“An odd thing happened Wednesday night at the Truckee town hall;  the audience that made it through four hours of meeting applauded at the unanimous approval of a development project (the Truckee Railyard Project)”  This is a quote from the Sierra Sun June 19th, 2009 following the City Council meeting held the previous Wednesday evening. Attended and supported by over 100 residents and officials including all previous Truckee mayors, the support to approve the railyard masterplan and EIR was overwhelming, emotional, passionate and straight forward. In addition there was support from a variety of groups including the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation, Truckee Donner Historical Society, Sierra Business Council, Truckee River Watershed Council and the list goes on.

The only challenge to the project was by a group who calls themselves the Friends of Truckee who’s spokesperson is Siobhan Smart, a local business owner. The opposition group was challenged by many including former Mayor Ted Owens who stated, “To the so called and self proclaimed Friends of Truckee..it is my belief you are few in your view and I’ll ask for your support as well”.  Mike Dunsford, a long time Truckee resident said, “Friends of Truckee has a nice ring to if but is sort of a misnomer.”  Lisa Wallace, executive director of the Truckee Watershed Council expressed concern that the threatened lawsuit by Friends of Truckee, which Rick Holliday referred to as them trying to play a game of “gotcha,” could actually hurt the Trout Creek restoration effort by upsetting time sensitive funding that is now in place.

All in all it was a great night for the Town of Truckee and for Holliday Development.  As Mark Tanner correctly stated…..this is not Mr. Hollidays project but it belongs to the people of Truckee.  He is so right!
Background: The Truckee Railyard Master Plan is the culmination of over a decade of planning efforts by the Town, which 5 years ago turned into the Truckee Railyard Partnership between the Town of Truckee and Holliday Development.  This plan was a community wide effort involving innumerable public workshops, community meetings, open office hours, and formal and informal dialogue with stakeholders.  The plan, including 25 developable acres on former Union Pacific property, proposes to extend downtown with a boutique hotel and movie theater, offer more downtown housing at mixed-incomes, commercial, retail, and work-live space.

You can read more about the Truckee Railyard approval at the links below:

Sierra Sun, Railyard Approval Draws Public Support

Sierra Sun Editorial, All Aboard

Tahoe Ticker Blog, Overwhelming Enthusiasm Behind Truckee Railyard Project Passage