$9 million worth of projects approved for North Tahoe
AUBURN, Calif. – An investment totaling over $9 million is headed towards North Tahoe after a Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting on Jan. 21. That’s when the board approved transient occupancy tax funding for seven projects in the Tahoe region of Placer County.
Four of those are trail construction and improvement projects that will receive close to $5.9 million of the funds. Each of these projects either connects or is part of a Resort Triangle trail network that seeks to connect Tahoe City, Kings Beach and Truckee through a cohesive paved bike trail system.
The projects include segment 1 of the North Tahoe Shared-Use trail, the North Tahoe Trail access improvement project, the continuance of the Martis Valley trail, and the reconstruction of a portion of the West Shore trail.
The approved funding is 10% less than the requested funding. The North Tahoe Community Alliance board of directors recommended this withholding in order to reserve TOT funding for potential housing projects in future grant cycles. Part of the reasoning was also to ensure the county and special districts invest their own funds as well as seek out other potential grants in order to maximize TOT dollars.
In order to ensure the timeliness of these projects, the board approved the funds contingent on an Aug. 1 milestone of this year. If a project does not have a construction contract in place by then, the funding will go towards funding for the next grant cycle.
“So this is really to encourage, again, activation of these funds and to get these projects moving,” Lindsay Romack, said of the Placer County Executive Office.
The other three approved projects are related to facilities and transportation in North Tahoe and were awarded at each applicant’s full request. One of those was the Tahoe City Downtown Access Improvements project which redesigns the Grove Street parking lot in downtown Tahoe City for improved pedestrian access and vehicle circulation. The board approved $741, 000 for this project.
The board approved another $50,000 for a Radar Speed Sign Program that will deploy radar speed signs in speed prone neighborhoods as part of the North Tahoe Neighborhood Traffic Management Plan.
A quarter of a million dollars will go towards an art and gathering space in the North Tahoe Regional Park as an opportunity for folks to gather and utilize local public art.
These projects’ funding approval came before the Board of Supervisors after being vetted by a North Tahoe Community Alliance advisory committee made of community, special district, and business representatives as well as the alliance’s board of directors.
There were a total of 23 projects submitted for the funding. The NTCA vetted 10 of those projects and recommended eight, seven of which were approved at this meeting. The eighth project was the Winter TART Park and Ride Expansion, which was fast-tracked and already approved on Dec. 3 due to the need for funding in December.
All the transient occupancy tax generated in eastern Placer County goes back to the eastern Placer County through projects like these after the board passed a resolution directing so in 2017.
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