Boulder Bay, one of the largest projects ever proposed for the Tahoe Basin, is pretending it is 2008. Some of us have been around long enough to well-remember the controversy back then. For the many who don’t, here is a brief recap.

The huge Boulder Bay project – a cluster of 10 structures up to 75 feet in height sitting on the Biltmore lot at Stateline – was approved in 2011 and the developer is ready to get started. This grossly out-of-scale project will bring an onsite population of 2,448 people. This new influx of height and density is simply unacceptable, especially because the traffic study used for the plans is more than 12 years old. Tahoe’s North Shore has changed since the project’s initial 2011 approval. Even before the COVID migration increased our population so drastically, some were calling Tahoe a “zoom town” full of short-term and vacation rentals, second-home owners, ever increasing traffic, and – of course – nonexistent workforce housing. Even the fire danger has changed: they are now more prevalent and fiercer. The old rules simply don’t apply anymore.

You wouldn’t eat food dated 2008 — not even canned goods. You wouldn’t put 2008 gas in your car today. The Boulder Bay developers tried to increase the population – and profit – even more by changing the project to towering condos, but when they realized it would trigger a new environmental study, they went back to the original plan.

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Boulder Bay’s 2008 traffic study is irrelevant today. A new cumulative traffic study performed by an independent consultant is a necessity.

Should the Boulder Bay project move forward, the North Shore will experience unprecedented gridlock and an unavoidable degradation of its famous scenic beauty. And God help us all if there’s a fire. We, the citizens who live at Tahoe’s North Shore, must demand accountability from Washoe County and TRPA – and a new comprehensive review of the Boulder Bay project.

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Please contact preserve@ntpac.org with any concerns.

Ann Nichols is a 51 year North Shore resident, Nv and Ca. Real Estate Broker, President of the North Tahoe Preservation Alliance, avid oil painter and outdoors gal.