Incentives Designed To Speed Up Tahoe Wetlands Restoration

With the summer building season approaching at Lake Tahoe, land managers have a new tool at their disposal to restore wetlands. 

The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency offers big incentives to move housing out of wetlands and into urban areas. The agency is offering credits to developers who move planned housing from wetlands to urban areas. And demand is high.

Jeff Cowen of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency says that’s because 90 percent of the developable land is already in use and builders are having trouble finding people willing to sell wetlands.

“The buyers and sellers can’t always find a great way of getting together and so we created an online exchange to connect them through a want ads network.”

Its called the “Transfer of Development Rights Exchange.” It lists more than 20 properties, including a motel and a golf course. Cowen says that wetland restoration will bring back wildlife, a make for cleaner water and change density patterns to reduce traffic and pollution.

“We are entering a new phase in the Tahoe Basin where redevelopment and moving existing development around is actually going to become the norm.”