A map and information from the Lake Tahoe Environmental Improvement Program showing State Route 28 corridor projects, estimated costs and construction dates, including the East Shore Trail from Incline Village to Spooner Summit. Estimated costs are fluid, according to officials of the Tahoe Transportation District.
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The Carson City Parks and Recreation Commission on Tuesday unanimously supported a cross-jurisdictional agreement hoping it would improve traffic conditions and user challenges on the east side of Lake Tahoe, a portion of which lies in Carson City.
The board voted 7-0 to recommend the Board of Supervisors enter a memorandum of understanding with Washoe and Douglas counties and the Tahoe Transportation District (TTD) regarding the Lake Tahoe Path System and the East Shore Trail.
A similar agreement was established in 2012 but needed updating, according to TTD, the lead on several projects connecting Incline Village to Spooner Summit. The projects are part of a multi-agency corridor management plan for State Route 28.
For those driving SR 28, “You don’t have to look far to recognize congestion and safety concerns,” said Tara Styer, capital program manager for TTD.
Styer told commissioners on a hot summer day, close to 1,000 vehicles can be parked along the shoulders of the highway, creating not only traffic and safety problems, but environmental hazards like erosion. Corridor management planning calls for a unified path for pedestrians and cyclists and more public transit opportunities, so people get off of the highway.
Styer pointed to the $30 million path connecting Incline Village and Sand Harbor that was completed in 2019, saying it sees over 200,000 users a year.
“It has really become the destination rather than a means to get to the destination,” Styer said.
The Carson City portion of the corridor stretches from Chimney Beach to Prey Meadows to the south. A map presented Tuesday showed remaining projects, like pieces in a puzzle, and estimated budgets and timelines.
While some pieces of that puzzle showed funding, the largest chunk of proposed trail and amenities, five miles from Secret Harbor to Spooner Summit, had an estimated unfunded price tag of $79.7 million.
The new memorandum of understanding emphasizes leveraging local funding as match funding for federal grants. For example, $5 million the state of Nevada set aside for the corridor projects will be key in going after federal dollars, Styer said.
Using words like “nightmare” and “insanity,” Carson parks commissioners shared multiple anxieties about the corridor as it is, from inadequate restrooms and trash to illegal parking and enforcement issues.
Styer maintained progress will be made through dedication of partnering agencies and the tenacity to “go after every funding source we can at this point to deliver these projects.”
In other news, parks commissioners postponed approval of a concept plan for a 10-acre park in the Lompa Ranch North Specific Plan Area in central Carson.
According to the specific plan, which was approved by supervisors in 2016, developers must complete a conceptual design of the 10-acre park on the west side of I-580 before the 400th residential unit is finished, and they must dedicate the park to the city before the 750th unit is finished.
Developers (there were six as of Tuesday) are responsible for design and construction costs of the future park, and the park will be public but maintained by a homeowners association or HOA.
William Noble, who said he bought a house in the development for his elderly father, didn’t think homeowners should bear the maintenance costs of the park.
“The entire public has use of it. So why isn’t the city of Carson paying for the maintenance of this park? It doesn’t make any sense to me, and the homeowners I talked to, it doesn’t make any sense to them either. Why should we pay for a public park?” Noble said during public comment.
Through agreements with the city, Lompa Ranch developers are required to construct the park, and any HOA maintenance requirements would have to be disclosed to homeowners, Parks and Recreation Director Jen Budge maintained.
Budge warned that “we cannot continue to add to our park system and not have a sustainable funding source to maintain it.”
There were no specific costs discussed Tuesday as the concept plan was preliminary and meant to give guidance to developers. Commissioners had ideas for amenities in addition to proposed multiuse turf areas, but they agreed the plan should go to the affected HOA for input before being brought back to the commission.
Budge hoped the city could work with Lompa family members on the name of the park and interpretive panels showcasing the area’s history.