A process for defining landscape-specific design guidelines for the shoreland of Lake Tahoe

The Lake Tahoe shoreland is a landscape of uncommon beauty. Its beauty, however, is at risk. The shoreland suffers the penalty of popularity – large numbers of individuals are attracted to build there in large part to take advantage of the natural beauty of the landscape. This thesis describes a process for defining landscape design and development guidelines based on the conditions occurring in different areas within a region, focusing on the shoreland area of Lake Tahoe. This case study results in a more tailored, site-specific set of guidelines than the more general guidelines that are currently in place. The existing guidelines apply uniformly to all areas in the Lake Tahoe Basin and thereby fail to account for variations in the landscape. In this study, concepts of the Scenery Management System (SMS) used on federal lands nation-wide by the USDA Forest Service were applied to non-federal lands. This approach has rarely been employed as a planning tool for land that includes private property. Using SMS concepts, I conducted a comprehensive inventory of landscape conditions in the shoreland at every one-eighth mile along the Lake Tahoe’s entire 72-mile perimeter. I then used the inventory data, which clearly express variations in a host of landscape attributes, to classify the shoreland according to its visual absorption capability and landscape character type. These classifications directly relate to how well development can be accommodated with regard to scenic quality impacts. I then formulated design guidelines for each shoreland classification that account for the landscape conditions present in each area. These new guidelines are therefore tailored to each area, unlike the currently applied homogeneous rules that amount to a one-size-fits-all approach. I illustrate the conditions that would be achieved through application of the new guidelines with photographs and compare them to areas where scenic impacts have occurred under the current guidelines