Lake Tahoe conservationists have filed suit to block a major ski village development plan at Palisades Tahoe approved last month, claiming the project would have a dramatic impact on the lake’s famous water clarity.
The 25-year development plan, put forward by Palisades’ owner Alterra Mountain Co. and unanimously approved by Placer County’s Board of Supervisors in November, seeks to add 850 lodging units, 1,500 hotel rooms and 300,000 square feet of commercial space to the base village in Olympic Valley.
In a legal challenge filed Wednesday in Placer County Superior Court, conservation nonprofits League to Save Lake Tahoe and Sierra Watch claim that the project “would worsen traffic congestion, increase air pollution, erode roadways, and degrade water quality in the Lake Tahoe Basin,” according to a Thursday press release.
The groups cite an estimate contained in the plan that the new village — with its higher guest capacity and a larger workforce — would add 3,300 daily car trips to the mountain roadways around Olympic Valley during peak periods, including 1,300 that would cross into the Tahoe basin. They say increased traffic “runs counter to federally mandated goals to reduce car dependency” in the Tahoe basin.
Runoff that carries sediment and particles from Tahoe’s roadways is a huge contributor to the lake’s ongoing clarity issues, the groups say.
“We are not opposed to the modernization and expansion of Palisades Tahoe, but we must take a stand to Keep Tahoe Blue,” said Darcie Goodman Collins, CEO of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, in the press release.
“There isn’t acknowledgement of those impacts nor are there any mitigations or enforceable actions to mitigate the impacts,” Collins told the Chronicle.
The conservation groups also echoed concerns raised by Tahoe locals about the effects of traffic and higher numbers of tourists on their quality of life and the social, economic and environmental issues facing their communities.