SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. (AP)— Redevelopment plans for a popular Lake Tahoe campground and resort dating to the 1930s would eliminate parking along busy Highway 89 and cut the number of camp sites by nearly one-third, but offer year-round camping for the first time.

The U.S. Forest Service released an environmental assessment last week for the remodeling of the Camp Richardson Resort Campground. The service bought the lakefront resort about 2 miles west of South Lake Tahoe in 1965.
At an overall cost of about $8 million, the plans developed by the agency's Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit are intended to reduce water quality impacts and traffic congestion on the highway corridor, upgrade campground and day-use facilities and improve parking over a total area of nearly 80 acres.
"This action is needed because the existing environmental conditions and trends in the area are resulting in environmental effects and the recreational opportunities are not responsive to current and likely future demands," Nancy Gibson, the unit's forest manager, said in a letter to interested parties.
Gibson said the three campgrounds at the resort and the highway corridor that connects them continues to be one of the most popular use areas within the entire Tahoe basin "despite the facilities' poor condition."