Achievable housing project planned for North Lake Tahoe

Placer County has purchased the 11-acre Nahas property near Tahoe City for $3.42 million. They are working with housing developer partner Related-Pacific Companies to develop conceptual options for a potential mixed-use commercial and achievable housing project on the site.

While the purchase represents a step forward in bringing more achievable housing to North Lake Tahoe, development concepts for the site are still in early stages and no project proposal has yet been brought forward for formal consideration or approval.

The seller, R.T. Nahas Company, offered a five-percent price reduction, or $180,000, if Placer completed the sale by Oct. 2. The Placer County Board of Supervisors in August 2018 approved a purchase-and-sale agreement for the property for $3.6 million and it closed in time for the reduction.

For the past year, there has been a series of community meetings to share ideas and seek input on preliminary design concepts. Related-Pacific and the county are developing revised concepts to address that feedback and expect to present those concepts at more workshops later this fall.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from our communities that creating more housing opportunities is critically important,” said District 5 Supervisor Cindy Gustafson. “We look forward to many more community conversations about housing for the site before we see any concrete plans move forward as this property is an important long-term investment for the area.”

Funding for the land purchase comes primarily from the county’s Housing Trust Fund, local transient occupancy tax revenues and a $500,000 contribution from the Tahoe Truckee Airport District (TTAD).

A condition of TTAD’s contribution is that the property is to be used to site housing in the ‘achievable’ range of affordability.

“Qualified applicants for well-paying jobs are turning down offers because they can’t find housing they can afford here,” said TTAD Board President Rick Stephens. “This growing crisis of housing affordability is hurting all of us, and it’s going to take all of us pitching in to help if we’re going to solve it.”

Historically, housing policies and discussions in eastern Placer County have focused on the need to provide workforce housing to accommodate the many service workers supporting its tourism-driven economy.

Regional housing experts have shifted to discussing the housing crisis in terms of local, achievable housing to better reflect the current need not just for income-restricted affordable housing, but for housing that fits the budgets of people making up to 205% of the local average median income - $171,380 a year for a family of four.

A recent study by Beacon Economics commissioned by the county’s Economic Development Office showed that while local housing prices are increasing at a rate slightly lower than elsewhere in California, median local wages are actually decreasing, worsening the problem.

The Nahas property location offers easy access to TART bus routes, schools, North Lake Tahoe’s downtown centers of Tahoe City and Kings Beach and the Dollar Hill Trail, all attributes important to an achievable housing site.

A previously-approved mixed-use housing and retail development permit for the site has expired but the site retains its development rights for residential and commercial use.

Placer County in January approved an exclusive-right-to-negotiate agreement with Related-Pacific to develop housing concept options for the site.

Related-Pacific is a hybrid team of development companies with experience in the Lake Tahoe Basin and Tahoe Truckee region.