A cheerful crowd of community members, state and local leaders, and affordable housing advocates gathered on the campus of Lake Tahoe Community College (LTCC) earlier this month to commemorate the opening of a truly remarkable student housing project. As the Tahoe sky did its Fall dance, flashing from hot sun to gray drizzle and back again, we marveled at the new 100-bed dormitory and listened to a moving speech by a student leader that reminded us how important access to safe, affordable housing is in the Tahoe Basin. On behalf of Team Tahoe, congratulations to LTCC for bringing a game-changing affordable housing project to the Tahoe Basin.

The speaker was Hudson Conners, one of the first full-time students to move into the facility. “With scarce housing and high rent, housing became a difficult barrier that had to be overcome,” Conners said.  Like many students, some of whom are local high school graduates and hospitality workers, housing became a serious barrier not just to his education, but to the course of life.

The dedication ceremony came less than two building seasons from the start of construction, a speed record of sorts for a major project in the Tahoe Basin and a record-setting completion date for the State of California community college affordable housing initiative. The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) played an important role in the permitting process, similar to the 248-unit Sugar Pine Village affordable housing project in South Lake Tahoe where 68 units are already occupied and the next 60 units are under construction.

Team Tahoe came together for both projects, showing we can protect Lake Tahoe and deliver quality affordable housing at the same time. However, much more needs to be done. In addition to the human toll of housing insecurity, today more than half of Lake Tahoe’s workers live outside the basin, which adds to traffic and vehicle emissions that harm air and water quality. We need to be able to scale these successes up in ways that will protect Lake Tahoe’s environment and meet the region’s housing needs.

Enter Cultivating Community, Conserving the Basin. Over the next year, TRPA is leading a public process to advance new policies that maintain environmental protections and current growth limits while creating incentives and lowering costs for many types of affordable housing throughout the region. Earlier phases of this work have made it easier to add accessory dwelling units, created a monitoring and compliance program to protect existing deed-restricted housing, and set new policies for building design that will reduce the cost to create multi-family homes and apartments as long as they are deed-restricted for local workers or certain income levels.

In this phase, TRPA is looking into the effect that the long-standing development rights system may have on housing affordability. Key policies that protect the lake, such as water quality requirements and growth limits, must stay in place, but how we apply them to different projects could lower housing costs substantially and open more opportunities for affordable and workforce housing projects of many types and sizes.

To draft the most effective policy recommendations possible, TRPA has been building upon meaningful, two-way engagement with community members, including historically underrepresented groups. Cultivating Community, Conserving the Basin has included mini-grants to support the engagement of community-based organizations, scholarships to help individuals learn and get engaged, and a working group of local governments, housing experts, and environmental and community-based non-profits.

TRPA is holding an informational briefing on the draft policy recommendations at its meeting Wednesday, Oct. 22 and a workshop for a deeper dive into the process on Nov. 19. There will be additional public input opportunities over the next several months, including during preparation of a full environmental impact statement.

Recent progress on affordable and workforce housing is just the beginning for Team Tahoe. Improving housing options will help protect the lake, grow our sense of community, and improve the lives of those who can’t find affordable housing in the Tahoe Basin. The chance to become a member of the Tahoe community and enjoy all that Lake Tahoe has to offer should be open and accessible to anyone. Learn more about this important work and get involved at TahoeLiving.org.