Placer County officials OK purchase of South Lake Tahoe motel
griffin@tahoedailytribune.com
Placer County officials have authorized staff to purchase the A&A Lake Tahoe Inn in South Lake Tahoe for about $1.4 million.
With a unanimous vote by county supervisors, a resolution was approved Tuesday to execute a purchase and sale agreement with WBW Property Holdings Corporation, the owners of the A&A motel.
Following the authorization, county staff will now work on finalizing the deal.
The county’s goal in buying the property is to demolish the building and restore the land so Placer can obtain a three-to-one bonus on much-needed lodging units, which are in limited number and required for such development in the Tahoe Basin.
County officials then plan on using those acquired units, better known as tourist accommodation units, to incentivize lodging projects in Kings Beach and Tahoe City — areas that haven’t seen development of that kind since the 1960s.
“The importance in providing new lodging options to the North Lake Tahoe visitor is backed by studies that show that it is the overnight visitor who spends the majority of the tourism dollars in the Tahoe Basin,” according to a county statement. “In addition, by focusing the development into the town centers, urban sprawl is prevented and environmentally superior pedestrian-transit oriented mixed-use development is created.”
The 9,805-square-foot motel, located at 3520 Lake Tahoe Blvd., has 34 units, which translates to 102 TAUs with the bonus. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency can grant the bonus if the landowner meets certain criteria, such as helping restore a stream environment zone.
It is expected that the motel is in a stream environment zone, but Placer County will confirm this during a 180-day contingency period, said Jennifer Merchant, Tahoe manager for the Placer County Executive Office. A soil study, along with several other environmental tests, will be conducted during that timeframe.
Additionally, South Lake Tahoe will need to approve the TAU transfer to Placer County. So the county plans on continuing discussions with the city.
A discussion has also been opened with the California Tahoe Conservancy to possibly help plan or take over restoration work on the property. One idea is that the Conservancy could buy the property from the county either before or after the restoration takes place, but that hasn’t been decided at this time.
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