League to Save Lake Tahoe v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

In 1968 the states of California and Nevada entered into a compact to create a regional agency with extensive powers to regulate and control development within the Lake Tahoe Basin in order to protect the natural resources and ecological balance of the area. In December of 1969 Congress gave its consent to the compact as provided for in Article I, § 10, cl. 3 of the United States Constitution.

The Tahoe Regional Planning Compact (“Compact”) created Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (“TRPA”) and charged it with responsibility for developing within ninety days a regional interim plan and, within eighteen months, a re'gional plan which would reflect a wide variety of economic, environmental and social considerations. The Compact also directed the TRPA to adopt all ordinances, rules, regulations and policies necessary to effectuate the regional interim plan and the regional plan.

The League to Save Lake Tahoe, the Sierra Club and two individuals who re side in the Tahoe area (“appellants”) brought this action for declaratory and injunctive relief alleging, basically, that defendant TRPA has failed to comply with the legal requirements of the Compact. They contend that TRPA has…