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Alex Lesser: Common sense over ambition

Other Voices
Alex Lesser

Most members of our community are unaware of the project to construct a massive commercial facility that would include a 6,230-10,150-square-foot three level structure with a 49,460-59,800 square-foot parking area for up to 100 cars and several buses next door to the North Lake Tahoe Middle and High Schools in the The Highlands residential neighborhood east of Tahoe City.

The Lead Agency (i.e., Tahoe City PUD) has received more than 30 emails and letters from concerned parents and community members who strongly oppose the Proposed Project, because it would:

Increase vehicle traffic upon the busiest streets in The Highlands during the winter, endanger neighborhood students and gym classes who routinely use Polaris, Old Mill, Cedarwood and Heather, result in more accidents due to the dangerously slippery winter road conditions on Old Mill and Polaris, create congestion on the only emergency evacuation route from two North Lake Tahoe schools, and thereby also increase emergency vehicle response times.



Introduce hundreds of gallons of fuels, potentially explosive batteries, and other hazardous materials next to two schools, increase the risk of accidents involving these materials, and expose people to risk of injury or death involving wildfire in an area where wild lands are intermixed with residences and schools.

Needlessly and excessively modify a former Old Tahoe residence to satisfy the desires of a private organization’s members and commercial operations; and ignore stated intentions of the structure’s donor and former owners to “preserve the original historic building for use by the larger Tahoe community.”



Create light and noise pollution, decrease air quality, increase greenhouse gas levels, alter drainage of a natural stream that leads to Lake Tahoe, require removal of up to 40 mature trees, and destroy habitats and trails routinely used by black bear, and other animals.

Please email the TCPUD (jfreidman@tcpud.org, sbarclay@tcpud.org, kboyd@tcpud.org, and tviehmann@tcpud.org), and ask to be on the addressee list for the Draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for this project to help ensure common sense take precedence over ambitions.

Alex Lesser lives in Tahoe City.


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