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Douglas County adopts South Shore Area Plan updates, expands Kingsbury town‑center boundary
Summary
The Board approved a zoning text amendment, a zoning map amendment to bring a split‑zoned mobile home park into the Kingsbury town center, and a resolution adding an energy‑conservation strategy to the South Shore Area Plan; owners of Kingsbury Manor asked commissioners to avoid premature deed‑restriction mitigation until a project is proposed.
Douglas County commissioners voted unanimously Jan. 16 to approve multiple revisions to the South Shore Area Plan, including a zoning text amendment, a zoning map amendment to reclassify the entirety of the parcel at 201 Manor Drive (APN 131823401019) as Tahoe Mixed Use with a Town Center overlay, and a resolution that adds an energy‑conservation strategy to the plan.
Planning staff told the board the amendments correct long‑standing inconsistencies between county zoning and the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency(TRPA) process: a prior boundary and zoning change approved by the county about a decade ago was never adopted by TRPA, leaving Kingsbury Manor Mobile Home Park split between town‑center zoning and commercial town center zoning. The Hall family trust, which owns the roughly 4.54‑acre parcel, told the commission it developed the park long ago, currently has 32 spaces, owns three homes on site and has three vacant lots. The owners asked the county to re‑establish consistent zoning, and to avoid imposing mitigation or deed‑restriction requirements before any developer asks to redevelop the property.
Kate Morales ONeil, planning division, explained that TRPA staff had asked the county to include mitigation language for the parcel but county planners recommended against preemptive mitigation because no project has been proposed. County staff repeated that any mitigation or replacement of affordable units would be considered only if and when a project came forward that triggers TRPA review.
The revision also restores design standards unintentionally omitted from the countys Title 20 in 2013 and updates regulatory references, sign regulations (allowing an increase from 4 to 12 message cycles per hour for electronic messages in specified zones), and adds a new energy conservation chapter to comply with TRPA regional plan mitigation concerning greenhouse‑gas reduction strategies.
Commissioner Rice moved adoption of the zoning text amendment; Commissioner Tarkanian seconded. The board then voted unanimously to approve the zoning map amendment to classify the entire 201 Manor Drive parcel as TMU town center overlay and to adopt Resolution 2024 R‑097 directing staff to send the updated plan to TRPA for final action.
Brendan Hall, trustee of the Hall Trust, said the owners support consistent zoning but asked the county to resist any TRPA request for deed restrictions or mitigation at this stage because the property owner is not proposing redevelopment at this time. Planning staff said those issues would be addressed only at permit stage.
The county will forward the revised South Shore Area Plan to TRPA for its advisory commission and governing‑board review as required by TRPA rules; staff said the packet had been scheduled for TRPA advisory review in February and TRPA governing board consideration in March.
Commissioners framed the action as an administrative clean‑up that clarifies the town‑center boundary, updates design standards, and incorporates an energy conservation strategy for compliance with regional mitigation.
