TRPA approves more home construction in 2003

STATELINE -- Progress in environmental-protection efforts will allow construction of nearly 100 extra homes under the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency's new residential building program.

The agency's governing board Wednesday set this year's building cap at 248 homes, citing strides by Lake Tahoe's four counties and the city of South Lake Tahoe to curb pollution from private land through restoration, mass transit and drainage control projects.

Although the number is less than in years past, it's significantly greater than the 150 or fewer than would be allowed had the jurisdictions shown less progress, planners said.

Most of the construction will occur on Tahoe's south shore in California where the number of buildable parcels and the demand for new homes is greatest.

Under the plan approved Wednesday, El Dorado County will receive 111 residential allocations and South Lake Tahoe 41. To the north on the California side, Placer County will get 46 allocations.

Less construction could occur on the Nevada side, where fewer available parcels exist. Washoe County will get 37 allocations, Douglas County 13.

John Falk of the Tahoe Sierra Board of Realtors said extra points based on planning efforts by local jurisdictions were awarded in this first year of the new allocation process.

He said it will be harder to earn extra home allocations during subsequent years, when potential penalties also could be imposed to reduce the number of allowable homes below baseline levels.

"Years two to five are the ones where you're going to see jurisdictions get spanked," Falk said.

-- Also Wednesday, the Governing Board approved a $50 application fee for property owners on the California side of the basin who want to remove a tree or trees on their land. The $50 fee will provide the service of a licensed forester for up to an hour and the inspection can include more than one tree.

The fee may be temporary because the agency is seeking grant funding to hire forester to do the inspections. In the past, like on the Nevada side of the lake, state foresters did the inspections for the TRPA. But grant funding for the California Department of Forestry dried up in 2001, leaving all the work to TRPA forester Jesse Jones, who has a full-time desk job at the TRPA.