Lake Tahoe Project Wins Praise but Forces Locals Out

Norma Thayer found paradise on the shores of Lake Tahoe three decades ago. Years later, a developer did the same thing.

The Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park, located at Stateline, Nev., is seen in the upper part of this...

The Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park, located at Stateline, Nev., is seen in the upper part of this photograph taken Thursday, Oct. 9, 2008. About 30 residents of the park are about to be forced from their homes to make way for a new upscale development. Also seen are the Edgewood Tahoe Golf Course in the center and the Horizon Casino at bottom left, and the MontBleu Resort at bottom right. (AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli)

(AP)

Now Thayer is one of some 30 remaining residents of the Tahoe Shores Mobile Home Park who are about to be forced out to make way for the Tahoe Beach Club, 143 condominiums that will sell for more than $1 million each. The lakeshore project is hailed by many as environmentally friendly, but that's no consolation for those being displaced.

"There's no place else in this whole area at midnight you can walk down to the beach, take off your shoes and walk in the water," said Thayer, 82. "You just feel like you are walking on a cloud."

"Here we are in our golden years, and nowhere to go," said neighbor Betty Neff, 82. "It's all about money and greed."

Land conflicts near Lake Tahoe typically pit conservationists concerned about protecting its famed clear blue water against developers out to reap profits from the community that draws hundreds of thousands of tourists annually to its ski slopes, golf courses and casinos.

In the case of the Tahoe Beach Club, however, regulators say developers have worked hard to be environmentally friendly.

"Our board voted unanimously for this and we are not unanimous on anything," said John Singlaub, executive director of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, one of the nation's most stringent land-use regulators since Nevada and California created it in the 1960s.

The agency gave the plan its blessing in August partly because a water treatment system will prevent approximately 11,000 pounds of sediment from running off into the lake each year and eliminate 7,720 tons of carbon emissions — a 63 percent reduction.

The plan also will restore two acres around a stream and enhance the natural ecosystem of a creek and meadow.

"I think they really hit it here in terms of environmental improvements," Singlaub said.

The nearly 20-acre site is surrounded by towering ponderosa pines. The $200 million to $250 million project will feature resident-owned condos selling for $1.5 million to $4 million in buildings resembling traditional Tahoe estate homes and historic stone-and-wood lodges with lofts and porches.