Professor Frank Comments on Lake Tahoe Litigation for Daily Journal

Professor of Environmental Practice Richard Frank commented for the Daily Journal on a lawsuit filed against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) that threatens to undo a regional land-use plan designed to regulate and limit development in the Lake Tahoe Basin.  Environmentalist groups are suing the agency, alleging that in seeking to compromise with development interests in Nevada, TRPA has failed in its mission to protect the lake.

In an article on the lawsuit published in the Daily Journal on February 20, Professor Frank said that, in an effort to avoid gridlock, TRPA engaged in a "classic political compromise" by enacting the regional plan it did.  TRPA's action followed passage of a Nevada law requiring the state to withdraw from the bi-state compact that enables TRPA to regulate land use at Lake Tahoe on behalf of Nevada and California unless TRPA's regional plan is updated and changes are made to the compact to grant more authority to local interests. "The lawsuit has placed the whole regional plan into litigation mode and threatens the fragile truce that might otherwise stop the Nevada interests from threatening to leave the compact," Frank said.

Frank, a 1974 graduate of King Hall, is a leader in the field of environmental law and the founding Director of the California Environmental Law and Policy Center at UC Davis School of Law.