Tahoe on Trial July 21/How to Watch
Sierra Watch will be standing up in court on July 21st to defend Tahoe from Alterra’s reckless Squaw Valley development – and you can watch!
The court is conducting oral arguments by video conference, and they’ve shared instructions on how to log on to their BlueJeans Events conferencing application.
WHAT:
Oral arguments before the Third District Court of Appeals in Sierra Watch’s two challenges of Alterra Mountain Company’s proposed development in Tahoe’s Squaw Valley.
WHEN:
Wednesday, July 21, 2021
2:00-4:00 p.m. Pacific Time
HOW:
The public is invited to join the proceedings online through a web browser on the BlueJeans Events app –
https://primetime.bluejeans.com/a2m/live-event/sgtbqesh
Or by phone –
+1 (415) 466-7000 (US) / PIN: 4619394 #
WHY:
This is an important milestone in the ongoing effort — ten years and counting — to keep Tahoe Truckee True.
Alterra Mountain Company seeks to remake Tahoe with development of a size and scope the region has never seen. Development would include a series of high-rise condo hotels and a massive indoor waterpark.
After the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved Alterra’s proposed development in 2016, Sierra Watch initiated two public interest court challenges to the approvals: one based on state planning law, the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA); the other based on violations of California’s Brown Act.
Sierra Watch’s CEQA challenge is based on decision-makers’ failure to assess the proposed development’s impact on key Tahoe issues like the lake’s clarity, fire safety, and traffic.
Sierra Watch’s second case is based on the Brown Act, California’s open meeting law, challenging Placer County’s lack of public notice for a last-minute deal to avoid a lawsuit by the California Attorney General, negotiated in secret and announced the same day the project was approved.
The Brown Act challenge is first on the docket, to be followed by the CEQA challenge. The court will release its decisions within 90 days of the close of the hearings.
The arguments will be brief and, likely, shaped by questions from the bench. So the Sierra Watch legal team won’t be able to address every way in which Alterra’s proposal threatens everything we love about our mountains.
For more detailed arguments, check out Sierra Watch’s legal briefs: https://www.sierrawatch.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/09/Verified-Petition-for-Writ-of-Mandate-and-Complaint-for-Injunctive-Relief_KEEP-SQUAW-TRUE.pdf
And for more context on the Sierra Watch effort to keep Tahoe Truckee True, check out our Ten Year Timeline and The Movie to Keep Tahoe True.
