Dozens of Washoe Tahoe residents from Incline Village and Crystal Bay (IVCB) showed up at the Washoe County Commissioners meeting on Tuesday August 26. Further, more than 250 residents signed a petition delivered to the commissioners at the meeting. There was outright frustration and discouragement when Washoe Commissioners voted 3-1 (1 absent) in favor of adopting changes to the county code to allow taller, denser buildings along Tahoe Boulevard— aka Highway 28—IVCB’s main road through the village and one of only two key evacuation routes.

Three commissioners attempted to defend their approval on an unproven legal argument. Rather than stand up for residents they abdicated responsibility and weakly declared they had no choice but to kowtow to the 2023 Tahoe Regional Planning Agency code changes that allow developers to build 65′-high buildings on any town center lot, and accessory dwelling units on any parcel

TRPA made these changes so that California cities and counties at the lake could comply with California legislative acts, even though the higher, denser buildings along main evacuation routes will increase wildfire evacuation times. In IVCB, the minimum time is officially calculated at 6 hours, but a more current (artificial-intelligence augmented) study showed at least twice that. Washoe planners submitted the inexplicable finding that approving the amendments would not diminish IVCB residents’ safety.

IVCB residents were dumbfounded when Washoe Commissioner Chair Alexis Hill said the commissioners “had no choice” but to adopt the TRPA amendments, because if they didn’t, TRPA itself would adopt them for Washoe Tahoe (aka IVCB). Given that Commissioner Hill sits on the TRPA Governing Board, IVCB residents realized they had no one to represent their concerns. Their only recourse would be to file another lawsuit against Washoe County or TRPA—both well-funded government agencies paid for by IVCB residents’ tax dollars.

The vote left IVCB residents exasperated and discouraged. But a silver lining was that well over 250 signed petitions were handed over to the clerk. Before signing, a majority of residents said they were unaware of TRPA’s amendments, and wanted to stop any construction along IVCB’s main evacuation route that would further slow residents’ ability to reach safety. The petition raised public awareness of both Washoe County and TRPA’s intentions to permit taller, denser, more populated buildings along their main evacuation route. With this new knowledge, it appears any future action will have a strong base of community support.

Meanwhile, IVCB residents now understand they have no voice representing their concerns at the county level and none at the TRPA either.