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Letter to the editor- Cart before the horse?

Eleanor Brown
Zephyr Cove

Could it be that the cart was before the horse when the TRPA provided developmental incentives for the demolition and removal of 187 units knows as the Lake Park Apartments on Kahle Drive?

There has been a failing in the system which allowed this and did not ensure that suitable and affordable housing was available for the displaced residents. Is the resolution for their created problem an urban boundary zoning change for the further fleecing of forested land?

Falcon Capital, a limited liability company, headquartered in Jackson, Wyo., is requesting an urban boundary change on 9 acres of land on Highway 50 behind Dorla Court to replace housing units demolished on Kahle Drive. Ingress and egress to these units would be on Elks Point Road. Falcon Cable in now constructing 110 time-share units which has the address of 180 Highway 50 but its ingress and egress will be on Elks Point Road.



In a call to TRPA requestion information on the site construction of the time-share units the caller was referred to the compliance officer who is monitoring the project. The caller requested the number of trees that had been felled and the number of building which would house the 110 time-share units. The representative surmised possibly 300 trees, but a half-dozen or so had been placed in a holding area to be used in the landscape design upon completion of the project. As for the number of buildings, he thought it was five or maybe eight. An inquiry to another source produced the information that 14 buildings would house the 110 time-share units and there would be a clubhouse and maintenance building. All of this grading, excavation and despoiling of a forested 11 acres in a zone originally classified as being in a stream environment zone! This is the bi-state agency mandated to protect the Lake Tahoe environment?

Decisions for urban boundary changes are not the answer for county planners and land environment protectors to be making to rectify their hindsight.


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