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Environmental groups file opening brief in Regional Plan lawsuit

Staff report

Tahoe Area Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore filed an opening brief Oct. 25 in a federal lawsuit that challenges the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s Regional Plan Update.

The groups claim the RPU adopted in December did not address enough potential negative impacts on the lake from redevelopment and construction, according to a news release.

“TRPA has sadly abandoned its core mission of restoring and protecting Lake Tahoe’s environment,” TASC president Laurel Ames stated in the release. “Its notion that the environmental impacts of over-urbanization on Lake Tahoe can be solved by intensifying that urbanization starkly illustrates just how far it has strayed from that mission.”



The hearing for the case is scheduled for March 15.

According to federal court documents, the TRPA will file its cross motion for summary judgment Nov. 22, then the environmental groups will file a reply brief Dec. 20, and the TRPA will file a reply to that Jan. 30.



“Without offering any workable solutions to ensuring Lake Tahoe’s protection and restoration, the Sierra Club has resorted to exaggeration, even deception, to support their claims,” TRPA Executive Director Joanne S. Marchetta stated in a press release Thursday afternoon.

The RPU is a long-debated amendment to the Regional Plan of 1987 under the Bi-State Compact established between Nevada and California that governs development and environmental aspects of the Lake Tahoe basin.

The compact has to be ratified by U.S. Congress, and it requires the Regional Plan to be implemented.


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