Twelve years ago the Colorado investors who took over Palisade Tahoe decided they needed a massive development project in Olympic Valley - with luxury condos, a large  indoor waterpark, lots of new traffic jams and a worse employee housing situation in an area already suffering from a serious lack of workforce housing. Public opposition to the project was also massive. The County approved the project in 2016. Then the lawsuits kicked in. Eventually, the Court of Appeals instructed the County to pull the plug, which it did in 2022. 

But projects like that rarely die, they just reappear later in some slightly modified form. Since the project has again applied to Placer County for approval, and because the people doing the approving will - with the exception of the District Supervisor who represents the eastern end of the county - be county employees and elected officials from far over the hill in Auburn. Sierra Watch has recently kicked off a renewed campaign urging locals to fight the project.  If the last time around was any indication, the Olympic Valley project is certain to attract a lot of attention. Again, as though there aren't enough large development projects to deal with in the area. Local control, as usual, is not part of the deal.