Placer County isn’t addressing Tahoe’s housing crisis. It’s time to incorporate North Lake

Right now in Tahoe, there are no rental options for the people that fix the toilets in vacation rentals, plow the roads during the biggest storms of the season and cook the food at our favorite restaurants.

In North Lake Tahoe, critical properties that could be used to house local employees are instead purchased as second homes or used as short-term vacation rentals. Many sit empty at various times throughout the year, although COVID has changed what was once known as the “shoulder season.”

Placer County must address this aspect of the housing issue by encouraging property owners to rent to local employees instead of listing rooms on Airbnb with property tax incentives for homeowners who rent and limiting the total number of short-term rentals allowed. Furthermore, it’s time for North Lake Tahoe to become incorporated.

It makes sense that multi-million dollar properties are listed as vacation rentals, but listing smaller spaces in “local” neighborhoods eliminates affordable rental options and worsens the staffing problems all business owners are experiencing right now.

For second homeowners and property owners, rental income potential in Tahoe is too high to pass up. But these folks often don’t live in the area full time and see the effects of the housing crisis firsthand — for more than a week at a time.

The biggest employers in the area must take responsibility for their own employees and follow the example set of Dave Wilderotter, owner of Tahoe Dave’s, who offers housing options for full-time employees at small homes inside the Truckee RV park he purchased.

I’m grateful to be able to live in a beautiful place like Lake Tahoe. But it’s frustrating to see that opportunities to enjoy the lifestyle and benefits of living and working in mountain towns are quickly disappearing.

In March, the North Lake Tahoe Tourism Business Improvement District was approved by the Placer County Board of Supervisors. This year, $3.1 million (52%) of the new Tourism Business Improvement District’s Transient Occupancy Tax budget, will go to tourism advertising and marketing campaigns and staff salaries, while tourism mitigation and “affordable housing” allocations accounted for only 10% of the $6 million budget.

As of July 1, all restaurant and retail purchases have increased 2% on “businesses that benefit from tourists” along the lake and 1% everywhere else. While this increase is generating more revenue to be “controlled” in North Lake Tahoe, full-time residents must now bear these additional costs in an already challenging environment.

It’s hard to believe the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association (NLTRA) is currently paying for banner ads in Texas through an out-of-state ad agency attracting people to #VisitLakeTahoe — all while traffic is backed up in Tahoe City on a daily basis, with local neighborhoods turning into shortcuts to handle overflow traffic.

This is all part of the brand new “tourism mitigation” plan that so-called destination marketing organizations have abruptly switched to after being criticized during COVID, wildfires, and times of “over-tourism” on what purpose they actually serve to the local community.

“The traditional DMO model ... was all about the volume side of the equation,” Andy Chapman, president and CEO of the Incline Village Crystal Bay Visitors Bureau, said in a recent Moonshine Ink article. “Driving volume ... and volume as it relates to heads in beds.”

Tahoe’s DMOs, or Destination Marketing Organizations, haven’t always been as introspective as local communities might prefer. Chapman admitted this openly, saying his job has been to bring people to town in order to feed the tourism engine.

“We’ve never done a good job, or at least an adequate job, in telling local communities what it is we do and what it is we do not do,” he said.

The North Lake Tahoe Resort Association is now constantly talking about “workforce housing” and “tourism mitigation” while the hospitality, trade and emergency medical workers continue to be pushed to the breaking point.

A single-family home on the North Shore today starts at $1 million, and affordable rentals for working families no longer exist. The days of being a ski bum in Tahoe are almost impossible now, and the J-1 workforce, which previously helped out the hospitality industry during peak season by attracting employees from all over the world to work in Tahoe, is now not a realistic option.

Incorporation of North Lake Tahoe offers a much better future for the local community compared to “local control” and decision making from either Placer County staff, who live in southern Placer County, or the North Lake Tahoe Resort Association’s tourism marketing staff, with a board of directors controlled by ski resorts and vacation rental companies.

Without any solutions from Placer County, starting a campaign for incorporation is the only solution for anyone who lives in or visits North Lake Tahoe.

This story was originally published July 25, 2021 at 6:00 AM.