Board denies appeal, upholds Planning Commission approval for Alpenglow Timber sawmill with added conditions on road upgrades and noise screening

The Nevada County Board of Supervisors on Oct. 8 denied an appeal and upheld the Planning Commission’s Aug. 8 approval of a mitigated negative declaration and conditional use permit for the Alpenglow Timber sawmill and associated employee housing near Truckee.

Project summary: the proposal would allow a sawmill and related operations (roughly a 48,000‑square‑foot mill, boiler plant, kilns, log decks and ancillary infrastructure), three duplex employee-housing structures (six units), a 200,000‑gallon water tank for fire protection, and road improvements to Klondike Flat Road. Construction was estimated at 22–24 months; operations would be Monday–Saturday, 7 a.m.–10 p.m. (some components such as boilers/kilns could run 24 hours).

Environmental review and appeal: county staff circulated an initial study and mitigated negative declaration with technical reports covering air quality, traffic, noise, and wildfire risk and concluded impacts would be less than significant with mitigation. Appellants (Friends of Prosser Truckee) submitted supplemental technical material, relying on a report (Dr. Chad/Chris Hansen described in hearing) arguing some forest thinning projects can increase fire intensity; appellants sought a fair-argument determination that an EIR is required. Appellants and community speakers also raised traffic safety (heavy trucks on narrow, single‑access Klondike Flat Road), lack of a second ingress/egress, fuel-storage and fire-risk concerns from chip/dust accumulation, and potential impacts on neighbors’ property values.

Proponent and expert testimony: applicant David Mercer and project counsel presented the project as a forest‑health facility intended to process small‑diameter material from nearby thinning projects, reduce haul distances and support fuels treatment at scale. A broad slate of forestry, fire‑service and state officials (U.S. Forest Service representative Eli Alano; retired CAL FIRE forester Jeff Dowling; Lake Tahoe area fire chiefs; The Nature Conservancy; Cal FIRE grant program staff) testified in support, saying regional processing capacity is necessary to enable pace-and-scale restoration and that peer-reviewed science supports the role of treatments in changing fire behavior. Noise, air quality, traffic and fire safety technical studies and conditions of approval were cited in county staff’s recommendation to deny the appeal.

Board decision and conditions: after public testimony from dozens of speakers for and against, the board discussed traffic, road maintenance and emergency access and asked staff to add conditions. The board’s amended resolution (adopted by roll call) denies the appeal and upholds the Planning Commission decision while adding explicit conditions requiring: Klondike Flat Road to be upgraded to the specified county standard (20‑foot paved width with shoulders), establishment of a permanent road maintenance mechanism or annexation to a maintenance entity, maintenance of sight‑distance vegetation at the Highway 89 intersection for the life of the project, and on‑site earth berms/visual screening and noise attenuation measures between the mill operations and adjacent residences. The roll call recorded yes votes from all five districts.