city council

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Even though the Snowglobe Music Festival is held in South Lake Tahoe for just three days a year, it's a year-long series of negotiations and discussions between staff, agencies, the No-Globe Alliance and the public to work out details for the next December's event.

During the June 18 City Council meeting, a new, multi-year Special Event Agreement

Former South Lake Tahoe City Attorney Tom Watson has resigned from his position with the City of Tracy, California and taken a new one as the City Attorney of Santa Maria, a community south of San Luis Obispo.

Watson will start with them on June 17 after his contract was unanimously approved by the Santa Maria City Council on May 7.

"I have confidence in his abilities to manage and lead the City Attorney’s Office for years to come,” said Mayor Alice Patino in a news release. “I look forward to him effectively managing the legal needs of our city.”

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During Tuesday's City Council meeting, one vacation home rental (VHR) owner lost their permit to operate in South Lake Tahoe after the Tahoe Neighborhoods Group appealed a decision by the Planning Commission.

On March 14, the commission decided to overturn City staff's revocation of VHR permit ##005258 located at 797 San Jose Avenue, Unit B. Staff had revoked the permit in January when the owner of the home, Susan Porter of San Ramon, didn't meet the deadline for renewing her permit or paying the required transient occupancy tax (TOT).

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Since its arrival, the 2013 model Ferrara ladder truck the City of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) purchased has been been a "lemon," and now they have reached a settlement with the manufacturer, Ferrara Fire Apparatus of Holden, Louisiana.

In 2014, City of South Lake Tahoe Fire Rescue (SLTFR) took possession of a 2013 model Ferrara ladder truck at the tune of almost $1,050,000. It was purchased to replace the aging ladder truck SLTFR had from 1982 and was paid for with funds from California sales tax money devoted to public safety.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During their May 7 meeting, the South Lake Tahoe City Council will conduct a public hearing to solicit citizen input about the 2019-2020 Budget.

Everyone is encouraged to attend. The meeting starts at 9:00 a.m.in City Hall at the Airport and is the midway through the agenda. Prior to the budget talk there will be four presentations, the approval of the consent agenda and three other hearings.

There will be a presentation after which the public will be encouraged to present

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - With about $8 million in unassigned General Fund reserves, the South Lake Tahoe City Council voted last week to spend about $2.5 million for the replacement of four pieces of critical snow removal equipment and the purchase of one new piece of equipment.

The Department of Public Works has thirty-one pieces of heavy equipment assigned to snow removal operations for use on roads, the airport, facilities, parks, and
trails. Some of that equipment can do double duty and work during non-winter months including loaders, pick-up trucks, and tractors.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Lime is returning to South Lake Tahoe this summer, but with some changes both visibly and financially during a new one-year trial period for 2019.

After much discussion on Tuesday night, the City Council unanimously approved a new contract with Lime that will bring up to 550 scooters to town this season, but, as reported before, the bikes are not returning.

The Council wanted to make sure not all 550 will appear on opening day at the beginning of May and will work with Lime to start slow.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The deadline for people interested in running adult-use cannabis businesses in South Lake Tahoe to turn in their paperwork has passed and 21 applications were received.

The City Council approved a total of two retail, two microbusiness, two cultivators and four manufacturer permits for South Lake Tahoe. That formula changes if the approved microbusinesses don't want to do retail or cultivation.

At the April 5 deadline, the 21 applications received included 18 were for retail, two for microbusinesses and one for cultivation.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Road rehabilitation has long been a concern of City Council, but there hasn't always been money in the budget to do anything more than patching, pothole filling and some resurfacing. With almost 130 miles of roads (260 lane miles) maintained by the City of South Lake Tahoe, with many of them past their prime, it would take millions of dollars to get all of them to a top rating.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The City Council decided today by a vote of 5-0 to have City staff to start the design process that will allow up to 47 new parking spaces along Bellamy Court in the Heavenly Village area in South Lake Tahoe.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Council will receive a presentation about broadband and wireless communications infrastructure in South Lake Tahoe during their meeting on Tuesday, April 2. The presentation will be from representatives with AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and a communications expert.

The meeting, which starts at 9:00 a.m. in Council Chambers at the airport, will have the following items up for discussion and vote:

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - After two summers in South Lake Tahoe, Lime is not bringing back their green bikes to town this May and instead are concentrating on their popular electric scooters, the fastest growing segment of the San Franciso-based company.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A full list of needed renovations at the South Lake Tahoe police station would cost a few million dollars, but until a more comprehensive capital planning process is completed the Council voted to give them $225,000 to get started on the most immediate needs.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In 2016 a group of citizens gathered enough signatures to put a measure before the voters in November of that year to prevent the City of South Lake Tahoe from taking any action on what has been known as the Loop Road project (though the official name is the US 50/South Shore Community Revitalization Project) without first getting approval by the voters.

Today the California Supreme Court put an end to that measure.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Except for special events, food trucks have been missing from the South Lake Tahoe horizon, with a previous ordinance preventing an vehicle selling food items for stopping more than 15 minutes.

On Tuesday, the South Lake Tahoe City Council approved a new food truck ordinance that will take effect on March 19, 2019.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In an effort to bring more of the public to their meetings, the South Lake Tahoe City Council is holding their second meeting of each month in the evening.

Tuesday, February 19 will be the first night meeting for the new Council and the agenda appears to be fairly short. The meeting starts at 5:30 p.m. and the Council voted to not allow the night meetings to go past 10:00 p.m.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There's no question, South Lake Tahoe needs more public parking areas in town, especially near Stateline and the Heavenly Village.

During last week's City Council meeting, Police Chief Brian Uhler made a presentation with his ideas for adding 57 new parking spots around the village utilizing the surplus kiosks the city has on hand.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Due to the current blizzard, the South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting on Tuesday, February 5 will start two hours late at 11:00 a.m. The closed session portion of the meeting will start at 10:30 a.m.

City officials said this delayed start will allow attendees to get to the meeting safely.

There are 15 items on the agenda including the final vote on a cannabis use ordinance and first reading on a mobile vending ordinance.

Snowglobe 2018 is now in the books. There have been some successes as well as some difficulties. This year saw the introduction of professional sound engineers to help reduce the sound and new field protection to prevent further damage to our new play fields. The sound is reported to have been improved for many though the people who live nearest this event in Pioneer Village, along the Bijou Meadow, around Johnson Lane and in Sierra Tract continue to be bombarded by three days of sound.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Food trucks will soon be a part of the South Lake Tahoe culture if a new ordinance is approved during the City Council meeting on Tuesday, January 15, 2019.

After many public meetings and the recent approval by the Planning Commission, the new ordinance would streamline the existing mobile vendor permitting procedures and
allow limited mobile vending at up to six private commercial locations in the city.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - A special closed session meeting has been called for City Council on Tuesday, January 8, 2019 at 8:30 a.m. There are two agenda items, both involving conferences with legal counsel.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - There are new laws in California in 2019 that will affect those on the road, bike paths, eating at restaurants, paying bail and receiving minimum wage. In 2018, 1,217 bills made it to Governor Brown's desk and he signed 1,016 of them which are now new laws.

Here is a highlight of some of those laws which will soon be in effect:

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Many in the community were just getting their day underway on Thursday when they heard of the passing of Dr. Stephen Bannar, a respected orthopedist whose talent was known beyond the borders of our country.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - The new city council had to tackle the big issue of a cannabis ordinance during their first meeting together on Tuesday, an issue that had been before the previous council numerous times. Two versions of an ordinance were presented but neither passed muster in the eyes of the council and they hope to have one that addresses their issues come before them at their January 15, 2019 meeting.