HomeMy Public PortalAboutPublic Comment - Eva Nichols
-----Original Message-----
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Dear Planning Commissioner Dave Gove,
As a Truckee resident, I am writing to express concerns regarding the Draft Truckee 2040 General Plan (GP) and
Draft Environmental Impact Report (DEIR). As a community, we have advocated to maintain the 2025 development
capacity, create goals and actions for conservation and our climate, plan for wildfire, and solidify a dedication of
local workforce housing. The Truckee 2040 GP will result in significant impacts that a self-mitigating EIR will not
be able to address. The community deserves to know how the Town plans to mitigate these impacts. Truckee’s
changing climate, growing population, workforce needs, and public safety threats need accurate analysis and
realistic mitigation.
Both the Draft GP and the DEIR contain discrepancies among policies and population projections. There is also a
severe lack of data to inform the Climate Action Plan, and local workforce housing is not identified as a land use
priority. These deficiencies create uncertainty for the future.
For the following reasons I believe that the DEIR needs to be revised and recirculated:
Self-Mitigating DEIR – This DEIR relies on GP policies to take the place of the mitigation required to reduce
impacts, yet there is no prioritization and a lack of funding to ensure that these policies and actions are implemented.
With no mitigation, monitoring or reporting the community has no assurances.
Old Data Sources – The DEIR uses population data from 2018 (pre-pandemic conditions) and assumes that
second/vacation homes are being used in the same fashion they were before remote work became common practice.
Local residents understand that a greater number of residences are occupied more frequently now and planning for
the future should account for this new reality.
Environmentally Superior Alternative – Mountain Area Preservation, the Truckee Planning Commission, and
hundreds of community members requested to maintain the 2025 development capacity, with new goals, policies,
and actions to reduce sprawl, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, and focus growth in plan areas (Railyard, Hilltop,
PC1, PC2, PC3) where density, mitigation, and infrastructure planning has already taken place. The DEIR fails to
properly review this alternative.
Local Workforce Housing – The Draft GP has inadequately addressed one of the most critical components for
Truckee 2040, strong policies and land use incentives for local workforce housing. Without this prioritization,
environmental threats such as increased GHG emissions, vehicle miles traveled (VMT), and evacuation constraints
will be exacerbated and likely not mitigated.
Climate Action Plan – Appendix C, Greenhouse Gas Inventory, contains a table identifying potential future GHG
emissions scenarios as well as potential GHG emissions reductions. However, there is no information about how
these calculations were formulated, what assumptions were made, or what specific mitigation measures would have
the greatest impact.
Safety Element – The Draft GP & DEIR lack data and analysis specifically related to Truckee in the event of
wildfire evacuation. Given the development capacity proposed in Truckee 2040, with a forecast daily service
population of 49,068, (residents, employees, and day-use tourism), we need mitigation, evacuation modeling and
planning that accounts for all groups included in the GP, as well as a cumulative analysis that takes into account the
safety of others.
Transportation – The Draft GP proposes the widening of SR-267 between Brockway Road and the Placer County
line. This will not alleviate congestion and will instead create a bottleneck as the road transitions back to two lanes.
Mitigation that is not at odds with policies needs to be included.
For the above reasons please revise and recirculate the DEIR. Thank you for considering my comments for Truckee
2040.
Sincerely,
Eva Nichols