TRUCKEE, Calif. – A proposed industrial development, including a sawmill and wood processing facility, has elicited concern among local residents. Friends of Prosser Truckee, a group of community members, has formed to address the project, which is set to be located approximately 3.5 miles from the northernmost roundabout heading out of town on Highway 89 North. Technically, Klondike Flat Road is beyond the Town of Truckee boundary line and is in unincorporated Nevada County.

Residents of the Klondike Flat neighborhood are worried that the proposed Alpenglow Timber project, set on 18 acres of 124 acre parcel, will impact their neighborhood and surrounding areas.

Neighborhood Concerns:

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Traffic and Safety: One major concern is the increase in traffic and associated safety hazards. Jay Grube, a resident of Klondike Flat, said, “This industrial facility has no place in our small and increasingly crowded town. Highway 89 already struggles with traffic, and adding dozens of double log loads would only make it worse.” However, no significant increase in truck traffic has been determined or anticipated because of this project. The traffic study indicates that the most significant increase in traffic in the coming years will come from cars. The project estimates 3-6 additional trucks, and there are plans to widen and improve the road, install safety mechanisms, and expand existing water mains and fire evacuation routes.  Please reference pages 4 and 5 of the CEQA document at https://ceqanet.opr.ca.gov/2024051065

Noise Pollution: Noise from the sawmill and its machinery is another concern, with residents fearing it will disrupt the tranquility of nearby neighborhoods. However, the CEQA study has deemed the noise impact to be minimal. To combat this minimal noise impact, Alpenglow Timber has ensured all machinery will be moved indoors. 

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Property Values: Residents worry about potential declines in property values. Heath Spencer, a resident of Klondike Flat, stated, “Industrializing a neighborhood would significantly impact the home values in the affected neighborhood (potentially by 40-50%). For most families today, the majority of their net worth is in owning their home.” 

Alpenglow Timber’s Perspective:

Alpenglow Timber LLC is aiming to build an environmentally-designed integrated wood products facility to manufacture graded lumber, firewood, biomass heat, and eventually mass timber products. This project’s goal is to address the need for local wood product infrastructure in the North Tahoe/Truckee region, where the closest sawmill is 70 miles away. The facility will process locally harvested logs, hopefully reducing transportation emissions and keeping economic benefits local. 

Danielle Bradford, a Registered Professional Forester with 19 years of experience in the North Tahoe Truckee region and along Highway 89, supports the Alpenglow facility for its potential to accelerate forest restoration and enhance the economic feasibility of these projects. Effective forest restoration involves removing trees that are suppressed or affected by insects, disease, and drought, which typically yield low-value wood products. 

Currently, these products must be transported over 70 miles to processing facilities outside Nevada County, with haul costs often consuming 40% or more of the wood’s value. This reliance on distant facilities and grant funding constrains forest restoration efforts. The Alpenglow facility would mitigate these issues by providing a local processing option, reducing haul costs and truck traffic. Bradford points out that similar wood product facilities coexist with communities, as seen in Quincy, where log trucks navigate residential areas to reach the mill. Without a local facility, the North Tahoe Truckee region faces higher costs, fewer restored acres, declining forest health, and increased wildfire risk. The Alpenglow facility promises to improve the economic viability and efficiency of local forest health projects, addressing these critical challenges.

Situated on an 18-acre site north of Truckee, the facility will be partially funded by grants from the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and the U.S. Forest Service. The project will work to enhance community protection and wildfire risk mitigation by processing logs from forest health and fire recovery projects. It will also create 10 permanent full-time jobs and more than 15 indirect jobs, with an annual economic impact of $5.4 million. The site is zoned appropriately, and studies show minimal traffic and noise impact.

The facility will use sawmill waste to generate its own heat for its facilities, estimated to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 1,714 metric tons of CO2 annually. The anticipated timeline includes project approval in Summer 2024, design and permitting by Winter 2024/2025, construction in Summer-Fall 2025, and the beginning of sawmill operations in Fall 2025.

David Mercer, owner of Crosscheck Services and Alpenglow Timber, was born and raised in North Lake Tahoe. With over 30 years of experience as a timber contractor and small business owner in the North Lake Tahoe and Truckee area, he has earned a reputation for high-quality forestry work. 

Alpenglow Timber aims to fill a crucial gap in local forest thinning and fire prevention efforts by providing a facility to handle the byproducts from forest thinning and Wildland Urban Interface (WUI) projects. Current facilities are often inadequate or impractical due to economic constraints. Mercer, alongside forest ecologists, firefighters, and land managers, recognizes the urgent need for proper forest management to prevent catastrophic wildfires. The proposed facility seeks to address this by offering a local solution for handling small diameter logs, thus supporting ongoing and planned forest thinning projects.

“If we don’t do something then mother nature will take care of the unnatural forest fuel loads for us. Such forests are at very high risk for large, intense wildfires, and profound lasting consequences to our communities,” Mercer said. 

The Klondike Flats area, surrounded by dense forest, is particularly vulnerable to wildfires. Mercer plans to work with the community to reduce this risk, enhance property values, and improve infrastructure. This includes thinning 124 acres adjacent to residential properties, paving and widening Klondike Road, and installing a fire hydrant to provide additional fire protection. Committed to the region’s well-being, Mercer believes in the cost-effectiveness of preventive measures over dealing with destructive wildfires.

Zoning and Compliance: 

The Klondike Flats area is zoned for forest recreation, which allows for uses such as lumber mills and timber harvesting but not residences on parcels less than 10 acres. Most homes in the neighborhood are considered a nonconforming use by the County. Additionally, Klondike Flats is not within a fire district boundary and lacks official fire protection, meaning Truckee residents might bear the cost of any residential fires.

The proposed Alpenglow Timber project includes a sawmill, wood products processing facility, and six workforce housing units. According to the CEQA report (https://ceqanet.opr.ca.gov/2024051065), this project does not pose any direct threat to nearby residents. Mitigation measures will address potential impacts, such as minimizing reflectivity and glare from building materials and ensuring downcast and shielded exterior lighting. The project design considers existing topography, vegetation, and distance from neighboring properties to minimize visual and aesthetic impacts. With proper mitigation, air quality impacts are expected to be “less than significant.”

Joanne Roubique, a former USDA District Ranger and current Vice Chair of the Truckee River Watershed Council, emphasized the urgent need for such a facility. She stated, “Our forests need thinning, and the cut material needs to be removed. Without a place to take that material, it remains fuel for a fire. David Mercer is offering our community one piece of the answer – a place to take fuels and woody material from our local forests. He is a strong professional who cares deeply for our local environment.”

Community Actions and Future Steps: 

According to Grube, all 21 property owners in the Klondike Flat Road residences oppose the development. They urge the Nevada County Planning Commission and Board of Supervisors to address their concerns, calling for the denial of the Conditional Use Permit (CUP) and Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND) for the sawmill and wood processing facility. They recommend pausing the approval process for more community discussions and understanding the projects’ impacts, requesting an extension of the hearing date until fall or winter 2024 for a comprehensive evaluation. They also advocate for a full Environmental Impact Report (EIR) instead of an MND.

In response to the community’s concerns, Kyle Smith, Senior Planner of Nevada County, stated, “The Planning Department is requesting public comment as part of the review process for this project. To request updates or to provide public comment, please contact Kyle Smith at kyle.smith@nevadacountyca.gov.” The deadline to send in public comments is by July 29 at 5 p.m. 
For more information, visit Friends of Prosser Truckee at https://www.friendsofprossertruckee.org. You can also review the draft environmental document for the project at https://www.nevadacountyca.gov/994/Environmental-Documents. For more information on Alpenglow Timber, please visit https://alpenglowtimber.com. A Nevada County Planning Commission hearing about the project will also take place on Aug. 8.

Zoe Meyer is a reporter for the Sierra Sun, a sister publication for Tahoe Daily Tribune. She can be reached at zmeyer@sierrasun.com.