Throughout the last year KSL has made a strong effort to get community support for their proposed Village at Squaw expansion plan. They have done presentations at a large number of meetings of local agencies and organizations, they have formed a Community Advisory Group made up of Squaw Valley business people and residents, and they opened the Base Camp Information Center in the Village. They have continually asked for comments.
As many of you know, there has been a strong reaction to the plan they first proposed (“The Initial Plan”), mostly unfavorable. It appears that KSL was listening to the feedback and in mid December of 2013 they introduced a new revised plan (“The Right Plan”) that has addressed many of the concerns of Squaw locals and regular Squaw Valley guests. On their web site, they say “We Listened and Together We Have Created a New Future.”
The Board of Directors (BOD) of the Village Inn Owners Association and Mark Zimmerman, the Resort Manager, have had several meetings with KSL personnel to discuss the possible impacts of the Initial Plan on the Olympic Village Inn (OVI). I have also been escorting OVI owners and guests to the Base Camp Information Center on a weekly basis to view the model and get a clear picture of what KSL was proposing. Many OVI owners were very concerned by the close proximity of the proposed buildings, of their height and the effect on the views from OVI of the mountain and the valley along with concerns of the overall size of the project, traffic and environmental impacts.
The new revised plan addresses many, but not all, of the concerns of both the BOD and individual OVI owners. If you click on this link for The Initial Plan you will see how close the proposed buildings were to OVI and that the access road ran right next to the swimming pool on the south side of the property. If you now click on this link to The Right Plan you will see that what is now proposed is quite different. The location of the road has been changed, the buildings have been moved further away, a view corridor to the south has been created and they say that the height of the buildings to the south of OVI will be lower (only three stories rather than six stories). Keep in mind that none of this is final yet and could again change.
One final note: This process is not over, there are still many steps that KSL has to complete and possible hurdles they have to overcome. There will be a public review period once the EIR is issued. OVI owners are the largest combined group of property owners in Olympic Valley and your voices deserve to be heard. Stay informed and step forward and make your opinions known. You have already made an impact!
To keep current on developments in this continuing story regularly check my Blog Posts (or sign up for a RSS feed); look in Squaw Valley News under Categories on the right side of my Blog page .
Other links on the proposed Village at Squaw;
• Revised Proposal Reduces Village Expansion By 1/3rd!
• Placer County: Revised Notice of Preparation, February 21, 2014.
• Placer County: Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan.
• OVI Board Comment on NOP draft of EIR (Oct. 30, 2012)
• OVI Board Response to Specific Plan (Aug. 20, 2013)
• Friends of Squaw Valley
• Incorporate Olympic Valley
