Agency Urges More Affordable Housing Near Lake Tahoe

Washoe and Douglas counties haven’t done their fair share to create affordable housing at Lake Tahoe, members of the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency say.

The staff is recommending that the two counties and El Dorado, Calif., do more to deal with the problem, which has been blamed for a shortage of ski resort employees for the upcoming season.

The agency’s governing board will consider the issue at a Dec. 15 meeting.

“It’s kind of a wake-up call,” said Peter Eichar, a regional agency planner. “It’s an effort to get these counties to really start pushing for this.”

In 1996, the agency’s governing board approved a report identifying each jurisdiction’s responsibility for providing affordable housing.

Only two California jurisdictions--Placer County and the city of South Lake Tahoe--have demonstrated a sufficient commitment for addressing the problem, staff members said.

“The belief here is that we have given them enough time,” Eichar said. “We should actually see some projects on the ground.”

The agency’s governing board could prohibit higher-priced subdivisions from being built in areas where affordable housing is allowed.

The prohibition could stay in place at least until the board revisits the issue in December 2000.

Lake Tahoe ski resort operators say that a lack of affordable housing is making it more difficult than ever to find workers.

The big question that potential employees ask concerns where to live, and many of them simply are unable to find housing, they said.

To deal with the problem, ski resorts and other major Tahoe employers have begun a joint marketing program to attract employees.

Among other things, they chipped in to print a four-page insert that was placed in 90,000 copies of college newspapers across California this fall.