Chance for Lake Tahoe

A year-long effort to reach a consensus on the future growth of the Lake Tahoe Basin has resulted in a draft outline of a regional plan that goes before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency for possible adoption this week. Representatives of more than 20 interest groups, from realtors to environmentalists, developed the draft over 11 months of often-stormy meetings. As with any compromise, not every group is entirely happy with the result. But the plan seems to have solved the most grievous complaints of Tahoe lot-owners while assuring orderly development of the California-Nevada mountain basin over the next 20 years. It has the support of most participants in the consensus-building negotiations.

The 14-member governing body of the bi-state planning agency should embrace this compromise, and soon. The major potential opposition comes from members of the Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council, an organization of lot owners that has protested past Tahoe controls that eliminated the opportunity for construction of homes on many of 16,000 lots in the basin. In a major concession to this group, the draft plan proposes a massive reassessment of all affected lots on an individual basis. Many of the lots that previously were rejected for construction could be reconsidered.

The Tahoe-Sierra Preservation Council has urged the planning agency to delay action on the plan pending consideration of new demands from the lot-owners’ council, although it has had nearly a year to present its case. The council and other planning opponents are again raising the specter of Nevada’s withdrawal from the two-state congressionally ratified compact if they don’t get everything that they want.

But Tahoe policy-makers should not delay any further. Any necessary and reasonable accommodations can be made this fall during the drafting of a formal ordinance to implement the proposed plan. It is critical now that the governing board signal its dedication to a plan that preserves some of the alpine character of the incomparable lake and surrounding mountain slopes.

Above all, the planning agency and all others concerned should oppose any effort in the Nevada Legislature in January to pull out of the compact--an action that would create chaos at Lake Tahoe and probably invite federal intervention, possibly in the creation of a national scenic area. The Deukmejian Administration appointees most likely hold the key to the lake’s future. That future can be assured if they assume leadership in the agency this week and approve the draft plan.