The Truckee Donner Land Trust’s planned acquisition of a 30-acre plot in Olympic Valley is on hold while they sort out legal complications with the Poulsen Family Trust, the current owners of the property, as well as a ballot measure that will help fund the purchase.

According to a press release sent out by the Land Trust “the Poulsen Family Trust and the buyers ran into unexpected complications with the purchase process that need further clarification.”

The Land Trust is holding off on fundraising any more money for the project until the issues are sorted out, according to Greyson Howard, communications director for the Land Trust.

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“We’re still determined that the property goes to conservation in the future,” said Howard.

To purchase the property the trust was relying on funding from Measure E, a bond measure which was pulled from the November ballot by the Squaw Valley Public Utility District Board of Directors, as they wished to work out technical issues with the measure. Within the district there are different types of properties, including single family residences, multiple family residences and open land, that may be treated differently with the special tax.

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“We wanted to do a better job of reducing the cost of the overall project and equitably distributing the special tax to the different types of properties,” said Mike Geary, general manager of the Squaw Valley Public Service District.

In order for the measure to pass two-thirds of the 600 registered voters in Squaw Valley would have had to vote in favor of it.

“We’re not concerned about getting a measure through, it was a question about the distribution,” said Howard.

Geary said they will be working on the project internally and will hopefully return in 2021 with another ballot measure.

According to the Land Trust, the land could be built up to nearly 300-bedroom units under another buyer.

“It’s a really iconic piece of property in the valley,” said Howard. “One way or another we’d like to see it preserved and opened to the public.”

Hannah Jones is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. She can be reached at 530-550-2652 or hjones@sierrasun.com.