Lake Tahoe, CA/NV – As part of its Lake Tahoe Regional Plan Update, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) released last week the public draft of an overhauled Code of Ordinances that is already more than one pound lighter in print than the current code. Most of the changes in the draft document will not need to wait for the TRPA’s scheduled adoption of the Regional Plan Update in 2012 to take effect. The TRPA Governing Board could vote to adopt the reformatted and more understandable version of the code in November of this year, according to the Agency.

“This has been an important effort for TRPA as well as our customers to make the rules more understandable, more efficient and will help streamline the permit process,” TRPA Community Liaison Jeff Cowen said.

This step is the first of two phases of the code update. While the first phase reorganizes and reformats the current code, the second phase is ongoing and will be completed once the TRPA Governing Board takes action on the Regional Plan Update, which is scheduled for the end of 2012, according to TRPA. That phase will make substantive changes to the Code of Ordinances in order to implement updated policies of the broader Regional Plan.

Although the first phase changes include some minor substantive edits designed to improve procedural efficiency and predictability, no substantive changes are proposed for adoption during the first phase of the Code Update, Cowen said.

The public review draft documents are available to view on the TRPA website, www.trpa.org. A joint public workshop with the TRPA Governing Board and Advisory Planning Commission is scheduled for October 26 at the North Tahoe Event Center in Kings Beach, CA. The TRPA Governing Board is scheduled to consider adoption of the revisions at its November 16, 2011 meeting at TRPA Board Rooms in South Shore.