The lawsuit filed against the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) by the Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore (FWS) over the updated 2012 regional plan for the Lake Tahoe Basin has been deemed ‘unlikely to succeed’ in mediation by the Ninth Circuit Mediation Service.

The regional plan updates a 1987 plan for the area, and according to the Sierra Club, this will lead to increased urbanization in the area and a harmful effect on the environment.  TRPA disputes Sierra Club’s findings, asserting that they took into account the effect on soil, water and wildlife when they revised the plan.  When TRPA refused to conduct further impact studies or to amend their regional plan, The Sierra Club and the FWS sued TRPA in 2012 over the dispute, but a U.S. District Court ruled in favor of the agency, prompting The Sierra Club’s appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Both sides were ordered to submit statements regarding mediation.  TRPA General Counsel John Marshall stated that the agency responded favorably to the possibility.  The Sierra Club has not issued any statement regarding the mediation process so it remains unknown how they viewed the chances of a successful mediation.  It is possible that the judge viewed mediation as untenable even if both sides were amenable to the process; the metric used is a determination of whether mediation has a ‘significant chance’ of success in resolving a dispute, a determination that takes into account a wide variety of factors, not just the willingness of the parties involved.