Sierra Club v. Tahoe Regional Planning Agency

INTRODUCTION

The Lake Tahoe Region is an area of unmatched beauty surrounding the largest alpine lake in North America. It first caught the world’s attention with the 1960 Winter Olympics at Squaw Valley, when the area became a recreation destination and home to a rapidly expanding population. It has since become the focus not only of admiration for the lake’s beauty and clarity, but of litigation over the efforts to preserve them. See, e.g., Suitum v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 520 U.S. 725 , 117 S.Ct. 1659 , 137 L.Ed.2d 980 (1997); People v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 766 F.2d 1308 , 1310 (9th Cir. 1985); Sierra Club v. Tahoe Reg’l Planning Agency, 916 F.Supp.2d 1098, 1105 (E.D. Cal. 2013).

This case concerns the Regional Plan Update (“RPU”) that the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (“TRPA”) adopted in 2012 after more than ten years of work. Plaintiffs, The Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore, are environmentalist organizations that challenged the environmental impact statement (“EIS”) for the RPU. They now appeal the district court’s summary judgment in favor of TRPA.

The RPU generally restricts future development to areas that are already developed, and…