The project involved relocating and adding landscaped areas and parking lot striping, and includes making the area handicapped accessible. Because Best Western is located south of the Truckee River, a traffic volume study was required by the town's General Plan Land Use Policy. Planners could not have approved the application had the study shown an increase in traffic for the downtown area. A study concluded the project resulted in a net decrease in traffic to the downtown area and researchers determined hotel guests would be inclined to dine on the premises rather than venture into town with the addition. The addition only slightly modified the existing site and includes overall improvement to the parking area and landscaping, town staff said.
Architectural style is also consistent with the existing building.
Approved in the summer of 1995, grading began during the 1996 building season for this 18-hole golf course on 252 acres adjacent to Tahoe Donner on Northwoods Boulevard. Lashbrook said the town has heard nothing from the developers since they cleared and graded land for the course in 1997. A conditional use permit that would have increased the size of a maintenance shed at the site was denied by the town in March 1997. In February 1997 the Downtown Citizens' Advisory Committee decided to pursue lodging as a primary use on the property and limit retail uses after hearing a presentation of design and land use suggestions by the consulting firm Design Workshop. Since the filing of the suit, there has been no further word on development of the property.