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HomeMy Public PortalAbout Public Comment - Amye OstiPublic Comment Form Upon clicking submit, your comment will be emailed to the relevant Council, Commission, or Committee Members and Town Department Heads and uploaded to the Town website for public view. Please note, it does take time to get your comment uploaded to public view. First Name Last Name Amye Osti E-mail Agency* Town Council Planning Commission Other Phone Date of Meeting* 2022-09-27 To find the date for an upcoming meeting or to view the agenda, click Agenda Item Number (2) here. Agendas are posted at least 72 hours before the meeting time. Public Comment (2) * To: Town of Truckee, Planning Division Jenna Gatto, Planing Manager 10183 Truckee Airport Road Truckee, CA 96161 From: Amye Osti Dear Jenna Gatto, I am writing in response to the proposed Truckee2040 General Plan Update ("General Plan Update, "'GPU," or 'Truckee2040"). As a resident of 40 years, my main concern will always be about making good long-term decisions for our town that will retain its character, environment, beauty, freedom and peace. But based on the limited number of comments the town has published as of September 26th, I think that this planning process and the impacts of the plan on the community have not been communicated sufficiently. I think the town needs to extend the planning process and change how the plan is communicated to the public in order to get proper and legitimate buy in. Most people live up here to enjoy the outdoors, be around wildlife, breathe fresh air, feel the freedom of wide-open spaces, dark skies at night and live in peace and tranquility. We must move forward using restrained growth back by accountability and mitigation strategies or we will lose our town forever. I have outlined a few concerns about the current process, plan and DEIR. Please review and I hope we can do everything we can to keep our town as a beautiful jewel that it is. Thank you for your time and efforts, Amye Osti Issues with the town planning process and DEIR and General Plan Update include: Outreach, WHAT IS HAPPENING? Sufficient outreach and disclosure of the town's 2040 planning process AND MESSAGING OF THE PLAN/DEIR. It seems most of this planning took place during Covid pandemic. As a result, most people I know in town had NO idea about the process or how to participate. ADDITIONALLY, the town's outreach materials fail to highlight the major impacts OF THE PLAN and instead spend significant page space highlighting positive things like roadside curb improvements. I find your document VERY difficult to understand and decipher where all of the additional people will live, drive, go to school, recreate, etc? What is Truckee's Population Now? The town is not clear about the current population. The community needs to understand our current population, how many people have moved here since the pandemic and the town needs to analyze the impacts of this latest growth spurt. The town character, traffic, wildfire risk, evacuation risk and significant environmental degradation have increased significantly in the last 3 years. We need to better understand the cumulative effects of the past 3 years and take that into consideration with future planning because I am sure it will be the last 3 years times 100. Trash in the region" https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/tahoe-e2-80-99s-trash-problem-continues-to-mount-and-this-group-keeps-cleaning-up/ar- AA11 N5d8#image=AA11 Neh412 ttps://www.tahoedai lytri bu ne.com/news/3450-pou nds-of-trash-removed-from-ta hoe -beaches -d u ri ng-clea nu p -event/ Mapping Projected Growth: Deficient Illustration of Projected Population Growth to 50,000 residents. Where is the population now and where will they go? For example X people live in Tahoe Donner now, the GPU projects and additional X people by 2040. Map this out. The current document is very vague and unclear about how the town plans to implement and mitigate tripling the town population. The community needs very descriptive illustrations, so we can understand exactly what you are proposing. Illustrate by community, neighborhood, impacts on classroom sizes, access to ski resorts on weekends, impacts on beaches like Donner Lake, increase of river rafters destroying the river, impact on wildlife tec. Noise: The GPU and DEIR does not address in real terms the impact of increased noise in the community. The document needs to properly evaluate how noise has substantially increased over the past 10 years and will significantly change with this new GPU. You need to evaluation the impact on road noise, impact of noise on animal populations, impact of noise at night when people are trying to sleep. Increased Traffic: No traffic modeling or scenario -based planning was completed to provide the baseline information needed to determine how congestion could be alleviated. How will residents be able to drive on west river street? That street is already a disaster (safety and visually). It is impossible to get through that street on any busy weekend with tourists. Triple the population and add tourists that street will come to stand still. This will be true for highway 89, 267, Donner Pass Road. Expanding the width of 267 bypass is not a solutions. That will decrease the beauty of that area and increase noise. What will happen to the air quality if everyone is always stuck on the road? The GPU and DEIR need a very specific and clear plan that MODELS increase traffic and its impacts on the community. This would include wildfire evacuation which is an EXTREMELY critical topic. Wildfire and Safety: Density in the Wildland Urban Interface, evacuation safety and impacts on forest health. The DEIR does not explain how Truckee will evacuate from a forest fire. If the population increases to your proposed amount can the town guarantee safe evacuation of residents? How will people evacuate Sierra Meadows if a raging fire comes up the 89 corridor? We can't even get to and from Palisades Tahoe or Northstar and a regular weekend. Has the town modeled the wildfire risks? Can we all be evacuated safely? I seriously doubt it. The capacity DOES NOT exist. The 2040 "self -mitigation approach will not give Truckee residents the needed safeguards to protect the community and the environments from uncontrolled growth. "Environmental review document fails to fully and accurately inform decision makers and the public of the environmental consequences of proposed actions, it does not satisfy the basic goals of the statute. See Pub. Resources Code § 21061 ('The purpose of an environmental impact report is to provide public agencies and the public in general with detailed information about the effect that a proposed project is likely to have on the environment; to list ways in which the significant effects of such a project might be minimized; and to indicate alternatives to such a project."). In numerous instances, the DEIR here fails to fully analyze potentially significant effects and to consider potentially feasible mitigation or alternatives that could reduce the significant environmental impacts of the General Plan Update." I agree with this statement from the MAP comments letter. 100%. Mental Health: Truckee is feeling the stress from congestion, aggressive drivers, unaffordability, enchroachment, airplanes, declining wildlife and more. We live here for our mental health. We must keep it that way Upon clicking submit, your comment will be emailed to the relevant Council, Commission, or Committee Members and Town Department Heads and uploaded to the Town website for public view.