According to Darin Dinsmore of Regional Planning Partners, creating a redevelopment plan for the Truckee Railyard was a complex process that involved more than three years of study, analysis and design and over 100 public meetings.  He should know as he has been involved from the early stages.  He states that the approved Railyard Masterplan was shaped with input from hundreds of participants through an extensive public process.The plan was developed over a multi-year process that engaged the community, neighbors, stakeholders and dozens of design professionals and experts.

Darin also stated that the road alignment as proposed is a key element in creating one downtown that is connected together as a whole and that will evolve over time toward the east. After working on this plan for many years, he believe this is the best plan for the downtown that implements the vision set forth in the Downtown Specific Plan.

To read Darin’s entire letter click here

Bill Quesnel, a 15 year resident of Truckee and president of Acumen Engineering is a licensed civil engineer in both California and Nevada providing services in the Truckee and North Lake Tahoe area to government agencies and private landowners.  In addition and most importantly he has been involved in the study of the traffic plan for the railyard for over 5 years.  Last week he took the time to help readers understand all of the criteria that has gone into the development of the street and circulation plan approved by the City Council.  In his letter he factually states why the proposed plan by the traffic consultant recently brought in by the Friends of Truckee does not satisfy the seven criteria identified by a team of planners, landscape architects, civil engineers, and traffic engineers over the past 5 years. Give it a read and  you decide.

To view the letter in the sierra sun please click here

“An odd thing happened Wednesday night at the Truckee town hall;  the audience that made it through four hours of meeting applauded at the unanimous approval of a development project (the Truckee Railyard Project)”  This is a quote from the Sierra Sun June 19th, 2009 following the City Council meeting held the previous Wednesday evening. Attended and supported by over 100 residents and officials including all previous Truckee mayors, the support to approve the railyard masterplan and EIR was overwhelming, emotional, passionate and straight forward. In addition there was support from a variety of groups including the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation, Truckee Donner Historical Society, Sierra Business Council, Truckee River Watershed Council and the list goes on.

The only challenge to the project was by a group who calls themselves the Friends of Truckee who’s spokesperson is Siobhan Smart, a local business owner. The opposition group was challenged by many including former Mayor Ted Owens who stated, “To the so called and self proclaimed Friends of Truckee..it is my belief you are few in your view and I’ll ask for your support as well”.  Mike Dunsford, a long time Truckee resident said, “Friends of Truckee has a nice ring to if but is sort of a misnomer.”  Lisa Wallace, executive director of the Truckee Watershed Council expressed concern that the threatened lawsuit by Friends of Truckee, which Rick Holliday referred to as them trying to play a game of “gotcha,” could actually hurt the Trout Creek restoration effort by upsetting time sensitive funding that is now in place.

All in all it was a great night for the Town of Truckee and for Holliday Development.  As Mark Tanner correctly stated…..this is not Mr. Hollidays project but it belongs to the people of Truckee.  He is so right!
Background: The Truckee Railyard Master Plan is the culmination of over a decade of planning efforts by the Town, which 5 years ago turned into the Truckee Railyard Partnership between the Town of Truckee and Holliday Development.  This plan was a community wide effort involving innumerable public workshops, community meetings, open office hours, and formal and informal dialogue with stakeholders.  The plan, including 25 developable acres on former Union Pacific property, proposes to extend downtown with a boutique hotel and movie theater, offer more downtown housing at mixed-incomes, commercial, retail, and work-live space.

You can read more about the Truckee Railyard approval at the links below:

Sierra Sun, Railyard Approval Draws Public Support

Sierra Sun Editorial, All Aboard

Tahoe Ticker Blog, Overwhelming Enthusiasm Behind Truckee Railyard Project Passage

A grant in the sum of $1,585,724.00 has been awarded for the environmental cleanup of the Truckee Railyard.  Holliday Development secured the funds from CCLR (Center for Creative Land Reuse), a non profit organization focused on creating sustainable communities by identifying and implementing responsible patterns of land uses and development.  At this time the funding has been put on hold due to the State of California’s financial crisis but is expected to be released in the near future.  We will keep you posted.  Once released the environmental cleanup of the railyard will begin.

The Truckee Economic Impact Analysis – Draft Report has been recently published and will be open for discussion at the January 20th workshop held at Truckee City Hall, 6-8pm.  This report examines three factors important to the future of the downtown:

1.The changing nature of retail in the Downtown, the current functional problems in the Downtown and the developments planned and proposed throughout Truckee that could compete with the Downtown.

2. The development program and phasing of the Railyard Master Plan are presented, and the potential impact of each potential land use are addressed.

3. The assessment focuses on the impact of the Railyard Master Plan as a whole on areas of concern identified by community members.  This section addresses the impacts of the projects on rents, competition and the mix of retail stores in the Downtown, as well ss the historic character of the Downtown and the smart growth goals of the Town.

The Executive Summary of the Impact Analysis says,

“The Railyard Master Plan has the potential to improve the cultural and retail experience in
downtown Truckee, provide an economic boost to existing businesses and draw more locals to
the historic core. New shops and restaurants in the Railyard development can bring critical mass
to the downtown and increase visibility, foot traffic and sales for existing businesses. The
introduction of continuous sidewalks, ample parking and a stronger community presence will
also benefit local merchants, particularly those that have already found success in the downtown.
Although the downtown may never return to its roots as a full-service retail center, it has the
potential to serve both residents and visitors alike as a destination for restaurants, shopping
entertainment and cultural opportunities. The shift to an entertainment-oriented downtown is in
line with national retail trends, as many traditional downtowns, like those in Bend and Telluride,
develop new economic identities in response to big box and formula retailers. The biggest threat
to the Railyard Master Plan and the existing Downtown is an oversupply of retail outside of the
downtown, and the Town must take a conservative approach when approving new retail outside
of the downtown to help deter this threat.”

In addition, the analysis found that the first phase of the Truckee Railyard development (hotel and residential) will generate over $1,000,000 of retail spending per year in Truckee.

Meeting Summary:

On Tuesday Jan 20th, Strategic Economics, the consulting firm hired by the Town, presented their draft Economic Impact Analysis to Town Council and the Planning Commission.  The findings of the draft report supported the idea that the Railyard would create a critical mass downtown, making the downtown more of a destination and strengthening the entire downtown core. Especially components such as the movie theatre serve as a prime opportunity to attract more locals and tourists downtown.  The Town is taking comments on the report until February 6th before working on the final analysis.  The firm received a great deal of input to consider from the public, council, and commissioners.  Refinements in the inventory of available retail space, a better understanding of the “leakage analysis”, a closer look at the case studies, and proposal of ideas for how to make Truckee more competitive in the region were all requested from the workshop.

Again, the draft report can be downloaded here:  http://www.truckee2025.org/devel/rymp/rymp04.htm

Forbes Mountain Magazine visits Truckee

Did any of you read the most recent article on the Town of Truckee in the Forbes Life Mountain Time magazine?  Wow!  Author Mike Kessler interviewed Rick Holliday, president of Holliday Development, Mark Tanner owner of Tanner Construction and Billy McCullough, owner and chef at Dragonfly Restaurant. Believe it or not two “fact checkers” called Rick to make sure that the information was correct and this is what we got:

According to Mr. Kessler, the Railyard project is a $500 million luxury condominium project that is already under construction.  The reality is that the draft EIR was recently released and that most of the discussion has been around infrastructure and traffic studies.  In addition, the first phase of the project is proposed to be focused around a boutique hotel, movie theatres, and smaller multifamily homes.

Mark Tanner was identified as a carpenter.  Although he may be a great carpenter his real job is running his construction company and building some of the nicest houses in the area with some of the best service.

Mr. Kessler also stated that Tahoe gets an unthinkable average of 400 inches of snow annually.  That sounded like a lot since we are usually all praying for the white stuff and saving shower water in buckets to flush the toilets, so I looked up the annual averages and found that since 1903 the average snowfall in Tahoe is 194.4″ annually, according to the Western Regional Climate Center.  Other websites range up to 100″ higher but nothing was even close to 400″.

I guess the moral of the story is still….don’t believe everything you read!

The next meeting of the Town Council will be Thursday December 18th, 6pm at the Truckee Town Hall.  The purpose of the meeting is to discuss the comments on the draft EIR made at the Planning Commission meeting held on 12/10.