City Council approves motion to apply for $2.1 million transportation grant

"This is astounding and I have not seen anything to this degree in the years I've lived here." Those were South Lake Tahoe City Councilwoman JoAnn Conner's words after hearing how several agencies will work together to make the Middle School Connectivity Plan a reality.

Her sentiments were echoed by her fellow council members and the mayor after seeing how multiple agencies can leverage their funds and plan together for a network of connecting trails through South Lake Tahoe that will keep pedestrians and bikers off unsafe roadways.

The South Lake Tahoe Connectivity Plan will create a safer way of travel around the middle school for both students and people who walk and ride in the area.

In order to make the plan a reality, the Council voted unanimously to apply for a $2.161 million Active Transportation Program (ATP) grant from the State of California for the design and implementation of the plan.

There is no guarantee that the City will be awarded the grant but should it not happen it won't be for a lack of cooperation and teamwork between the City, Lake Tahoe Community College, Lake Tahoe Unified School District, California Tahoe Conservancy (CTC), TRPA, Tahoe Metropolitan Planning Organization and the Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative Community Mobility work group.

"Sacramento wants to see a vested and interested community and city government," Jim Marino, SLT Capital Improvement Project Manager, told the Council.

ATP will look at the projects that will make the biggest difference, and those involved in this plan feel they have created just that.

"We can be successful because we're leveraging all the partner agency's funds," Marino explained. "It shows the feds and the state that we can work together on investments."

By looking at the map in this article, you'll see all of the different entities that are working to create the network of connected trails in the city. The purple areas will be the new greenway trail on land owned by CTC; the red areas are owned by the City of South Lake Tahoe which contain recreational activities the paths will connect to; the blue areas are owned by El Dorado County which also contain recreational areas utilized by bikers and walkers; the brown is Lake Tahoe Community College property and contains the community fields (and future home of another field) which connects to the paths; the grey is owned by LTUSD and the main focus of the plan; the light green is owned by STPUD; and the darn green is Forest Service land.

As you see, all recreational areas in South Lake Tahoe can be connected if the grant is approved and the Middle School Plan is built.

Another sign of teamwork in the area is the new Southwest Gas project on Highway 50 which will replace their aging gas lines. When the lines are replaced, Southwest gas will put in the needed curbs and sidewalks on the business side at the Al Tahoe and Highway 50 intersection. The grant would have required this so the City asked the utility company to do that portion since they had to be working in the area anyways.