Show up to Keep Squaw True

Thursday June 25th: Stand up to Keep Squaw True

If you care about the future of Squaw Valley and North Lake Tahoe it’s time to stand up.

What: Attend the Placer County Planning Commission meeting

Where: North Tahoe Event Center, 8318 N Lake Blvd, Kings Beach, CA 96143

When: Thursday June 25th at 9:30 am (meeting starts at 10:05)

RSVP: Isaac Silverman (530) 265-2849 x203 isilverman@sierrawatch.org to let us know to expect you and what size Keep Squaw True t-shirt you need.  You don’t have to RSVP to attend but if you do we’ll give you a t-shirt.

On Thursday June 25th the Placer County Planning Commission meets to hear comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Report for KSL’s plan to remake Squaw Valley in the image of an urbanized mega-resort.

This is the first time that Placer County will be hearing from the public since the release of their environmental report. We need to send them a message: Squaw Valley and North Lake Tahoe deserve better than the noise, traffic gridlock, blighted views, urbanization, and environmental degradation promised by KSL’s plan.

We will have a table set up to hand out Keep Squaw True t-shirts, gather petition signatures, and answer any questions you may have.  And we’ll also be testifying at the hearing.

Join us

Keep Squaw True Shirts free at the Planning Commission Hearing Thursday June 25th.

But we can’t do this alone.  We need you to join us on Thursday, put on a Keep Squaw True t-shirt, and speak your mind about KSL’s plan.

You can raise a technical deficiency in their analysis − a detailed critique of the peak projections for traffic on Highway 89.  Or you can say something deep: I want to see the stars at night.  Or something clear: deny this development application and ask KSL to submit a reasonable proposal.  Or

The Keep Squaw True Banner flying high the last time that the Planning Commission came to the North Tahoe Event Center.

you can simply come, put on a t-shirt and stand in solidarity with your friends and neighbors.

The important thing is that you show up.

RSVP to isilverman@sierrawatch.com and let me know your t-shirt size. We’ll have it waiting for you.

KSL’s Plan

To review, KSL’s plan, known as the Squaw Valley Village Specific Plan, includes a series of highrise hotels and condo projects with more than 1,500 new bedrooms and a massive indoor amusement park as wide as a Walmart and ten-stories tall, with waterslides, fake rivers, arcades, and simulated sky-diving.

The map below uses KSL’s renderings to show what’s planned.  It’s shocking, and it understates how massive this project is—in addition to what’s pictured it would allow more than 30 houses to be built in the mouth of Shirley Canyon.

All told, the project would be so big it would take 25 years of day and night construction to complete.

Decision-makers need to know how you feel about it.

The Draft Environmental Impact Report

State planning law − the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) − requires thorough environmental review of large development proposals.  In May, Placer County released its initial assessment, known as a Draft Environmental Impact Report (Draft EIR), designed to encourage public scrutiny and citizen involvement.

The Draft EIR for the proposed Squaw Valley development runs more than 2,000 pages and assesses the project’s potential impacts on everything from water quality to climate change.

It’s available online here.

Even a quick read makes it clear that KSL’s proposed development would transform Squaw Valley into a noisy, urbanized place.  In the terminology of the Draft EIR, proposed development would have 23 “significant” and “unavoidable” impacts on Squaw Valley − and beyond.  For example:

• Traffic: According to the document, development would add to area traffic and “exacerbate unacceptable operations” on Squaw Valley Road, on Highway 89 in Tahoe City, in Truckee, and in between.
• Views: To Squaw’s iconic mountain scenery, the project would make a “substantial contribution to the cumulative degradation of the existing visual character or quality of the site and its surroundings” with a “significant and unavoidable impact on scenic vistas.”
• Noise: The project would generate noise louder than “applicable Placer County noise standards”, especially for the 25 years it would be under construction − even at night.

Equally remarkable is the information and impacts not included in the Draft EIR.  For example, assessment of local water supplies is based on a study that does not include records from the current, record-breaking drought.

Fortunately, CEQA is designed to encourage public involvement.  This is where you come in. And why it’s so important that you show up.

Please feel free to call at (530) 265-2849 x 203 or email at isilverman@sierrawatch.org if you have any questions.