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Homewood resort, Boulder Bay have failed community (Opinion)

Ann Nichols
Guest column

It’s been over a decade now and TRPA’s Community Enhancement Program, namely Boulder Bay and Homewood, has failed to complete BMP’s or improve water quality. Homewood has left a boarded up mess at the Tahoe Inn in Brockway.

Ann Nichols

The Tahoe Inn property is tagged and toxic with mold. Boulder Bay is starting up again with massive condo towers and at the same time again trying to take our fourth exit out of the Crystal Bay neighborhood through abandonment. The residents better have wings if there is a fire.

The Boulder Bay site is strewn with rusted junk and falling down buildings. 
Both the Tahoe Inn and parts of the Boulder Bay property are health and safety issues. Placer County won’t help. Washoe County won’t help. JMA (Homewood) won’t clean up their mess, but they are beginning the process of building luxury condos in Homewood. The excuse for their failure to demolish the Tahoe Inn is that it wasn’t a condition of approval and “they needed to divert funds elsewhere.” In fact razing the Tahoe Inn is a condition of transferring their TAUS and Placer County failed to include it in their conditions. The residents are furious.



There are reasons for the massive CEP program failures:

1. It wasn’t just the resultant lawsuits. The proposed projects were too massive and expensive. TRPA approved these bad ideas and now they are morphing into giant condo complexes because that’s the hot commodity in Real Estate. Condos are a different animal use wise and traffic has become brutal in the decade since approval. TRPA must require a new complete, not “refreshed” traffic studies on both projects.



2. Both Homewood and Boulder Bay have found a developer’s loophole; namely phasing. Unbelievably, Homewood is beginning with a phase within a phase. Seven freestanding condos begins the piecemeal planning thereby avoiding their mitigation requirements concerning fire evacuation and Tahoe Inn demo. Boulder Bay began with 18 condos avoiding the triggers of their mitigations.

TRPA, you can resurrect and improve the CEP program with enforcement. Hold Homewood and Boulder Bay’s feet to the fire to complete mitigations before a shovel hits the ground. Make the counties require Homewood demolish the Tahoe Inn and Boulder Bay demolish their derelict buildings (Cabins-Crystal Bay Motel). Smaller projects like Tonopalo 2 and the Hendrickson building were removed in advance of development.

TRPA, Cindy Gustafson and Alexis Hill help your communities; require Homewood and Boulder Bay clean up their mess before they develop. The Community is fed up.
 
 Please send your concerns to me at preserve@ntpac.org.

Ann Nichols is a 51 year North Shore resident, Nev and Calif. Real Estate Broker, president of the North Tahoe Preservation Alliance, avid oil painter and outdoors gal.


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