Controversial development at Tahoe's largest ski resort approved
May 12-Ski season is coming to an end at Palisades Tahoe, which announced a closing date on May 24. But the long-term future of Palisades has never been more clear: A development that promises to reshape the Lake Tahoe region is finally moving forward.
On Tuesday, the Placer County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a plan to build hundreds of hotel rooms and expand the village at the bottom of Palisades Tahoe ski resort.
Tuesday's vote resolves a bitter 15-year fight between the private equity developers who own Tahoe's largest ski resort and a grassroots movement made up of longtime Palisades skiers, local residents and environmentalists.
"We have arrived at a compromise," said Cindy Gustafson, the Placer County supervisor who represents the Lake Tahoe region, at Tuesday's meeting in Kings Beach. "And compromises, neither side gets fully what they want, but we all work together to move our community forward."
The decision is hopefully the last hurdle for a development that encompasses 93 acres in Lake Tahoe's Olympic Valley. Over the years, it has seen litigation, a divisive backlash from local community members, thousands of pages of environmental review, multiple revisions and many, many public meetings.
The plan to expand the village at Palisades Tahoe was initially proposed in 2011. Tuesday's vote was the third time the Placer County Board of Supervisors approved the development. The board's approvals in 2016 and 2024 were both swiftly followed by litigation from environmental nonprofits, blocking the development's progress.
The most recent lawsuit was filed in the fall of 2024 by environmental watchdog nonprofits Sierra Watch and Keep Tahoe Blue (also known as the League to Save Lake Tahoe). The lawsuit argued the development would "remake the region" and cause "severe, irreversible impacts" to Lake Tahoe, citing issues from gridlocked traffic to degrading Lake Tahoe's clarity.
Alterra Mountain Company, the private equity company that owns Palisades Tahoe, settled the lawsuit the following summer by agreeing to dramatically reduce the size and scope of the project. The settlement was a remarkable turning point in the development's contentious history, allowing the developers and the environmentalists to reach a compromise.
"It's been a really long journey, shaped by years of input, dialogue, and at times - let's just be honest - some real tension and some real divisiveness," said Amy Ohran, the president and chief operating officer of Palisades Tahoe, at Tuesday's meeting. "And the timing was right to evolve the plan and to evolve the relationships around the plan."
The version presented to the Board of Supervisors on Tuesday includes 896 bedrooms, 40% fewer than what was approved in 2024. The developers also cut 20% of the commercial space out of the project and shrank an indoor recreation facility from 90,000 square feet to 72,000 square feet. The plan also includes workforce housing for 295 employees.
"It is a significantly smaller project," said Patrick Dobbs from Placer County's planning division.
Former adversaries had a markedly different stance at Tuesday's meeting. Sierra Watch Executive Director Tom Mooers has fought and criticized the developers for years - admonishing them for pushing "the same damn plan" through the regulatory gauntlet again and again and wanting to "destroy Tahoe."
But in a stunning turn, on Tuesday, Mooers urged the board to approve the downsized development.
"Let's take a moment to appreciate what got us here: the shared passion of the thousands of people, tens of thousands of people who got involved, people who love Olympic Valley, people who maintain our multigenerational commitment to Lake Tahoe and who honor mountain culture," Mooers said. "Anyone who signed a petition, came to a public hearing, made a financial contribution. Everyone who sent a letter, planted a lawn sign, or paraded through the streets of Tahoe City in a purple T-shirt. The people who stood up and made the movement to keep Tahoe Truckee true."
Keep Tahoe Blue has also criticized the ski resort in years past, saying that previous iterations of the development would have an adverse impact on Lake Tahoe's environment. But after reaching an agreement with Alterra Mountain Company, Keep Tahoe Blue now endorses the smaller project.
"Today is a really meaningful day for our community," said Gavin Feiger, Keep Tahoe Blue's policy director. "The revised project shows that when people show up, speak up, stay engaged that better outcomes are possible."
Most of the infrastructure, buildings and homes in Olympic Valley and Palisades were built in the 1950s and 1960s, in the years surrounding the 1960 Winter Olympics. "What we require now and how we operate now is so dramatically different," Gustafson said.
Gustafson called the agreement between Alterra, Sierra Watch and Keep Tahoe Blue a "monumental effort."
"I thank all the parties for the diligence and arriving at a solution that we can move forward proudly as a community," Gustafson said.
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