Letter: Voters should decide VHR issue
To the community,
Are South Lake Tahoe’s neighborhoods for sale? Over the last few years our city has allowed out-of-town investors to turn houses into motels and developers to build large scale lodging properties in our residential neighborhoods.
The local residents now want a chance to decide if we want these motels in our neighborhoods. The petition being circulated will let local voters make that decision. That is how democracy works using the initiative process.
In the meantime, there is a lot of talk that big money from outside special interest groups will swoop down on our town with mega-bucks and influence the election. Just what we don’t need is flatlanders trying to buy our town and the lifestyle we earned by living here. It is a simple choice: let the voters decide.
Linda Goodman, Tahoe Neighborhoods Group
“Are South Lake Tahoe’s neighborhoods for sale? Over the last few years our city has allowed out-of-town investors to turn houses into motels and developers to build large scale lodging properties in our residential neighborhoods. The local residents now want a chance to decide if we want these motels in our neighborhoods.”
Well stated ! AND YES THE LOCAL RESIDENTS SHOULD HAVE DIRECT INPUT TO WHAT THE FUTURE OF THEIR NEIGHBORHOODS WILL OR SHOULD ALLOW.
Realtors provide information to potential home buyers. The buyer determines if the the nature of the neighborhood is what they want by location, locality to schools and jobs, grocery stores, etc.
If rentals are allowed to be built for the sole purpose as a VHR then zoning ordinances are being violated. The local jurisdiction planners cannot just ignore the rules. Collecting Transient Occupancy Tax is a benefit to the local jurisdiction but zoning is in place for a reason and has specific criteria. Even if they are not being built and just used as a VHR the local jurisdictions are trying to crack down on the illegal-use without paying TOT but is enough being done?
It’s not just VHR’s but private amenities for outside the Lake Tahoe basin home-owners changing an area. Case in point Placer County a few years back allowed a single family home on the lake to be re-modeled. The applicant supplied a request and Placer granted the removal of a garage, several bedrooms, installation of several additional toilets and showers and called it a SFH re-model. The reality is the place is now known as Martis Camp Beach Shack: a private beach amenity for those families that own homes in Martis Camp at Northstar, Truckee. TRPA furthered the approval by allowing a use change to “beach-recreation” which doesn’t really suit the use.
Just last year The Ritz at Northstar purchased a bed and breakfast just down the street from Martis Camp Beach Shack and converted that B and B into another lake front private amenity for their owners.
TRPA code definition:
21.4 List of Primary Uses Beach Recreation
Recreational use of a beach, supported by developed facilities such as sanitation facilities, parking, and picnic sites, and nearshore facilities such as multiple-use piers and buoys. Nearshore and foreshore facilities are included in Chapter 81:Permissible Uses and Structures in the Shorezone and Lakezone.
WAKE UP LAKE TAHOE.
THIS IS NOT JUST HAPPENING ON SOUTH SHORE. THIS IS A REGIONAL ISSUE THAT REQUIRES ATTENTION AND A LAKE-WIDE SOLUTION. WE SHOULDN’T HAVE TO FILE PETITIONS TO HAVE THE RIGHT TO PROTECT OUR NEIGHBORHOODS THAT ARE LEGALLY ZONED RESIDENTIAL.