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Letter — Bus service plans are encouraging

Tribune

I’m writing to applaud the new bus service written about in the July 3 edition of the Tahoe Daily Tribune. “State and county officials are working on a plan that would take Douglas Area Rural Transit buses to the base of Kingsbury Grade and carry them into Stateline.” That’s great news. Especially if the buses use low/no emission fuels like natural gas, bio-diesel, etc.

Everyone at the lake knows there is a shortage of housing for the people who work here. For the last 18 months the Sierra Club has been advocating a three-pronged approach to this problem.

n Provide free/very low cost, environmentally friendly transit between Lake Tahoe and the bedroom communities of Reno, Carson City and the Carson Valley;



n Identify run down commercial and motel space and rehab it for affordable housing; and

n) Have Douglas and Washoe Counties contribute to California jurisdictions to help pay for the support services associated with the affordable housing these jurisdictions provide.



This is a regional problem. It’s time for regional solutions.

Above all, we must not try to solve the affordable housing issue by building on undisturbed land — at least not until we’ve turned around the decline in the lake’s clarity. That’s because undisturbed land is the best filter of the phosphates and nitrates that are turning the lake green.

So, many thanks to Douglas County Transportation Coordinator Warren Bottino and Nevada Statewide Transit Coordinator Sandi McGrew Stanio, and to all the other officials and citizens working on this. This is a great first step in dealing with two important issues. We need to provide housing for the people who work here. Even more critical, we need to preserve this lake for the generations that follow us. Let’s work together to accomplish both goals.

Michael Donahoe

Tahoe Area Sierra Club Conservation co-chair

Zephyr Cove


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