Wright: Land trust would provide South Lake recreation
By Kathryn Reed
For 30 years, Les Wright has wanted to start the Lake Tahoe Land Trust.
He first proposed the idea to South Lake Tahoe officials three decades ago. At that time he thought increasing the hotel tax by 2 percent would accomplish the goal. The goal being to raise money so property could be bought and either turned into parks, bike trails or open space.
As he tells the story, city officials liked the idea, too. They raised the transient occupancy tax. But it all went to the general fund, not to a land trust, not even designated just for recreation.
Les Wright
Now Wright’s idea is to increase property taxes for everyone living in the boundaries of Lake Tahoe Unified School District so $1 million could be raised each year. How much this would cost the average homeowner or business has not been analyzed.
With this most likely being formed as a 501(c)3 nonprofit, it would not be possible to tax property owners. So how Wright will actually secure the funding remains a mystery.
He also doesn’t want the cash collected from taxpayers to be used for maintenance and operations – just land acquisition.
Wright also wants the tax to go on indefinitely. No type of sunset clause was brought forth by him. The concept was not considered until Lake Tahoe News questioned the legality of his idea. It could mean generations from now would be taxed without representation.
Any tax idea has to go before the voters, with two-thirds saying yes for it to pass.
Wright, who has been on the city’s Parks and Recreation Commission as long as he has had the land trust idea, talked about bringing his dream to fruition at last week’s Recreation Commission meeting.
“I wonder what South Lake Tahoe would look like today if we had that 2 percent (from the TOT),” Wright said.
Wright, who is best known for having created the Lake Tahoe Marathon, is seeking the commission’s endorsement for the idea. The commission may take a vote at its next meeting. The June 28 session was just a discussion. The vote would not be on the land trust itself, but whether commissioners support developing the idea further.
Neither the commission nor the Parks and Rec Department would ever be directly involved. The trust would be a private entity.
The dictionary describes a “land trust” as — a trust created to effectuate a real estate ownership arrangement in which the trustee holds legal and equitable title to the property subject to the provisions of a trust agreement setting out the rights of the beneficiaries whose interests in the trust are declared to be personal property.
The idea for the Tahoe trust, according to Wright, is to buy vacant land or rundown buildings, and then give the land over to entities that could turn them into a recreational facility. He envisions a 21-member board being the stewards and overseers of the whole process.
Peter Eicher, with the California Tahoe Conservancy, was at the meeting because he knows about buying land.
“It’s not easy to just acquire property and let it sit. You need to keep it fire safe and you’ll run into encroachment issues,” Eicher told the group.
Some people at the meeting brought up the idea of partnering with another trust instead of starting from scratch.
To that, Wright said, “I don’t want anything to do with another trust.”
But he also said when the Lake Tahoe Land Trust is a reality he plans to donate the first lot.
In these years of tough times for this country, I suggest Mr. Wright step to the back of the line with this ideas.
Yeah, I agree with Shirley. What, is Mr. Wright some trust fund baby? Thinks we struggling property owners can just have ANOTHER tax added to our already overburdened property tax bill? ARE YOU NUTS? I’m glad Mr. Wright has lots of money, but don’t be stealing any more from us!
Thanks for thinking outside the box, but no more taxes. And no more boards of bureaucrats.
In my dealings with Mr. Wright I have found him to be smart in his ideas and caring about his community. Change comes with a price. In this case it also requires a vote. Let the man present his ideas. We can agree or not at the polls.
Thanks Les. Keep up the good work. Don’t let those who only want to find fault get you down!
Mr. Wright should generate the income to achieve his goal, buy the land and donate it along with the funds to maintain it in perpetuity. Don’t ask property owners to come up with more tax money.
This is one of those “sounds nice in theory” deals, but in the real world Tahoeans are already taxed to the hilt!!!
And while Les deserves credit for making the Marathon happen you always have to wonder what his angle is? Les extracts a lot free labor, free rooms and other free stuff for his Marathon by telling people it’s a non-profit and that he’s just trying to help the community. But when you dig a bit you discover that Les takes out a pretty good salary for himself, plus travel expenses and tax write-offs from the Marathon. Good be the same deal with this?
Where has he been for the last three decades.
Three decades ? Upton, Cefalu or who was the who on the board.
The Town of Mammoth Lakes has passed two ballot measures a sales tax and a utility tax that generate between $1.5 and $1.8 million for recreation only. They want to make Mammoth Lakes an outdoor recreation mecca and are willing to invest to do it. They see it as a quality of life issue for the local community and an economic development iniatitve. Les Wright’s idea has merit.
Carl,
Mammoth has not been robbed like the residents of So.Shore……
They don’t have any big holes dug with crooks both in the private sector and their city council getting fat with their dumb ideas.
Maybe Carl’s idea to generate money alloted to only recreation or tourism, but Les’s idea is already n place its called the conservancy. They already used tax payer money to buy tons of land in hodge podge fashion owning commercial property where commercial should be and creating this poorly planned town. CTC should help by consolidating their property to places where open space makes sense, not on the commercial corridor where we need businesses.
Put open space out where people hike and bike recreate , not in the center of what should be a town.
Les’s business practices of taking a salary for the marathon should but calling it a non profit be looked into
A significant amount of existing bicycle paths (and sidewalks) in the city of South Lake Tahoe apparently don’t have proper funding/attention to be maintained at an acceptable level. Wonder what should be done about this issue?
Mr. Wright’s agenda is about kids; it’s about our youth.
Just about everyone I know and every organization I know, will quickly admit that our kids are very very important to our society and our future.
And they will all claim the “Kids” are on their priority list.
But I have never seen “Kids” at the top of a priority list, except for four; Mr. Wright and the Parks Commission is one of the four.
If our kids are not at the top of our priority lists, then they will be pushed aside because they have no money and they cannot vote.
This is an idea that needs to be discussed more. One of the community needs that is consistently brought up is neighborhood parks. Pocket parks, mini parks, community gardens, local family orientated gathering places. How do we as a community provide the land for this idea? Start with donations? Phase in that four letter word; tax? At a dollar or two every month or two times every household for let’s say ten years ( possible sunset clause ) can purchase a lot of property. People who donate can be on the board, not bureaucrats. Volunteer your time, thoughts, and positive energy, not personal attacks which repeats what has happened in the past and shows self centered private agendas.