Suit seeks to block gondola linking Lake Tahoe ski resorts
Posted September 17, 2019 12:13 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
RENO, Nev. — A wilderness protection group has filed a lawsuit to try to block construction of a 2.2-mile long (3.5-kilometre-long) gondola through a national forest to connect the ski resort that hosted the 1960 Winter Olympics with a neighbouring one at Lake Tahoe.
The conservationists want a California judge to set aside Placer County’s approval of the project they say would destroy the natural landscape on the edge of a Sierra wilderness area and critical habitat for a rare, federally protected frog.
The gondola with 33 towers would transport up to 1,400 people an hour between the bases of Squaw Valley and Alpine Meadows northwest of Tahoe City, California.
The lawsuit filed by the Granite Chief Wilderness Protection League says an environmental review of the project hides the cumulative impacts anticipated in conjunction with an associated housing development in the works.
Scott Sonner, The Associated Press
