Green vs. green fight over Tahoe redevelopment

CRYSTAL BAY, Nev. — As snow begins to blanket Lake Tahoe, the region finds itself facing a new kind of development battle: green vs. green.

On a ridge overlooking a sparkling, silver-blue bay, Roger Wittenberg has a dream. An inventor and developer, he wants to tear down the cavernous old Tahoe Biltmore Lodge and Casino and replace it with a $140 million eco-friendly resort he says will work environmental miracles by shrinking carbon emissions and reducing the flow of sediment into the lake.

The resort, he added, will emphasize health, nutrition and nature over gambling — though it would include a small casino.

"We have the opportunity to make the next quantum leap forward," Wittenberg said. "We would like to be that project that (shows) us we can enjoy the lake without harming the lake."

Some environmentalists, who have waged battles against development at Lake Tahoe for decades, and some residents are wary. The proposed Boulder Bay Resort and Wellness Center, they say, would bring even more traffic and pollution to narrow State Route 28 and the dated strip development around Crystal Bay and could even spark a new wave of urbanization.

"We are in a very difficult situation here," said Rochelle Nason, executive director of the League to Save Lake Tahoe, at a hearing before the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency last week.

"You might say: There's a lot of good here," Nason said. "But then the question arises: If we get a lot of good from this hotel, how many hotels are we going to need? What is the rest of the picture?"

Tension is high because tourist-dependent Lake Tahoe, home to some of the toughest environmental laws in the nation, is losing business to other resort destinations. On the north side of the lake, where Boulder Bay would be located, support is strong.

Supporters praise design

One backer is Art Chapman, president of JMA Ventures LLC, which owns nearby Alpine Meadows and Homewood ski areas.

"I think we are really at a tipping point up here," Chapman said. "If we can't as a community support good, sustainable, proper, smart redevelopment of old areas, then what do we support?"

If successful, the Boulder Bay project would dramatically transform the tiny, pine-dotted community of Crystal Bay, where the historic Tahoe Biltmore, with its iconic giant wagon wheel sign out front, has stood for 63 years.

Not only would the Biltmore's casino and hotel rooms be demolished, asphalt parking lots and outbuildings would vanish, too. On the 16-acre site, a new 300-room hotel would rise, along with 59 condominiums, a health and wellness center, 20,000 square feet of shops and restaurants, and a much smaller casino.

Wittenberg, who bought the Biltmore in 2007, describes the project as a model of environmental sensitivity. Snowmelt would be captured to irrigate landscaping and flush toilets. Compact fluorescent lights and tankless water heaters would shrink energy use.

Recycled products would be used throughout the facility, including exterior decking made from plastic bags and sawdust — a product called TREX that Wittenberg invented — and his own brand of insulation made from scrap paper and cardboard. The roofs of some buildings would be seeded with native grasses to better absorb and filter water.

Perhaps most important, he plans to build an underground water treatment facility to dramatically reduce erosion into the lake.

"Roger knows what he's doing," said Bob Maxson, president of Sierra Nevada College in Incline Village.