Historic agreement between Tahoe conservation groups and resort owner reduces size, scale, and impacts of contentious Olympic Valley project
OLYMPIC VALLEY, Calif., July 8, 2025 — The League to Save Lake Tahoe (Keep Tahoe Blue) and Sierra Watch announced a landmark agreement with Alterra Mountain Company and Palisades Tahoe to limit and cap future development at the famed resort.
“We did it!” said Tom Mooers, Executive Director of Sierra Watch. “This historic agreement is great news for our mountain communities and everyone who joined us in standing up to keep Tahoe Truckee True.”
The two conservation groups and Palisades Tahoe released news of the agreement in a shared statement earlier today.
The agreement, which was reached after years of conflict and months of negotiations, reduces the size and scale of the proposed project — cutting the number of bedrooms allowed by 40% and commercial square footage by 20%. It also ensures that Olympic Valley will not be home to what became the most controversial component of the original plan: a massive indoor waterpark.
“When people work together, that’s the best way to Keep Tahoe Blue — now and for the future,” said Dr. Darcie Goodman Collins, Chief Executive Officer of Keep Tahoe Blue. “But when we need to take a stand to protect the Lake, we will, just like we have for almost 70 years.”
As part of the settlement, Keep Tahoe Blue and Sierra Watch agree to drop their lawsuit challenging last year’s approvals of Alterra’s Village at Palisades Tahoe Project, pending Placer County’s approval of the revised project blueprint.
Going forward, all parties agree on supporting a new vision for Olympic Valley, with major and material reductions in the size and scale of the project:
- The initial 2011 application called for 2,184 total bedrooms. In 2014, Palisades Tahoe revised their proposal down to 1,493 bedrooms. The agreement announced today calls for a total of 896 bedrooms — nearly a 60% reduction from the 2011 proposal and a 40% reduction from the latest plan.
- Commercial square footage in the Main Village is cut by 20%, decreasing the total from 278,000 square feet to 222,000 square feet.
- Sensitive parcels at the mouth of Shirley Canyon, once slated for subdivision, will be permanently protected as open space — and never be threatened by future development.
- The proposed indoor waterpark will be replaced by a smaller Mountain Adventure Center, omitting previously proposed attractions such as waterslides, indoor waterskiing, wave rider, wave pool, waterfalls, and an indoor river.
- Alterra agrees to not seek any additional development on the project property for 25 years.
Although the size of the overall project is substantially reduced, Alterra has maintained its commitment to workforce housing, totaling 296 new beds for resort employees.
Key to Keep Tahoe Blue’s mission, the agreement cuts upwards of 38% of daily car trips, many of which would have entered the Tahoe Basin, along with preventing more traffic, air pollution, and water pollution that would have threatened the Lake’s water quality and clarity.
“Lake Tahoe is a treasure that’s here to be loved and experienced by everyone. And it deserves to be protected for everyone,” said Goodman Collins of Keep Tahoe Blue.
The collaborative effort resolves the epic struggle over Olympic Valley and the Tahoe Truckee Region. It began in 2010, after Alterra’s parent company, KSL Capital Partners, bought the famed Sierra ski resort then known as Squaw Valley.
Sierra Watch organized a grassroots movement of local residents and Tahoe visitors, working together originally as the campaign to Keep Squaw True, then re-branded as Tahoe Truckee True in 2020.
For fourteen years, thousands of volunteers stood together to protect their mountain values, sending letters to officials, turning out for public hearings, and signing a petition in opposition to the proposed development. They planted purple flags in Olympic Valley, marched in local parades, and even made a movie chronicling their shared commitment, The Movie to Keep Tahoe True.
Placer County approved the project in 2016, but Sierra Watch filed suit to overturn those entitlements — and prevailed. In 2021, California’s Third District Court of Appeal sided with conservationists, ruling that the 2016 approvals violated the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).
In 2022, Alterra filed a request for a new round of entitlements — for the exact same project. Two years later, at a packed and emotional public hearing, the Placer County Board of Supervisors voted to approve the project. Sierra Watch filed suit — again. This time, they were joined by Keep Tahoe Blue in a shared commitment to protect the region.
The settlement agreement announced today would end that litigation and, also, the broader conflict.
“For fourteen years, Olympic Valley has been at the frontlines for the biggest fight over the future of Tahoe,” said Mooers of Sierra Watch. “Now it’s another great example of how we can work together to protect the places we love.”
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Media Contacts:
Chris Joseph, Keep Tahoe Blue | cjoseph@keeptahoeblue.org, 530.541.5388 ext.206
Tom Mooers, Sierra Watch | tmooers@sierrawatch.org, 530.265.2849 ext.200
The League to Save Lake Tahoe is the donor-funded, science-based organization of environmental experts and Tahoe-lovers behind the movement to Keep Tahoe Blue. We have led the protection and restoration of the Lake Tahoe Basin since 1957 and continue to conserve the health of Tahoe for all, for generations to come. We use science to design innovative solutions, advocate with federal and state partners on behalf of the Lake, and engage thousands of volunteers as citizen scientists and stewards of Tahoe. Learn more, donate, and get involved at keeptahoeblue.org.
Sierra Watch secures conservation outcomes to protect the natural resources, mountain communities, and timeless values of the Tahoe Sierra. Founded in 2001, the Nevada City based non-profit has built a remarkable track record in land preservation in the Tahoe Sierra, on Donner Summit, and for other treasured Sierra landscapes. For more information, visit www.sierrawatch.org.
Photo: Wayne Hsieh, Flickr CC