Barton Initial Environmental Checklist

11/2023 TRPA Accepts Initial Environmental Checklist Prepared By Barton

TRPA had no intention of ramping things up to an EA and/or EIS and instead was hoping for a fast track project approval in Aug 2024. Push back and questions from the public forced TRPA in October 2024 to go to the next step and require Barton to do an EA.

TRPA accepted the IEC prepared by Barton without asking for any additional information. The submittal had no signature/date from the Barton representative preparing it and no signature/date from the TRPA representative receiving it.

TRPA Code 2.2.1 uses a standardized Initial Environmental Checklist (IEC) to identify potential impacts and determine what level of environmental review is required for project approval (TRPA Rules of Procedure 6.4). If the IEC results in a Finding of No Significant Effect or Mitigated Finding of No Significant Effect, the project may proceed without further documentation (Rules of Procedure 6.6-6.7). If the IEC is unclear or indicates a potentially significant impact, then a more substantive Environmental Assessment (EA) or Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) may be required (Rules of Procedure 6.5).

TRPA failed to require a signature on the document for the person preparing the document (see picture below and Barton IEC PDF link below Pg 18)

TRPA staff failed to sign the document after accepting and/or reviewing the submitted information (see picture below and Barton IEC PDF link below Pg 19)

TRPA planned to only require this environmental checklist for this Barton Hospital project leading up to the fast track area amendment

plan approvals in August 2024.

And at no point in 11 months since the IEC was filed did TRPA look at the IEC to determine if the answers presented by Barton needed more explaining and/or that this project would need an Environmental Assessment and/or Environmental Impact Study.

The Barton IEC had 91 specific questions asking about the project's impacts on the environment. Here is a summary of Barton's responses-

91 total questions

54 No

31 Data Insufficient

5 Yes

1 No, with mitigation

Project: 230,000 sq ft, 89' above Laura Dr, site is known to be environmentally sensitive with major water issues, it is next to Rabe meadows/stream and wildlife, adding helicopter noise, building on top of a neighborhood, next to casino corridor traffic congestion

TRPA accepted Barton's IEC document with the 54 "No" responses and 31 "Data Insufficient" responses.

TRPA then relayed info provided by the IEC submitted by Barton and shared this info with the public

TRPA used info from Barton's IEC for all decisions for the next 11 months

Barton, TRPA and Douglas County clearly never planned on doing an Environmental Assessment or EIS and planned for the fast track project approval in August 2024. They used this same strategic move with the Latitude 39 project- this project only required an IEC.

TRPA should have reviewed the site history and the scope of the proposed project and immediately moved this to an Environmental Assessment. And once some of the additional info came in fuzzy and unclear from Barton they should have required Barton to do an Environmental Impact Study

Online Link to Barton IEC

Barton IEC 11.2023.pdf

Barton EA Submitted Comments 2/7/25