Heavenly plan will be reconsidered!

TRPA reconsiders approval of Heavenly expansion, Reno Gazette Journal
By Jeff DeLong
March 29, 2007

http://news.rgj.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070329/TT/703290374/1047/NEWS

A controversial plan to cut more than a thousand trees to make room for a new ski lift at Lake Tahoe's Heavenly Mountain Resort will be considered again next month, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's governing board decided last week.

Facing a legal claim by environmentalists that last month's approval of the new lift and other upgrades at the resort was illegal, TRPA officials agreed to take another look at the project in April.

Agency lawyer Joanne Marchetta recommended the action "as an accommodation" to the public without giving any merit to the legal challenge filed last week by the League to Save Lake Tahoe, the Tahoe Area Sierra Club and the Sierra Nevada Alliance.

Otherwise, Marchetta said, it would be likely the conservation groups would sue TRPA and years of litigation over whether last month's vote violated open meeting regulations would ensue.

"This motion is being made in the interest of avoiding delay," Marchetta said.

Environmentalists praised the agency's decision to reconsider changes to Heavenly's master plan.

"I'm delighted. I think this will go a long way to restoring credibility to TRPA," said Michael Donahoe, a Sierra Club representative. "I'm hoping they will step up to the plate and do what's right for the environment."

Rochelle Nason, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, said the action will allow the organization to raise issues about impacts to Tahoe's water quality and old-growth timber.

"We're really heartened that the governing board did the right thing today for the public and for solid environmental decision-making," Nason said.

After a Feb. 28 hearing of nearly eight hours, board members approved Heavenly's request for major changes on the mountain. Central to the controversy was the resort's plans to remove two aging and slow fixed-grip lifts on the resort's Nevada side and replace them with a single high-speed quad lift.

Environmentalists oppose the project because it would entail removal of more than 1,100 trees, about 150 of them large and old trees of the type that were mostly logged out of the Tahoe Basin more than a century ago. They support different lift alignments that would impact far fewer trees.

Blaise Carrig, Heavenly's senior vice president and chief operating officer, said he was disappointed the board chose to void last month's approval, a vote he described as legitimate. But Carrig said the resort will go along with the decision to rehear the matter in April.

"We've always said we want to respect the process and we'll continue to show the merits of our proposal," Carrig said.

The new lift -- along with new ski runs, lodges and a cross-country ski center -- is described as critical to keeping Heavenly competitive in the global skiing market.

"It allows us to improve the recreational experience at the resort," Carrig said.

The hearing room Wednesday was again packed with people, many critical of last month's approval. During a public comment session, speakers attacked the agency created by Congress in 1969 to protect Tahoe's environment for failing to live up to its mission.

Jim Hildinger of South Lake Tahoe said he was inspired when the agency was created but has since been disappointed with actions he said appear driven by economics.

"I thought at last we were going to have control over some of the crazy things that were happening up here. I was wrong," Hildinger said. "Making money is not as important as saving this national treasure, this world treasure, for future generations."

The criticism drew a retort from Jim Galloway, a Washoe County commissioner on the governing board.

Galloway said TRPA has made major progress in protecting the lake's environment, often through regulations and policies that never get much public attention but have prevented many damaging changes from occurring.

"This basin is better off, far better off, today than it would have been if TRPA never existed," Galloway said.