The political saga of Lake Tahoe (part 2)

is a private school that went into escrow to buy the ’60’s vintage Crown Motel in Kings Beach owned by the Ferrari family for over 50 years.  Kings Beach is designated as a re-development district created to attract private money to rehabilitate dated and obsolete properties in the commercial core.  The Ferrari family operated the Crown Motel for two generations all the while doing good work for the community like establishing the Boys and Girls Club. The family found a buyer in the well-funded private academy that offered elementary-to-middle school education based around an outdoor curriculum.  Here’s the thing.  The proposed school in that location has the holy grail of all  Tahoe entitlements’  –   it is an approved use in the the Kings Beach Community Plan.

Now comes Placer County Planning on a staff level to arbitrarily decide that “we may want to think twice about approving a legally-approved use”  …   “Why”  …  “Well we aren’t sure yet”.  Staff then proposes the ‘mother’ of all bureaucratic ‘straight jackets’  …  the moratorium.  More time to decide whether there should be further restrictions on what could be allowed on the Ferrari property.  In other words, do we want an outdoor-oriented school in an outdoor-oriented community ?  Once again the local government proposes to shelve significant re-development capital while the Agencies do what they do best … wait.

All the while the Ferrari family should put their future on hold.

But not this time.

The obligatory public hearing in front of the Brd of Supervisors was standing-room-only and the local community representing all political stripes overwhelming and vociferously opposed to this arbitrary bureaucratic meddling  …  articulating that  ‘projects delayed are projects denied’.  The Supes had no choice to but to reverse staff and cancel the moratorium.

the Pavel family, like the Ferraris, have owned the Squaw Valley stables for two generations.  Their proposal is to build eight single-family  3000 sq. ft. custom homes on building envelopes separated by 40 feet on their 3.6 acre parcel in Squaw Valley’s  meadow.  In this case the proposal would require the County to re-zone ‘forest recreational’ land in the middle of Squaw Valley’s iconic meadow view.  The Squaw Valley Municipal Advisory Committee  acts as the voice of the community with public agencies.  At the normally sparsely-attendedSVMAC meeting there was again standing-room-only when this proposal was on the agenda.  There was a standing-room only turn-out – unanimously opposed  to the re-zoning with speakers citing page and verse from the Community Plan and California’s Citizens Guide to Planning.  The County has very little room now to allow the sacrifice of forest recreational land for development.  We’ll keep you posted.

These are two examples of local citizens turning out to see that public agencies simply play by the rules.   Refreshing.