Zephyr Cove Succeeds in Blowing Away Plan to Change Its Name

Residents of Zephyr Cove, Nev., who bristled at a proposal to merge their lakeside community with Stateline and rename the resulting city “Lake Tahoe” won their point Thursday.

Douglas County, Nev., commissioners voted to change the name of Stateline to Lake Tahoe, but only after dropping Zephyr Cove from the plan.

The five-member board of commissioners voted last month to annex Zephyr Cove to the casino-studded town of Stateline four miles away and give them a new name the board hoped would attract more tourists.

The only problem was that the people of Zephyr Cove objected -- and objected loudly.

So, by employing some fast procedural footwork, the board of commissioners voted 2-2 not to rescind their earlier decision as it relates to Stateline, but voted 4-0 in favor of reversing themselves on the Zephyr Cove area.

One commissioner was ill and missed the vote, forcing the board to employ the unusual procedure.

Even with this latest nod to public opinion, the name change is far from final. The board’s action simply forwards the idea on to postal officials and other federal authorities, who must decide the matter themselves.

Normally, federal approval is swift and sure, but may be endangered in this case because some residents of the Lake Tahoe area said they will continue to oppose the name swap.

“We’ll oppose any name change of either of those areas,” said Tom Martens of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, a local environmental group. “This (change) is particularly offensive now because Stateline is mostly casinos. We think Lake Tahoe ought to mean nothing but the lake itself.”

Officials at the Greater Tahoe Marketing Council, which first advanced the name change, said the idea is to encourage all forms of tourism--skiing, hiking, swimming and sunbathing, as well as gambling.

People, even some travel agents, have trouble finding Stateline on the map, they said, but everyone can see Lake Tahoe.