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This indicator tracks long-term, cumulative changes in scenic conditions along major roadways in the Region. It accounts for the urban, transitional, and natural landscapes that the roads pass through. Tracking these changes is important as it provides a measure of how changes in land use and development over time affect scenic conditions. The primary drivers affecting scenic quality in the Tahoe Region are land use, land and resource management activities, and the visual/aesthetic characteristics of development. The TRPA Code of Ordinances specifies minimum design standards and guidelines for new development and redevelopment projects. Area plans and community plans provide specific design standards and guidelines applicable to local areas. The Scenic Quality Improvement Program, adopted by TRPA in 1989, identifies a host of projects that are necessary to improve scenic conditions. Every four years, a team of professionals examines and evaluates the quality of scenic units and resources along major roadways in the Tahoe Region.
- Status
- At or Somewhat Better Than Target
- Trend
- Moderate Improvement
- Confidence
- High
- As of 2019, 34 roadway travel units are in attainment, 20 have not yet reached attainment, and six improved since the last assessment but not enough to bring additional units fully into attainment.
- Units most out of attainment are urban travel routes that would benefit from further redevelopment of the built environment.
- Unauthorized roadway parking in some roadway units is extensive, creating visual distraction and blocking views to Lake Tahoe. As a result, three roadway units are at risk of degraded scores.
Roadway travel units 2019 attainment status. Different roadway units have different lengths and approximately 72 percent of scenic roadways are within units that are in attainment.
- This indicator tracks long-term, cumulative changes in scenic conditions along major roadways in the Region. It accounts for the urban, transitional, and natural landscapes that the roads pass through. Tracking these changes is important because it provides a measure of how changes in land use and development over time affect scenic conditions. Today, scenic conditions along Lake Tahoe’s major roadways are, on average, better than they were in 1982. There have been continuous incremental improvements in scenic conditions along roadway travel units since 1991.
- The primary drivers affecting scenic quality in the Lake Tahoe Region are land use, land and resource management activities, and the visual/aesthetic characteristics of manmade development. Along corridors that are forested, drivers such as fire and insect/disease could also affect the visual/aesthetic characteristics.
EIP Indicators
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Miles of Utility Lines Buried Underground
Reducing dominance of structures, including utility lines, improves scenic quality. Therefore, the EIP tracks the progress of miles of overhead utility lines buried underground along major roadways.
Example EIP Projects
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Kings Beach Commercial Core Improvement Project
Substantial reconstruction of the roadway through Kings Beach along with sidewalks, landscaping, and new streetscape amenities brought this scenic roadway into attainment in 2015.
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U.S. Highway 50 Water Quality Improvement Project - "Y" to Trout Creek
This project within scenic roadway unit 35 in the City of South Lake Tahoe added sidewalks and rock retaining walls increasing the unit's scenic score bringing the unit closer to threshold attainment.
Local and Regional Plans
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Scenic Quality Improvement Program
The program is a comprehensive strategy for improving the overall quality of the built environment and attaining and maintaining the scenic quality goals of the Tahoe Region.
- Thirty-four of the 54 roadway travel units (63 percent) met the threshold standard in 2015.
- Moderate improvement. The percentage of roadway travel units in attainment has steadily increased from 50 percent in 1982 to 63 percent in 2019. The long-term trend line shows a 0.63 percent increase in the percentage of units in attainment per year since 1982. If looking at the overall attainment status throughout the region, this would be considered moderate improvement.
- High. A documented, reviewed, and accepted monitoring protocol guides the collection, analysis, and reporting of the scenic monitoring data. Monitoring data is collected according to procedures outlined in the 1982 Study Report for the Establishment of Environmental Threshold Carrying Capacities, and the Status and Trend Monitoring Report for Scenic Resources in the Lake Tahoe Basin, which set forth a methodology for measuring change in scenic quality over time. The methods are consistent with those employed by the USDA Forest Service, and are considered standard practice. This results in a high level of confidence in the status determination.
- High. There is high statistical confidence in the improving trend line for the percent of units in attainment and the overall average scores. In 2001, three roadway units were further segmented into 11 independent units to better characterize each roadway segment. However, this does not lower the overall confidence in the trend because the same scenic resources have been evaluated consistently since 1982, regardless of the number of roadway units.
- High
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- Uploaded On
- 12/17/2021
- File Type
- Description