44 homes to be built at Sierra Colina community at Stateline

It's been a decade in the planning, with a long permitting and environmental process broken up by a lawsuit, but Sierra Colina is finally on the last lap of becoming a new housing project on the South Shore.

The 18-acre parcel in-between Lake Village and Sushi Pier will have 44 single-family homes and side-by-side townhouses ranging in sizes from just under 2,200 sq. ft. to 2,900 sq ft. They will be three- and four-bedroom homes to meet the different needs of the buyer according to Brian Helm, of Paradigm8 Partners, the developers of the project.

In January of 2016 the Douglas County Commissioners unanimously approved the new subdivision which, at that time, was going to have 13 single-family homes and 34 duplexes, nine of which were planned to be workforce housing.

The property is owned by locals Gail Jaquish and her husband, Steve Kenninger. They bought it in a foreclosure sale in 2005, with TRPA approval to build 50 units given in 2009. Soon after that the League to Save Lake Tahoe filed a lawsuit which derailed the project for years.

Jaquish and Kenninger put in streamzone improvements to Burke Creek that runs through their property to the lake (this can be seen adjacent to the Sushi Pier parking lot). They did remediation along the creek all the way up to the old Kingsbury Middle School.

After the lawsuit the subdivision changed to include fewer properties and no workforce housing. Helm said the units will be "market-priced."

Helm and his partner Hayes Parzybok have developed and/or managed several projects around the Lake Tahoe area including Constellation Residences at Northstar next to the Ritz-Carlton, Old Greenwood outside of Truckee and some of the Kings Beach redevelopment.

With Sierra Colina, the partners will be there to provide design, handle permitting, construction, marketing and sales. Helm said he will provide drawings and pricing by the beginning of June. This is the same time they'll start sales and marketing promotions.

Trees are being removed this week so construction can begin in July, 2017. Next month they'll be putting the power lines underground. Helm said this year they'll start building the first ten homes with anticipated completion in late spring/early summer 2018. They'll then start the next 17 homes that summer with the final phase started in the 2019 building season.

The owners of Sierra Colina are working with Nevada Department of Transportation (NDOT) to create a dedicated middle turn lane on Highway 50 outside of Lake Village to accommodate the extra traffic. This will be paid for by the developers. The new housing area will be accessed by a loop-style road off of Lake Village Drive.

"We're very excited about moving forward with this community," said Helm. "It's an exciting time to be part of the South Shore story with the Renaissance going on. We are looking forward to this!"