Need Sustainable Development Network in South Lake Tahoe

The news about the proposed Boulder Bay Resort this past January helped to rekindle a continuing struggle that Tahoe is having. The balance that the Lake has to play in developing new areas of tourism and economic development in conjunction with environmental protection will continue for some time. Boulder bay is one such project that highlights the strong sides of opinions and also the possible solutions for the future. This project also shows how North Lake Tahoe is being targeted as a key battleground on the lake for development. Between this project and the recent shrinking of the highway along King’s Beach, it seems as though North Lake is making continual strides to challenge and change the ecological and environmental framework of Tahoe.

What is South Lake Tahoe doing amidst all this change? Stateline currently is pushing all of the casinos that have been there for the past 5o years. Yet, with the slowing economy it seems as though this could not prove to be a viable model. Recently, a local developer decided to tear out a huge amount of mom and pop shops along the stateline casino strip in South Lake.

The idea he had in mind was to build a new state of the art convention center that would attract visitors with the same message the Vegas plays in many ways to the myriads of conventions held annually down south. Now this  project is sitting in the middle of the stateline strip as a boarded up eye-sore. How Tahoe officials choose to develop this current structure beyond this current mess could be an interesting study in sustainable development. Depending on how this project goes, it could shed light on how surrounding casinos in South Lake could choose to develop as well. Should Casinos in South Lake be adopting more “green rated” building plans for the future? Now that Nevada is rethinking the structure of its own economy, should the Casinos be torn down or revamped with different economic goals aside from gaming? Is it even environmentally responsible for Tahoe to even begin to develop such huge projects in and around the Lake as Tahoe’s clarity and erosion control has become an even larger concern in recent years?

South Lake Tahoe’s network of concerned citizens interested in sustainable development has yet to sprout. It seems as though North Lake has a stronger base in concerned citizenry when it comes to develop. Hopefully, this blog can begin to serve as a sounding board and discussion hub for both sides of the lake. They could both learn something from each other at the least.

-Scott A. Gayer | tahoesprawl

Should Tahoe be taking Sustainability notes?

It’s no secret that many of the Tahoe locals  seem to think of the lake as an island unto its own. When it comes to the environment, it seems like Tahoe’s issues are shared amongst a category of one. Indeed, Tahoe’s environment presents many unique challenges. However, when it comes to development, does Tahoe need to look to any other place nationally or internationally for help or advice. Aren’t there other  geographically desirable destinations worldwide that are struggling to balance tourism, economic development and environmental protections? What places around the globe also struggle to balance these core values and solve them in similar ways that Tahoe could?

In case you didn’t know, this blog works in conjunction with another blog called Floripa Verde. As this blog covers issues of sustainable development in Florianopolis, Brazil, tahosprawl also aims to spark discussion amongst local residents over the same issues. Both Tahoe and Florianopolis are facing increasing pressure to develop and protect their highly desirable tourist destinations at the same time. How might these two communities share information and tackle similar problems together? Potentially, the connection they come to bear through this blogosphere could help them do just that.

-Scott A. Gayer | tahoesprawl

Crowdsourcing Sustainable Development in Tahoe

Although this video might point to the most extreme examples of poor sustainability, the possibilities are still worth considering. How serious should we take sustainability as our world becomes more developed and more strained? How quickly should Tahoe be acting to plan for sustained growth and preservation?

Sustainable research will make or break Tahoe

http://www.epa.gov/Sustainability/

Research is going to be critical as Tahoe moves forward in developing sustainably. The EPA  recently updated all of the recent activity and research going into sustainable growth. I’ve posted the link to the site above to help spark discussion. The question of whether or not Tahoe is ahead or behind the curve in sustainable growth could be defined by sound research. This site also overviews how other communities throughout the world are making the move to develop sustainably and successfully. Tahoe developers and oversight groups would do well to see how other communities around the world are making the necessary steps in sustainable growth. In reading through this site, one has to wonder how the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency is making serious similar research efforts into sustainability.

Scott A. Gayer

Sustainability is getting so more attention as America’s economy worsens. Will it bring more efficiency? Is sustainability even achievable? Some organizations may be aiming to simply use the word for marketing. Others are really taking the term very seriously. Check out this short video and decide for yourself if Tahoe is poised to reinvent the future of sustainability.

Scott A. Gayer

Tahoe’s Sustainable urbanization?

Urbanization and lack of tourism has and always will be Tahoe’s greatest fears. As of right now, these fears may be working against each other in a much stronger way than ever before. Especially in Crystal Bay, NV located on the north side of the lake along old State Route 28. Back in February, The Sacramento Bee released a story (http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2352322.html) on the proposed re-development of the old Tahoe Biltmore Lodge and Casino located in Crystal Bay. This was no ordinary redevelopment story that Tahoe had seen before. This time developer Roger Wittenberg had his sights set on creating the most sustainable building project and resort that the Lake has ever seen. The proposed new resort, The Boulder Bay Resort and Wellness Center, is slated to make use of everything from snowmelt, recycled materials and seeded grass roofs. One would think that a project boasting this type of cutting edge sustainability in its designs would do more than just appease The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and the League to Save Lake Tahoe. Yet, even a project of this type has met its match in fighting against some of the toughest environmental laws in the nation within Lake Tahoe. Many of the initial concerns have come in fearing the beginning of urbanization in Tahoe. On the flipside, proponents of this project claim that this is just what Tahoe needs as America’s recession wears on and Tahoe continues to lose out to other mega-tourist destinations. I’ve posted the link to this story below. How Tahoe planners deal with the progress of this project in the coming months could provide a glimpse of what sustainable development could look like in Lake Tahoe for the future. tahoe sprawl will be following the development of this story as it moves through the lake’s litigation process. Be sure to add any comments and insights along the way.

http://www.sacbee.com/ourregion/story/2352322.html

-Scott A. Gayer | tahoe sprawl

The cycle of sustainability in Lake Tahoe

Sustainable development in Lake Tahoe is probably one of the most heavily regulated issues in the whole Reno-Tahoe region. For some time, the regulation of Lake Tahoe’s development has risen more sharply as more and more developers have tried to descend on Lake Tahoe with dollar signs in their eyes. Between groups like the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency and The League to Save Lake Tahoe, there has arisen a strong source of non-governmental regualtion around the Lake that has ultimately fueled discussion and lawsuits for some years now.

Tahoe’s natives have much to repent of within the last 100 years of the lake’s environmental development. In the early 1900’s the overforestation and logging escapades that plagued the lake were not even seen as the sham that they have now come to be lamented as. Tahoe’s natural beauty is now in a state where much environmental planning must be done for the future as mistakes are erased from the past.

Thomas Friedman, the popular New York Times columnist recently released a book that aims to refuel the imagination needed for a green revolution. The book Hot, Flat and Crowded, details where our planet is at in making us more green and how Americans are poised to fail or succeed in helping to achieve that cause. In the case of Tahoe, the lake is poised to become a shining or horrifying example of how Americans can innovate the future of sustainable land development.

Friedman challenges readers in the first chapter of his book with the future of sustainable land development.

“What kind of America would you like to see,” Friedman writes. “–an America with more and more urban sprawl devouring more and more open lands, or a green America where cities start to grow upward rather than outward, where mass transit becomes the norm rather than mass traffic jams, and where the only new building are green buildings?”

“Sprawl” as used here by Friedman echoes the type of development that Tahoe will have to fight to develop sustainably now more than ever before. Tahoe’s sprawl is definitely not the same as that of Los Angeles County. Yet, even the slightest amount of improper development in and around Tahoe tends to create the same type of dramatic of effects that Los Angeles experiences yearly.

The issues over Tahoe’s sustainable land development have the seen their peaks and valleys in terms of attention and forthcoming solutions. The success of Tahoe’s sustainability issues ever being solved is hugely hingent on whether they survive the “issue attention cycle.”

The concept of the “issue attention cycle” was first popularized by author Anthony Downs in 1972. Downs’ article details the demise that many environmental issues have met while going through a series of attention and reaction cycles in the American media. Downs’ observations of how environmental issues have crashed and burned too many times over in the attention spans of influential Americans are important to heed for Tahoe’s sustainable development issues. The conditions that usually affect the success of solving environmental issues are detailed by Downs here.

“The first condition means that most people will not be continually re-
minded of the problem by their own suffering from it. The second
condition means that solving the problem requires sustained atten-
tion and effort, plus fundamental changes in social institutions or
behavior. This in turn means that significant attempts to solve it are
threatening to important groups in society. The third condition
means that the media’s sustained focus on this problem soon bores
a majority of the public. As soon as the media realize that their em-
phasis on this problem is threatening many people and boring even
more, they will shift their focus to some “new” problem.”

Indeed, if Tahoe natives don’t understand Downs’ conditions in light of the issue of sustainable development, then any effort they make toward solving this issue will be futile in the end.

tahoe sprawl is a blog aimed at re-imagining the solutions to sustainable development in Lake Tahoe. This blog is also a journalistic experiment in helping this issue thrive beyond the control of the mass media. Your participation will be the key to innovation.

-Scott A. Gayer | tahoe sprawl