At its Tuesday meeting Truckee Town Council heard a roughly two-hour presentation on potential housing sites and zoning changes for 11 locations across town.

In 2019, Truckee embarked on its 2040 general plan update process by holding a series of community housing workshops. Eleven sites were then identified for potential rezoning. In June 2020, the town applied for and received a $160,000 grant from the state’s Planning Grants Program in order to conduct housing site analysis, and develop a recommendation to council on which sites — which could be used for housing in the future — were appropriate for rezoning.

As part of the grant, Truckee selected PlaceWorks to conduct a constraint and opportunities analysis for each of the 11 sites. The sites identified include High Altitude Fitness, RPL Properties site, Gateway, Residences at Jibboom, Tahoe-Truckee Lumber, a trio of Gray’s Crossing locations, Joerger Ranch Phase III, Riverview Corp Yard, and the former California Highway Patrol location.

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PlaceWorks then ranked the sites based on proximity to services, proximity to amenities, proximity to employment areas, development constraints, neighborhood compatibility, and ease of access. Based on the criteria, the former highway patrol location scored the highest, followed by the Gateway site, and then High Altitude Fitness.

Town Council ultimately directed staff to include additional criteria based on public benefit and developer interest.

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Staff plans to return with a recommendation to Town Council at a later meeting. Final action on the proposed sites, according to town staff, likely won’t happen until 2022.

If the town does decides to rezone any of the sites, grant funding would be used by PlaceWorks to identify and prepare all required California Environmental Quality Act documentation.

Justin Scacco is a reporter for the Sierra Sun. Contact him at jscacco@sierrasun.com or 530-550-2643