Hello CATT Members –

This past month, the CATT Board of Directors voted to approve expanding CATT’s membership outreach and advocacy efforts into South Lake Tahoe and surrounding areas.  After many years of working with TRPA and north lake jurisdictions to streamline and improve regulatory and building processes, this is a logical extension of the important work that CATT does to represent the building industry and small businesses. There was broad consensus on the Board that we should provide the opportunity for all contractors and construction industry businesses around the Lake to enjoy the benefits of CATT membership and real representation in the complex world of building in the mountain region.  We are excited to welcome new members from South Lake and look forward to helping them build stronger businesses and better community relations in that area.

With each passing month, there is more good news to pass on from CATT Staff and our many hard working volunteer advocates.  After two years of meetings and discussions with Placer County, the Board of Supervisors recently approved funding for an Administrative Technician/Plan Check Process Coordinator to work in the Building Department’s Tahoe City office.  Their commitment is that the candidate hired for this position would take full responsibility for monitoring and tracking the progress of permit applications, with the goal of ensuring that all permit applications meet stated plan check processing times of 2-4 weeks.  We applaud Placer Supervisors for recognizing – and prioritizing – the need to meet this standard for our mountain community and its painfully short building season.  We expect that this important step will bring relief to Architects and Builders who have struggled to get projects off the ground in a timely manner – and expect that more property owners will be encouraged to commit to new construction projects and the improvement of existing structures, knowing that the process of plan approval will be faster and more predictable.

We also hear that CATT’s Local Government Affairs Fire Hydrant Committee, lead by Chairman Pat Souza, is making real progress taking on the difficult task of establishing equitable and consistent rules for meeting fire safety requirements in the North Lake Tahoe Fire District and beyond.  CATT has long objected to the assumption that a tiny minority of individual property owners (those who decide to build) should bear the burden of paying for upgrades to poorly planned and poorly maintained water infrastructure on the north end of Lake Tahoe.   A shared cost plan must be transparent, predictable and equitable.  Our fire hydrant team has also suggested that a collaborative plan, in which the fire district and the water utilities agree on long term goals – with provisions to allow current construction plans to move forward – is an essential component in developing an appropriate solution.

This conversation also opens the larger discussion about the history of expectations from special districts and municipal government that the construction industry should pay for infrastructure improvements of all kinds.  What happens if people decide to stop building – because the cost is too great (this is really happening in California) or no-growth initiatives block further new construction (also a problem in California)?  Relying on individual property owners who decide at some point to build is obviously not a sustainable source of adequate funding for infrastructure modernization or long-term replacement plans.  A more equitable – and responsible – approach would be for special districts to have a long term capital improvement plan funded from the revenue stream from all of those who use the system.  This is consistent and reliable funding, and all who enjoy the benefits of these systems would share the burden equally.  If construction activity is a community economic goal (jobs) or more housing (affordable or market rate) is needed, continuing to add more burdens and expense to these things does not make sense and will not work.  I believe that all parties are in agreement that construction of affordable – or even market rate – housing has not come close to demand for decades.  Clearly, sharing of infrastructure burdens has to be part of the larger conversation.  We look forward to being part of a truly meaningful and effective long term solution.

I am confident that dedicated and hardworking CATT volunteers under the leadership of CATT Government Affairs Manager, Pat Davison, will make good progress with these important issues through the remainder of the year.  If anyone has an interest in helping with this effort, please contact Pat Davison at pat@ca-tt.com

Good luck this summer (building and getting to work)

Regards to All –

Peter