climate and resiliency, and issues with water clarity and invasive species.

Committee Policy Analyst Alysa Keller prepared a document for the committee outlining the general duties of the committee, which includes oversight of the TRPA and the Marlette Lake Water System, which is not limited to each entities budgets, programs, activities and responsiveness during the interim. Additionally, the committee will study the role and activities of the TRPA with Lake Tahoe and the Marlette Lake Water System with Marlette Lake.

Overall, the committee will aim to communicate with legislature to ensure that the goals of the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact are met.

The committee will be able to submit up to ten bill draft requests so long as they are related to matter within the scope of the committee and are submitted by September 2022.

Last interim, there were three resolutions drafted in the committee which resulted in the expressed support of the Nevada System of Higher Education to work collaboratively among its institutions to help address specific needs of Lake Tahoe, the request of the timely competition of the Tahoe East Shore Trail along SR 28, and support for identifying key transportation priorities for the basin to improve safety and enhance the ecosystem.

There was also the drafting a bill that released the next phase of bonds in the amount of $4 million to continue implementing Nevada’s portion of the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program.

The remainder of the meeting included presentations from multiple agencies that will be working with or overviewed during the interim, beginning with the TRPA, followed by an updated on the Nevada-California Bi-State Collaboration related to the Lake Tahoe basin.

After the overview of the Environmental Improvement Program and other related Nevada programs, there was a presentation regarding the private sector environmental program contributions. Presentations concluded with an overview of the Marlette Lake Water System and an update on the improvements and priorities at the area.

All of the presentations followed an overall theme of focusing on environmental efforts in the basin including a large focus on transportation that lowers the amount of single family cars in the basin and reduces the emissions of CO2. Another central theme was affordable housing and building an economy with workers that are able to live in the basin while also staying consistent with the EIP.

The next meeting will be held on Friday, May 27. A complete recording of the committee’s meeting along with the agenda can be found on the State Legislative website at leg.state.nv.us/App/InterimCommittee/REL/Interim2019/Committee/1902/Overview.