SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – City council met on Tuesday to update the timeshare ordinance, receive a report on road rehabilitation, and hear the annual report on development rights and their fair market value. Public comments also addressed traffic calming and vacation home rentals (VHRs).

Public comment

As the VHR ordinance will be seen again in a future council meeting, the public comment period regarding items not on the agenda was mostly around VHRs, especially around the decision to create buffers. Many spoke about how they felt that the buffers would lead to discriminatory policies or difficulties for neighborhoods like the Tahoe Keys. Others also pointed out that they were not interested in having in-person or video check-ins and preferred other policies that they said have been proven to work: check-ins about rules at the time of booking and age limits on renters, among other strategies.

During the consent agenda, both councilmember David Jinkens and some attendees expressed their distaste for the traffic calming toolbox item, which would give $100,000 to TJKM Transportation Consultants to create a traffic calming toolbox. Jinkens echoed attendee comments that felt that the toolbox was too costly and wouldn’t produce results. Previous council members had established their interest in the agreement because it aligned with the Vision Zero Plan to reduce traffic accidents in the city. The item passed with one no vote from Jinkens.

Timeshare ordinance

A hearing on the timeshare ordinance was conducted by city attorney Heather Stroud. The updates to the ordinance essentially removed outdated references to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) code and confirmed that fractional ownership classified a property as a timeshare.

The timeshare ordinance has been in place since 1987 in order to protect affordable housing and residential properties. This update was in response to complaints in 2021 on fractional ownerships for single-family residences being advertised and sold. While this is no longer happening, the updates to confirm that this type of use is prohibited was deemed warranted.

The motion unanimously carried and the second reading will take place at the next city council meeting.

Development rights

Development rights include residential units of use, commercial floor area, and tourist accommodation units—they were established by the TRPA to stem urban development in the region and must be acquired before a property is developed. The city currently maintains an inventory of development rights and land coverage that are available to the public at one-third of the market value.

For this year’s appraisal, Ben Johnson of the Johnson Valuation Group Limited recommended changes to the market value for the development rights, including a new category for stream environment zone (SEZ) restoration credits.

The changes are as follows:

• Commercial floor area: $22.50/sq. ft. to $25/sq. ft.
• Potential residential unit of use: $5,000 to $15,000
• Residential unit of use: $28,750 to $32,500
• Tourist accommodation unit: $25,000 to $27,500
• SEZ restoration credits can be used to mitigate impacts of development in stream environment zones and will be $30/sq. ft.

Councilmember Scott Robbins asked about the distinct price gap between tourist accommodation units and residential units, especially because it is technically possible to convert from one to the other, but it would be far more expensive to convert to residential given the current pricing. Johnson, who was available on Zoom, responded that the market efficiency dictated those major price differences.

Robbins continued on to say, “[Development rights] are artificial commodities… and my concern with that… is that after the public government created these commodities, they are traded in a dark market.” He suggested that city council talk to TRPA and put out a formal letter of request to make the values of development rights public to increase transparency.

The city has used this policy for the past five to six years to help create consistency and make clearer to developers what their costs could be. It was in part developed by Mayor Tamara Wallace.

Wallace went back and forth with Jinkens on whether they should be discussing these costs during their budget meeting, asserting that the current annual report was the best way to analyze these particular costs, as it’s not clear ahead of time who is interested in developing on a year-to-year basis.

Through this current system, some money from development rights’ sales goes to affordable housing—though it hasn’t generated a huge portion for that budget. City manager Joe Irvin said, “In the last five years our housing division has [grown] with regards to staffing and programs… if we don’t grow new housing-dedicated funding, we are going to dip into the general fund.”

The council unanimously approved a suggested action to write a letter to TRPA requesting a transparent commodities market, as well as the city annual development rights report.

Road rehabilitation

The road rehabilitation item requested $4,033,731 plus a 10% contingency for the road rehabilitation and drainage replacement project, which would go to All-American Construction. It also requested reimbursements for the South Tahoe Public Utility District, and an agreement with Lumos and Associates for construction support services which would not exceed $7,840.

The roads for this year’s project are Walkup Road, Herbert Avenue (South), Red Lake Road, Woodland Road, Hobart Road, Aloha Road, and Warr Road. The Aloha Basin will also be included.

Scott Loberg commented on how he feels his streets have not been fixed despite the schedule saying that they would be repaired in 2024. “What’s the explanation for that? We’re just wasting people’s time… it’s just obscene and a misuse of the public trust.”

Director of public works Anush Nejad said that they had visited the site that Loberg specified and that they’d made a few repairs, though Loberg was upset that there were patches and not a complete repair of the roads.

The city council unanimously approved the motion.

During updates, Irvin highlighted that the Airport Art Exhibition was opening on May 22 from 4:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., that Mayor Wallace would be discussing strategic plan items at 4:30 p.m. at Alibi Aleworx on May 29, and that Lake Tahoe Pride is organizing a pride celebration on June 1 at Lakeview Commons.

The next city council meeting is June 3.

Eli Ramos is a reporter for Tahoe Daily Tribune. They are part of the 2024–26 cohort of California Local News Fellows through UC Berkeley.