Mountain Area Preservation Foundation v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

The Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (MAP) and Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) settled MAP’s lawsuit challenging TRPA’s adoption of amendments to the Regional Plan and TRPA Code of Ordinances that the plaintiff alleged would accelerate high-density development. TRPA agreed to consider amendments to the approvals and to include in a future phase of policy development “good faith discussions” of topics that included additional strategies for reducing vehicle miles traveled and assessment of criteria to address potential site-specific impacts, including wildfire dangers.

A lawsuit filed in the federal district court for the Eastern District of California challenged the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency’s (TRPA’s) adoption of amendments to the Regional Plan and TRPA Code of Ordinances that the plaintiff alleged would accelerate high-density development with potentially significant impacts that had not been fully evaluated. The plaintiff asserted that TRPA failed to comply with the Tahoe Regional Planning Compact, the Regional Plan, and related regulations, including by failing to prepare a supplemental environmental impact statement (EIS) to consider “substantial changes in the circumstances and underlying scientific data regarding the Tahoe Basin environment” since an EIS was approved in 2012 for a Regional Plan Update. Those changes included “climate change and increased wildfire risk and attendant impacts to water temperature and quality, air pollution, and public safety.”