Placer County buying South Lake Tahoe motel; Demolition planned

South Lake Tahoe may soon be one less aging motel along the main stretch in town. On Tuesday, the Placer County supervisors gave staff the go ahead to purchase the A & A Lake Tahoe Inn for $1.425 million. The county wants to have the motel's 34 tourist accommodation units (TAUs) so they can add hotel rooms at the north end of Lake Tahoe.

The south shore motel rests in a stream sensitive zone. If the purchase goes through, Placer County would give the motel to the California Conservancy for demolition and restoration while keeping the TAUs.

The reason these 34 units become so valuable is because they could become 102 units under Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) regulations which give a three-to-one credit for each motel unit moved.

The South Lake Tahoe City Council will have to approve any TAUs being transferred out of the city.

"We have been working with Placer County and are encouraged by their interest in TAUs on the South Shore," South Lake Tahoe City Manager Nancy Kerry told South Tahoe Now. "Overall, most agree there is an excess of TAUs on the south shore and we have an additional goal to attract substantial capital investment to the south shore."

Kerry explained that both of those goals can be accomplished by converting TAUs to Commercial Floor Area (CFA) or by allowing more old motels to be demolished with their TAUs being transferred to other areas like Placer County or eliminated all together.

The move by Placer County could have several benefits to the South Lake Tahoe community. Decreasing old motels and their TAUs while increasing available CFAs would attract new investors. Fewer motels would put a higher demand on the remaining hotel and motel rooms. Fewer rooms would drive up room rates and attract more capital investment from those seeing the benefit of owning tourist based properties in the area.