Letter: VHR rules will be the downfall of SLT
To the community,
We recently received talking points from a local public relations firm relating to how we could handle the adverse publicity which occurred due to the CBS morning show about the draconian VHR ordinance and subsequent $1,000 fine enforcement.
Jim Morris
We, as property managers and owners, have been requesting support from the chamber of commerce, LTVA, and the lodging association in helping us fight the selfish attitudes of some locals regarding their entitlement to Lake Tahoe without visitors to their neighborhoods. We requested support of these groups to come to the council meetings and support our industry and now we have these onerous fees, regulations and fines.
Now the facts are getting out in the San Francisco Chronicle, Reno Gazette Journal, USA Today, CBS News, and other media outlets about the treatment of our visitors which we have been cultivating for decades.
In a recent interview Mayor Wendy David defended the council’s actions by their reliance on a socio-economic study which the city had paid $75,000 for. The study did not address the economic impacts which was required in the initial contract. Plus, the statistics relating to VHR complaints were exaggerated by 400 percent due to erroneous data supplied by the city. According to David, this was the reason for the city imposing all the latest restrictions, fines and a VHR cap of 1,400 because of this erroneous report. See the video here.
It has been said that you deserve the government that you have. South Lake Tahoe soak it up because if you don’t put an end to this craziness, it will take us years to recover.
Jim Morris, Lake Tahoe Accommodations owner
Apparently you did not get any help from your Public Relations firm to write this opinion letter! Name calling of locals as selfish and entitled are not very nice and certainly won’t get you any respect for your opinion. Telling South Lake Tahoe to “soak it up” and “you deserve the government that you have” is a very angry statement Mr. Morris. While I understand how frustrating this issue is for both sides, and do not entirely agree with the new ordinance, it would be better to continue to collaborate respectfully,
If VHR property managers and owners had implemented rules re noise, garbage, parking, and hours of hot-tubbing early on – this issue may not have escalated to this point. I think that the property managers/owners should be responisible for paying a fine for the breaking these rules, and have in their rental contracts that the tenants have to pay those fines back to the property manager/owner. They then collect that fine via a rental deposit from the tenant. I don’t think both parties should have to pay.
Folks who live here are entitled to the peaceful, quiet, enjoyment of their homes.
Mr Morris:
Your comments are very interesting. On one hand, we must applaud the actions to correct the negative publicity received from the recent CBS Morning Show which did not fully report the full story of Vacation Home Rentals (VHRs) in our community. On the other hand, we must all question how it is that you who are directly profiting from VHRs could be so obtuse as to call local residents as entitled and selfish for wanting peace in their own neighborhoods. Yes, these neighborhoods belong to those who live in them and not invading business interests. It is the VHRs who are profiting from this invasion of our neighborhoods who are acting selfishly and entitled.
If we want to talk about entitlement why don’t we look at the roots of why these fines have been established. VHRs are operating businesses in residential neighborhoods in contradiction to previously established zoning laws. VHRs invite guests to our neighborhoods without anyone on site to manage the problems that arise, no one to check-in on their guests and only local residents and the police to do the job of these businesses in managing their guests. If a local business was to leave their store unattended while the customers were left to run free no one would be surprised by the outcome and yet VHRs do this, everyday. VHRs introduce guests to our neighborhoods with no one to supervise them but local neighboring residents. We would not have these fines if VHRs managed the very real problems created by running a business and not managing their guests.
We agree that the bad press needs to be corrected. One must wonder how it was that our little problem came to the ears of CBS News. Who stands to gain by representing these measures as “draconian”? Who might use this bad press to their advantage? For now, we can only guess as to how this “report” came to be and how it is that VHR interests were so strongly represented while the issues of rental inventory and costs were seemingly ignored. It appears the only one who stands to gain from this report are your own interests in leveraging the City Council. Ironically, this is happening just as these new fines are having their intended impact. As City Police Chief Brian Uhler recently stated to the City Council: “Incidents are down likely because of these fines.” It appears the fines are doing what they were intended to do, force VHR Management to manage the problem their business creates. We must congratulate the City Council on this rare success, the VHR rules appear to be working.
I cannot imagine continuing to allow VHRs without penalties for their miss management. If the argument is to do away with these fines then local residents have no alternative but to vote against allowing these businesses to operate. You don’t get to have a free ride in our community. Manage your business and this won’t be a problem.
Sincerely,
Scott Ramirez
I think the VHR rules will make South Lake Tahoe a better place to live and visit. The funny thing about all these people who say it will be the downfall are just plain wrong. People are not going to stop visiting South Lake Tahoe, some will, and that’s fine. They’re the ones making it unbearable for the longtime residents of this beautiful region. Too many McMansions have been built to be Vacation rentals in our neighborhoods, that in essence micro hotels with no one on site to keep unruly visitors inline. I think the parking rule is wrong, you should be able to park legally on any public street without threat of a fine no matter who you are and if challenged would probabably be ruled unlawful.
San Francisco with 41,000 car burglaries, bums by the bushel, human excrement on the sidewalks,the notorious murder of Kate Steinle by an illegal, and sky high prices has no problem attracting tourists because there is no other city like Baghdad by the Bay.
Likewise Lake Tahoe and South Lake Tahoe in particular have something to offer tourists that no other location can offer. There is no need to delineate all the wonders that visitors can enjoy in our cloistered area as we residents are so familiar with them.
All this publicity brought to you by the media will be long forgotten history in short order and possibly, no for sure, will bring Lake Tahoe to the awareness of so many who don’t know Lake Tahoe from Lake Michigan and who will want to visit our lake, mountains, ski resorts and more.
Gary Midkoff has stated that the project to complete the Chateau in our tourist core will generate 13,000,000 dollars in TOT, more than making up for the loss of VHR TOT as they are fazed out over three years.
It will have a 14% TOT as compared to the 12% TOT generated in our residential areas.
It is time for the unmanaged mini-motels to get the heck out of our residential areas, period.