After four years and hundreds of public meetings, the proposed development of a new Village within Squaw Valley has taken its first step toward final approval when the Placer County Planning Commission recently recommended the project for approval. Proposed by Squaw Valley Real Estate, LLC (SVRE) (formerly KSL Capital Partners), final approval for the Village project will now be sought from the Placer County Board of Supervisors in a hearing to be held later this fall.

To recap, in 2010, the original ownership of Squaw Valley (from the 1940’s) sold the ski resort and nearly 100 acres of land to SVRE, all of which was zoned for future redevelopment as Village Commercial and low/medium density neighborhoods. Almost two-thirds of this land was the existing ski area asphalt parking lot (nearly 3,000,000 square feet of blacktop). Important to note is that the land SVRE owns also includes the Red Wolf’s driveway (which we utilize by permission from SVRE) and the eastern third of the parking structure that our resort sits atop and has shared with Squaw Valley since the mid 1990’s (referred to as Pad-2). Pad-2 was originally intended to be the site of a second three-story building, identical to Red Wolf that, to date, has never been built (more on all this in a minute).

Formally referred to as the Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan (VSVSP), the proposed project will include a new village core of retail and condominium-hotel projects (immediately to the east of Red Wolf) and, in the process, finally remove the existing dilapidated asphalt parking surfaces. Additionally, it is proposed to develop new, low-density residential neighborhoods at the west end of the valley and affordable employee housing and a shipping and receiving center to the east, near the entrance to the valley. In addition to the proposed Village, the overall project includes numerous environmental and community improvements including the restoration of Squaw Creek (modified almost 60 years ago to provide parking for the 1960 Olympics) and the enhancement of biking, hiking, transportation and overall recreation facilities throughout the valley. While the proposed project is in accordance with zoning outlined in the 1983 Squaw Valley Community Plan it still must complete an extensive public process to receive final entitlements. As you can imagine, a project of this scale will create significant impacts and provide desirable, long overdue enhancements in the valley.

Since early 2011, your board has engaged in regular discussions and negotiations with SVRE to address a number of issues that will result from the development of the project. Specifically, the board has focused on the overall impacts of the proposed project to the Red Wolf (both positive and negative), SVSH’s plans for Pad-2 and, how our driveway would be altered in the process. From the beginning, we have continually encouraged our Owners to learn about the proposed project and provide us with their feedback. Additionally, both in-house and independent legal counsels have advised management and the board throughout this process. Based on a majority of our Owners expressing a favorable opinion for the project and a general consensus that the benefits of the new Village will outweigh the impacts, your board has voiced its support for the project during the recent public process.

Since the core of the new Village will be located immediately to the east of Red Wolf, SVRE has expressed their desire to close off our existing driveway access and re-route our entrance to our existing easement (which was the location of our entrance originally) across their parking structure to the north. Additionally, SVRE has also expressed their desire to convey (give) Pad-2 to Red Wolf and the land surrounding it and contribute up to $200,000 to beautify the appearance of Pad-2 and to pay for the re-routing of our entrance. Legal counsel has advised the Board that SVRE does have the right to re-locate our entrance since, as mentioned before, we use our current driveway access by a permissive use and our driveway could be restored to its original location. The board, management and legal counsel all feel the opportunity to own Pad-2, at no purchase price to our Owners, would be mostly beneficial. While there will be some ongoing expense to maintain this added portion of our structure, it is our collective view that to own and control Pad-2, all of the parking underneath it and the land around it is a unique and primarily beneficial opportunity for the Association. Keep in mind, all of this is contingent on the Village being approved by Placer County. In the months ahead, we will continue to move toward entering into a formal Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with SVRE, possibly before the end of the year.

Again, we continue to encourage our Homeowners to learn about the project and contact the Red Wolf with any questions or comments. The two best web sites for researching the proposed Village can be found at www.placer.ca.gov (and search for the Village at Squaw Valley Specific Plan) and www.thevillageatsquaw.com (Squaw Valley’s web site dedicated to the project). We will continue to keep you updated on the proposed Village project and our specific negotiations with SVRE.