Category Archives: News

News

Tahoe highway plan seeks to revitalize downtown

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City to host public forum on proposed ‘Loop Road’

News story on urban redevelopment plan from the Tahoe Daily Tribune. (Story link here)

Whether it’s for ski season or summertime recreation, a host of successful tourism destinations in the U.S. have one thing in common — a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly downtown. It’s an area where a number of South Shore transportation officials, tourism Loop Road Tahoepromoters and city officials have said that South Lake Tahoe and neighboring Stateline fall woefully short.

That’s the primary focus behind the ongoing Loop Road plan, officially known as the South Shore Community Revitalization Project. The project is being led by Tahoe Transportation District.

Tahoe Transportation District took another step in its effort to promote the project by hosting an open house Tuesday, Jan. 26, at Lake Tahoe Resort Hotel. The meeting was the second of its kind since December.

Currently in the early planning stages, the project has been narrowed to four potential options, along with a fifth no-build plan. Of those plans, two primary options have been described as more likely. Continue reading Tahoe highway plan seeks to revitalize downtown →

News

Small plane crashes in South Lake Tahoe neighborhood

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Pilot and passenger killed, FAA and NTSB investigating

Story from Tahoe Daily Tribune. http://bit.ly/2jJ6xm5

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE — Federal Aviation Administration and National Transportation Safety Board officials are continuing their investigation of Saturday’s [Oct. 10] single-engine plane crash near Lake Tahoe Airport. A spokesperson for the National Transportation Safety Board said the organization is currently in the “very early stages” of its analysis. National Transportation Safety Board and Federal Aviation Administration officials were at the crash site Sunday, Oct. 11, and reportedly completed their initial on-scene assessment of the crash. The National Transportation Safety Board is continuing to gather facts regarding the incident. NTSB spokesman said investigations typically take up to a year to conclude.
As of Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 13, the El Dorado County Coroner’s Office had not released the identities of the two crash victims.
The crash is the fourth fatal incident of its kind involving a single-engine aircraft near Lake Tahoe Airport since 2009. Previous National Transportation Safety Board accident reports of other incidents cited trouble with compensating for altitude, proper air/fuel mixtures and mechanical failure. A fifth non-fatal crash involved high winds. A cause for Saturday’s crash has yet to be determined. Continue reading Small plane crashes in South Lake Tahoe neighborhood →

News

UC Davis reports Lake Tahoe clarity down in 2015

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Winter returns Lake Tahoe level to natural rim

News story first appeared in the Tahoe Daily Tribune Click here for story

Lake Tahoe’s famed water clarity took a hit last year in part due to California’s fourth consecutive year of drought. Researchers from the University of California, Davis, announced this week that average mid-lake clarity dropped nearly 5 feet in 2015 when compared to the previous year.

Tahoe Daily Tribune Lake cover

According to UC Davis Tahoe Environmental Research Center, lake visibility averaged 73.1 feet, a 4.8-foot drop from 2014.

While at face value it may appear to be headline-grabbing news, research center director Geoffrey Schladow said it’s not a cause for concern.

“If it declined another 4 or 5 feet next year that would be concerning,” he said. “I don’t expect that.”

Schladow described the change as a relatively normal year-to-year fluctuation that may have in part been influenced by record-low snow and warmer inflow from streams and creeks last year. Both leave fine particles closer to the surface. Continue reading UC Davis reports Lake Tahoe clarity down in 2015 →

News, Outdoors

Mountain towns seizing on summer tourism

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Lake Tahoe sets example for summer tourism trend

This story on mountain town summer tourism trends ran in the Tahoe Tribune, Reno Gazette Journal and was picked up by the Associated Press.

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SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP) – For years mountain towns in places like Colorado and Utah essentially closed down when the chairlifts stopped spinning in the springtime. Locals might have embraced summer opportunities, but ski area marketing departments were less apt to aggressively pursue summer traffic.Reno Gazette Journal front page

That’s all changed, said Tom Foley, director of operations for DestiMetrics – a Denver, Colorado-based organization that tracks mountain lodging bookings at 19 western mountain destinations in California, Nevada, Colorado, Utah, Oregon and Wyoming.

“All mountain destinations are learning that a single winter season does not a business make,” Foley said in an interview with the Tahoe Daily Tribune. “Summer is a season of opportunity,” especially with increasingly unreliable winters.

DestiMetrics recently reported record summer lodging occupancy and revenue numbers for the third consecutive summer across the West, with individual markets up anywhere from 2 to 14 percent.

“It’s not a fluke. It’s the result of good marketing,” Foley said.

But for Lake Tahoe it’s nothing new, and in some respects the region is leading by example….

Read full story here