YOUR IMMEDIATE ACTION IS NEEDED TO PROVIDE PUBLIC COMMENT TO TAHOE REGIONAL PLANNING AGENCY (“TRPA”) IN OPPOSITION TO THE PROPOSED USE OF THE SITE OF THE FORMER INCLINE VILLAGE ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AS A TRANSPORTATION HUB FOR ALL OF LAKE TAHOE, AND TO REQUEST THAT ONE OF THE ALTERNATIVE AVAILABLE SITES IN INCLINE VILLAGE BE SELECTED. EMAIL YOUR COMMENTS TO JWEBER@TRPA.ORG ASK THAT THEY BE DISTRIBUTED TO THE ENTIRE BOARD AND INCLUDED IN THE IR 1/22/21 MEETING PACKET.

A thirty-day public comment period commenced on December 28, 2020 and closes on January 28, 2021, on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s draft 2021 Federal Transportation Improvement Program (“FTIP”) for the period 2021-2024.  This is the draft of TRPA’s four-year transportation improvement plan, which has one reference to Incline Village, and that reference is at page 81 of the 132-page plan which lists the former Incline Village Elementary School site as the location of a mobility hub in Incline Village.  It lists the acquisition and development of the former school site into a transportation hub as a done deal.  Many local residents of Incline Village have been providing input to the Tahoe Transportation District (“TTD”) and Washoe County in opposition to this project.  At the December, 2020 TTD Governing Board meeting, in response to public objections, TTD’s governing Board directed that alternative sites be looked at in Incline Village, an ad hoc committee of the Governing Board to oversee this was set up, and Mr. Hasty, the responsible official at TTD, was directed that public meetings finally occur in Incline Village.  At the December, 2020 Board of Commissioners meeting, in response to public objections, the agenda item by which Washoe County was to approve contribution of $300,000.00 of former park funds slotted for Incline Village public parks, for use in acquiring the former school site, was taken off calendar, pending further decision by the TTD Board.  Apparently, TRPA and TTD are either not communicating, or the purchase of the former elementary school site is considered a done deal, because the project is listed in the TRPA 2021-2024 plan.  It is described as “Multi-Use (in Washoe county, located ion SR28, and Southwood Blvd. in Incline Village, Plan, design and construct a Mobility Hub.).  The plan does not discuss any alternative sites, and does not discuss spending money to look at and evaluate alternative sites in Incline Village that have been recommended by members of the Incline Village community as more suitable for a transportation project than the site of the former elementary school.

It is critical that as many Incline Village and Crystal Bay residents and businesses as possible, provide public comment to voice their objection to the use of the former elementary school site to TRPA and request that this project not reference the school site but reference looking at several sites in Incline Village and taking public comment on whether to proceed with the former elementary school site, before this project is set in stone.  We are told by TRPA that “The FTIP must be updated every two years to ensure that projects receiving federal funds can continue being developed ad constructed…The projects in the FTIP essentially are implementing the long-range transportation vision of the TRP…All of the projects listed in the DRAFT FTIP are in the approved 2017 RTP and Draft 2020 RTP.”  Apparently, local residents did not object in 2017 when that plan came out, although those of us who have looked cannot find any mention on the project to acquire the former school site in 2017.  None of us knew of the plan to acquire and use the site for this purpose in 2017.  We know of the plan now.  It is critical that local residents express their public comment in opposition to this project and to the manner in which this project is referenced in the draft FTIP, to TRPA long prior to the January 28, 2021 cut-off date (ACTUALLY PLEASE EXPRESS YOUR OPPOSITION AS SOON AS POSSIBLE IN WRITING), by writing to:

Judy Weber, jweber@trpa.org 

Additionally, oral public comment can be given on January 22, 2021 at the scheduled Tahoe Transportation Commission Board meeting. 

Please send your written opposition to Judy Weber, with the request that your written opposition be added to the public comment at the January 22, 2021 public meeting and that copies of your opposition be provided by Ms. Weber to the entire governing Board of TRPA.  This is critical and time sensitive.