TRPA loosens tree rules

Less than 14 inch diameter trees can be removed without permit

Annie Flanzraich
Bonanza Staff Writer
November 30, 2007

Despite some dissent from local fire chiefs, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board changed its ordinances to allow property owners to remove trees with 14 or less inches in diameter without a permit.

Under the new code, property owners can cut those trees without a permit unless they are in a shoreline area. A TRPA permit is required to remove trees with a greater than six inch diameter on the area between the structure and the shore.

Board members said the ordinance change was part of TRPA's effort to encourage Tahoe homeowners to create more defensible space around homes and structures for fire safety.

However, many fire chiefs had hoped that the shoreline provision would be struck from the ordinance.

"One thing that has been very evident is that fire doesn't know boundaries," said South Lake Tahoe Fire Chief Lorenzo Gigliotti on behalf of other basin fire chiefs. "It doesn't pay respect to shorezones, it doesn't pay respect to scenic boundaries, fire knows no bounds."

Still board members argued that it was necessary for some compromise to be reached between protecting scenic resources and defensible space.

"That's a compromise and that's as far of a compromise as I want to go," said TRPA Board member Bruce Kranz. "We need to do something, we need to get this out to the public to let them know we're serious."

In September, Lake Tahoe fire chiefs presented a nine-point plan to the TRPA with specific rules they said needed to be changed to make the basin safer. One of the points in the letter addressed giving homeowners more control over removing trees which could pose a fire danger on their property.

That nine-point plan resulted in talks between the TRPA and the fire districts and eventually this ordinance change.

The ordinance passed with an 12-1 vote, with TRPA Board member Steven Merrill voting against it.

"This is one of the cases where there is tension between fire safety and scenic standards," Merrill said.