Tahoe Plan Sparks Lawsuits
Several Tahoe Basin conservation groups filed a lawsuit against Placer County demanding the preparation of a legally required, full environmental impact review, addressing regional public safety impacts associated with amendments to the Tahoe Basin Area Plan (TBAP). This community-based action joins an earlier citizen lawsuit against Washoe County, Nevada.
The Tahoe Basin’s environmental threats have changed in the last decade – with wind-driven wildfires growing in both intensity and frequency. The lawsuit disputes Placer County’s addendum to a 2016 environmental review, which relied on a decade-old development baseline, with underestimated evacuation times. A core issue is that the inadequate impact assessment did not incorporate substantive new evidence from citizen-funded and government commissioned and community-funded technical studies and fire behavior models that forecast a regional evacuation crisis.
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PRESS RELEASE: Tahoe Groups Sue Placer County, Demand Full Environmental Review and Expose Tahoe Growth Cap Myth
AUBURN, Calif., Dec. 16, 2025 — Friends of West Shore, TahoeCleanAir.org, and North Tahoe Preservation Alliance (“Conservation Groups”) today filed a Writ of Mandate against Placer County, California. It follows the County’s November 18 vote to opt-in to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA’s) amendments to the Tahoe Basin Area Plan (“TBAP”) Phase 2 Housing Amendments without preparing the legally required Environmental Impact Report (EIR).
The writ seeks judicial enforcement of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA), arguing that Placer County’s reliance on a 2016 EIR and its use of an addendum process fail to account for significant new circumstances, environmental threats, and public safety concerns. The federally ratified Tahoe Compact requires basin-wide equilibrium and safety thresholds. By ignoring cross-border evacuation impacts, the Addendum violates Compact Articles V and VI.
Key Allegations and Concerns
The Conservation Groups contend Placer County’s actions violate CEQA and constitutional protections in multiple ways. These include:
• Unlawful reliance on an EIR Addendum instead of a Subsequent EIR/EIS despite substantial new information.
• Shielding of critical evacuation evidence and failing to consider new substantial evidence including the 2024 Ladris AI Contraflow Comparison commissioned by Placer County OES, and the October 2024 Independent Lake Tahoe Basin Wildfire Evacuation Analysis. Each show evacuation delays far exceeding the outdated 2016 TBAP baseline; the Contraflow Comparison shows evacuation times increasing 16– 89 %.
• Failure to analyze evacuation safety, particularly in Kings Beach and Tahoe City chokepoints, where increased density and building incentives foreseeably worsen gridlock during wildfire emergencies.
• Cross-jurisdictional evacuation impacts ignored for Nevada residents who must flee west on SR 28 into public peril due to TRPA mandated increased density in California town center chokepoints.
• Reliance on outdated baselines from 2012/2016, ignoring climate-driven fire behavior and new modeling showing 5–13+ hour delays in no-notice wildfire events.
• Constitutional violations of California and Nevada residents’ inalienable rights to life and safety, as well as violates the Bi-State Tahoe Compact.
• Growth cap myth: Placer County along with the TRPA relied on conclusory assurances that “growth is capped” while simultaneously adopting policies that expand Basin-wide development potential through transferable development rights, bonus units, conversions, and unit multipliers. This constitutes an inadequate project description, an unlawful omission of growth-inducing impacts, a failure to evaluate cumulative impacts, and an absence of substantial evidence requiring a Subsequent EIR.
Conservation Group Statements
• Ann Nichols, President, North Tahoe Preservation Alliance: “Placer County ignored new evidence and public-safety warnings while hiding behind a ‘growth cap’ myth. That cap has become a loophole for luxury development, not a safeguard for affordable housing. A judge must now decide whether CEQA protections — and community safety — will finally be upheld.”
• Judith Tornese, President, Friends of West Shore: “Using outdated reports is unlawful and dangerous. CEQA requires updated analysis when circumstances change.”
• Doug Flaherty, President, TahoeCleanAir.org: “No agency has the right to make it harder to evacuate from a wildfire.”
Relief Sought: The Conservation Groups ask the court to order Placer County to prepare a Subsequent EIR, as required under Public Resources Code § 21166 and CEQA Guidelines § 15162 to ensure environmental, safety, and housing impacts are thoroughly analyzed before any TBAP amendments take effect.