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Reporter’s Notes: Do it South Shore

Jeremy Evans

There’s not much to duplicate on the school district front, but there are aggressive affordable housing efforts we should adopt. Imagine how many new kids would supply our school districts if there were 500 affordable housing units on South Shore.

The City of South Lake Tahoe, El Dorado County and Douglas County need to work with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency to require developers who want to build multi-unit residential complexes to provide housing mitigation plans before having their permits approved. Make it a rule, not an incentive.

The TRPA said it might consider such action if local governments stress the need for these new development regulations. Our local leaders need to do that because injecting dozens of new employees, who will likely earn low wages in our service industry climate, into an open market housing situation only compounds the affordable housing problem.



Meanwhile, all three local government agencies need to start banking land for future affordable housing opportunities. They need to establish consistent and open dialogue with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency so all four government entities are on the same page when it comes to development regulations and affordable housing.

Assuming a local housing authority is established – as suggested in the Park City story in Wednesday’s Tribune – if the city or county purchases and/or aids an affordable housing applicant in buying a vacant lot, the TRPA does allow exemption from the allocation waiting list. That exemption provides our local governments with another opportunity for affordable housing.


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