Placer County released its ‘Revised Draft Environmental Impact Report’ for the project in November. They’ll combine that with the old, outdated assessment they approved back in 2016 and claim it adequately assesses how the Palisades Tahoe project would impact critical issues in the region, ranging from construction noise to water quality.
But it won’t. The County and the developers are pursuing the same approach the courts found invalid before – dismissing public concern and dismissing real assessment of important issues.
It’s up to us to put the public back in public planning and ensure that irresponsible development doesn’t destroy everything we love about Olympic Valley and Lake Tahoe.
Do you love reading Partially Revised Environmental Impact Reports? Click here for the 469 page pdf.
Sign our petition to keep Tahoe Truckee True HERE, Protect the birthplace of North American skiing.
This is from the letter to Placer county period. These are skeletal, fundamental reasons that this project needs to be stopped.
Not sure what to write? Just tell them who you are and matters to you. Here are some suggested talking points – and questions to ask:
- Traffic: The project would add more than 3,000 new daily car trips to the Tahoe Truckee Region.
- How would all that new traffic impact our ability to get around?
- Fire Safety: Increased fire danger combined with limited infrastructure pose a real threat to public safety. Planning documents acknowledge the disastrous impossibility of trying to leave Olympic Valley in the event of wildfire, estimating it would take more than 11 hours to travel just 3 miles. Residents and visitors would be encouraged, instead, to gather at a nearby golf course.
- What have we learned from the Caldor, Dixie, and other fires about fire behavior and public safety?
- Would a strategy to shelter-in-place on a golf course protect lives?
- Water Supplies: Proposed development would consume 78,263,299 gallons of water annually, yet environmental review is relying on an outdated Water Supply Assessment from 2015.
- Haven’t we learned new information about drought and climate change?
- Would the new development lead to the de-watering of Washeshu (formerly Squaw) Creek?
- Is there a risk that current residents could lose access to water?
- Workforce Housing: The project would provide employee housing for only a small percentage of its employees – many warehoused in four-to-a-room, dormitory-style housing.
- What would be the net impact of adding new workers – but not enough housing?
- Tahoe Clarity: For decades, we’ve worked to protect the clarity of Lake Tahoe by trying to limit car travel in the Tahoe Basin. Alterra’s Palisades Tahoe project would add 1,353 new cars to North Tahoe every day.
- Wouldn’t that jeopardize the multi-generational commitment to Keep Tahoe Blue?
- Sense of Place: The Tahoe Sierra and Olympic Valley enjoy a treasured and unique sense of place.
- Wouldn’t attractions like an indoor waterpark be inconsistent with the regions outdoor values?
- Process: Palisades Tahoe and its parent company are, so far, unwilling to engage in meaningful community planning.
- Instead of another ten years of conflict, can the County convene some sort of collaborative process?
- Can the County bring people together to come up with a plan we can all be proud of?
There’s not enough water in Olympic Valley for a waterpark.
Sierra Watch is working to protect our limited water supplies, and you can take action now by writing a letter.
Alterra Mountain Company’s proposal for a series of highrise condo/hotels and a massive indoor waterpark would demand more than 78,000,000 gallons of water each year.
That kind of demand on our narrow watershed would drain Washeshu Creek, dewater our meadows, and could make our own taps run dry.
The would-be developer and Placer County decision-makers are trying to use an old, outdated Water Supply Assessment as part of the current planning process, claiming it shows that Olympic Valley has always had enough water to meet local needs.
But that assessment is more than eight years old. It’s based on precipitation in the past, not projections for the future. And we have new information about how drought and climate change will likely combine to limit future supplies.
You can write Olympic Valley’s County Supervisor, Cindy Gustafson, and let her know that Placer County needs to commission a new Water Supply Assessment before considering Alterra’s proposed development. Her email is:
supervisorgustafson@placer.ca.gov;
Send a copy to the Olympic Valley Public Services District and to Alterra Mountain Company:
info@palisadestahoe.com
info@ovpsd.org
Let them know that we need a new Water Supply Assessment and that our limited resources are worth more than a waterpark.
Olympic Valley deserves no less.
We need to keep following this project but Placer and Alterra have a lot of letters to review (over 2,600!). In this down time, we have to keep standing for Tahoe. You wrote a letter to Placer, you have talked to your friends about the beauty of Olympic Valley – all we have to lose with this project and all we stand to gain as a community by stopping it, and now you want to keep helping. Tag us in your pictures and videos with #TahoeTruckeeTrue on Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok to help us keep this proposal top of mind in our community.
You can stay up to date on how to help us by signing up to be on our mailing list and by following Sierra Watch and Tahoe Truckee True on Instagram and Facebook. You can also reach out to our community organizer (asilverstein@sierrawatch.org) if you have ideas or are frothing to get involved. If you have money to give, you can donate to Sierra Watch or the campaign to keep Tahoe Truckee True – it will go towards our staff and our lawyers who have made Sierra Watch successful thus far in the fight over Olympic Valley.
Thank you for your persistent engagement with this issue for the past 10+ years. These mountains and this community deserve the best.
Sierra Watch has learned from experience: the more people get involved, the more likely we can turn back reckless development and secure a better outcome for our mountains.
This is where you come in.
We need to keep growing this grassroots movement. But the time for this comment period is short – just till January 30. You can help defend our mountain values by talking with your family, friends, acquaintances, and coworkers and share with them this great opportunity to get involved.
Maybe you know a proud local who needs a Tahoe Truckee True bumper sticker. Or someone who aspires to come here and ski KT22 and could share our posts on Instagram. Maybe your mom wants to send a letter.
After all, it’s working. This movement began with a few people gathered in someone’s living room ten years ago. Now we number more than 20,000 and we’re getting stronger every day.
Meantime, there’s still no indoor waterpark in Tahoe. Let’s keep it that way.
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