SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – Council passed its first motion allowing cannabis lounges at the Jan. 9 meeting, as the tribune reported. Many other items on the agenda concerned housing and homelessness.

More funds for the Bear’s Den Inn

Council passed a motion allocating $632,040 to the Tahoe Coalition for Homeless. The funds will rehabilitate the organization’s interim housing project, the Bear’s Den Inn, from the 2020 Community Development Block Grant Program Coronavirus Response funding.

The Bear’s Den Inn is scheduled to provide 22 new interim housing units by October. These funds were allocated for projects that have experience unanticipated cost increases, which staff reports the Bear’s Den Inn has experienced.

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Council also directed the coalition to work with city staff to pursue other sources of funding to operate a winter shelter in the community for the next five years.

They also requested the group report to council annually on homelessness in the community.

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The item was initially on the consent agenda, but Bass pulled the item to request a requirement that the coalition provide a warming room through winters as a condition to receive the funding. He noted it isn’t a promise the city will fund the winter shelter, only a requirement for the organization to receive funding to rehabilitate their interim housing project.

The coalition’s Chief Operating Officer Kimberly Peterson addressed Bass’s request and said the coalition struggles enough with funding the projects they currently have. She said asking the organization to use the little funding for a warm room that has not been shown to be effective at transitioning individuals towards permanent housing is a big ask.

Peterson said they do have a winter shelter currently that provides 14 beds with case management and is provided on vulnerability basis. She said they do not currently have a warm room where individuals come at night and are required to leave in the morning, but they do have funds to provide hotels in emergency situations.

Bass clarified, it doesn’t have to be a warm room and the winter shelter is sufficient. He said putting it in the sub-recipient agreement is not about the city enforcing it, but putting in writing what the organization has said it will do.

Wallace recommended adding it to the agreement with a light touch to encourage the relationship.

And in addition, Robbins requested the annual report on homelessness and community organizations from the coalition.

Employee housing regulation

Council directed city staff to report employee housing complaints received by their Housing Hotline to the California state department, rather than the city becoming the local enforcement agency.

This option was brought to the table at the Sept. 26 meeting when the idea for an Employee Housing Ordinance was offered.

Since then, city staff has researched California law and spoken with the state agency regulating housing. Interim Housing Manager Jessica Wackenhut Lomeli reported the California Employee Housing Act already regulates areas of city council concern.

She says although the state allows cities and counties to monitor and enforce the act, many jurisdictions opt out of doing so due to the lack of cost recovery. Further, many jurisdiction that have taken on job, relinquish responsibility back to the state’s department.

The council unanimously passed the motion, keeping the city from becoming the enforcement agency and instead working more closely with the state agency on employee housing complaints.

Additionally, Robbins requested city staff perform public outreach to inform employees of their rights, and businesses of their responsibilities, with respect to employee housing.

The councilmember also requested staff add an ordinance to a future agenda requiring hotels post informational posters indicating employees can call the city housing hotline for employee housing complaints, noting many hotels in the community provide housing for temporary workers.

Over 1,000 still on affordable housing waitlist

The affordable housing waitlist has grown by ten since the last report. This puts the number of those waiting for a spot at the eight affordable properties in the city up to 1,173.

Associate Management Analyst Lydia Zuniga reported properties serving seniors and special needs have higher demand.

The Lease to Locals program has 14 properties housing around 89 people. Zuniga said they added another house this month, raising the total to 15 properties.

Chase Janvrin of Placemate’s Lease to Locals program reported 65% of properties that graduate the program after one year and therefore no longer receive the subsidy, do continue to rent to longterm tenants.

Robbins made a motion requesting the next affordable housing waiting list be broken down to include the number of unit represented by the waitlist, since the current list has multiple individuals from the same household on it.

Within the item’s discussion, Robbins raised a conversation about conducting another housing needs survey, since the last survey was done in 2019.

“And I’m almost sure,” Robbins said, “we’ve had a few world ending events between 2019 and now.”

Wallace expressed concerns about the costs and strain another market study would have on city staff. She had assisted with the last study and noted the cost within the $100,000 range, taking two years to complete.

“I would be dead set against putting that on our staff,” she said, “it’s a lot.”

Director of Development Services Zachary Thomas said a recent study was completed on the Sugar Pine Village. The study analyzed the affordable housing needs and vacancy rates, but was used to determine whether the project will pencil. This caused it to be put together with a different methodology than the study Robbins was requesting.

City Manager Joe Irvin suggested providing copies of the Sugar Pine study to council before making a decision on a new study, in case it provides the information Robbins is looking for.

40 Vacant or underused properties in South Lake Tahoe

Assistant City Manager Hillary Roverud presented a summary of vacant and underused properties throughout the city.

City staff identified 40 properties that fall under one of four categories:

• Vacant: site has been vacant for 120 days, or property contains a building that cannot be reoccupied or is considered by city code as abandoned.
• Underused: property with multiple tenant spaces where one or more has been vacant for more than 120 days.
• Vacant pending: meets the vacant description, but has a pending permit application to reoccupy.
• Recently unoccupied: has potential to be considered vacant or underused, but has not hit 120 day period.

There are 16 vacant properties, 4 underused, 11 vacant pending, and 9 recently unoccupied within the city.

The city has identified two priority sites.

The Chateau at 4139 Lake Tahoe Boulevard has already been a part of council discussions. In September, city staff provided the site’s background and project status. Council then directed staff to work with the current owner on a development agreement with potentially incentivized public and private financing options as well as develop mechanisms against blight and nuisance.

The former Sunray hotel site is also considered a priority for the city due to its high visibility, safety and nuisance concerns.

Irvin said the city will list properties on their economics webpage and incorporate the site in their GIS map. The city plans on updating the list periodically.

According to Roverud, the city plans on consulting real estate experts, while engaging the community as the city determines futures for these properties that fit the community vision and are economically viable and attractive to those who would invest.

‘Significantly unhelpful’ business processes

Roverud’s presentation on vacant and underused sites was initially a receive and file item with no actionable items, but Robbins requested a follow up discussion on how the city can be more supportive of small businesses.

The discussion went from vacant properties to the city’s business processes when Bass inquired how they can incentivize local utilization of the spaces.

He said in talking with business owners, the city needs to do a better job of getting small businesses through the permit process. Each month they pay a lease and are not open, he said is a “black hole.”

Robbins attested to this and discussed the struggles he’s had in the past with the city’s permit process while opening a small business, “our experience with the city would charitably be described as significantly unhelpful.”

He observed that it appears the issues impact small storefront commercial properties most, since the properties on the list are not Target-sized properties or big box stores that have experience and resources to navigate permitting.

Wallace said a complaint she often receives with the permit process from community members is the city department providing a list of tasks requiring resolution before the city provides the permit. She says often the business owner will do those tasks and come back to the city, who then provides yet another list. She said the owners would have preferred to have the entire list of from the start.

Robbins also experienced this, what he refers to as “dribbling out of problems” with multiple departments.

“We went round and round,” he describes, “and every time we went around, it wasted time, it spent time while we were paying for rent, while we were paying for expenses.”

The City Manager did say that they do need to make forms more readable and easier to understand. He said he understands, “Time is money, we get it,” and requested time to allow his staff to work on improving their processes. He said the six month time constraint for construction here does put a lot of stress on staff.

He said he believes it is an operational issue, not a policy issue and will report back on their process.

Other business

Council agreed to maintain subcommittee appointments with the exception of changing those for the South Tahoe Public Utility District. Councilmember Robbins will now take the place as the sole representative with Friedrich as backup.

All other subcommittees will stay the same:

• Finance Subcommittee: Wallace and Robbins
• Lake Tahoe Unified School District: Creegan and Friedrich
• Lake Tahoe Community College: Robbins and Wallace
• El Dorado County: Wallace and Bass
• Charter City Subcommittee: Bass and Robbins
• Housing Subcommittee: Wallace and Robbins
• Multi-Cultural Alliance Subcommittee: Friedrich and Bass
• Mental Health Subcommittee: Creegan and Bass
• Capital Improvement Program Subcommittee: Bass and Creegan
• South Shore Transit Subcommittee: Bass and Wallace

Items pass in the consent agenda included the purchase of a fire apparatus, a memorandum of understanding with the Police Employee’s Association, a property purchase agreement for the Upper Bijou Park Creek Watershed Restoration Project, and a grant application for microtransit charging infrastructure.

The entire list is on council’s agenda for Jan. 9.

Council also proclaimed January 2024 as National Human Trafficking Prevention and Awareness Month.

The entire meeting can be viewed on the City of South Lake Tahoe’s website.

The next City Council is scheduled for January 23, at 5:30 p.m.