Council Meeting

The impact of vacation rentals, a popular option for tourist lodging, is a big, and controversial topic in South Lake Tahoe.

Soon, memories of "The Hole" will be replaced with the vision of new retail, restaurants and condominiums as the next phase of construction begins in South Lake Tahoe.

The Chateau at the Village will continue its growth to the corner of Friday Avenue and Highway 50.

Twenty years and many meetings later, the Tahoe Valley Area Plan unanimously passed the first of two final hurdles at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

In the first reading to adopt the three resolutions which make up the plan, Mayor Hal Cole and the City Council thanked everyone who was part of the long process to start shaping things up at the "Y". "This plan will have an impact for years to come," said Cole.

The City of South Lake Tahoe wants to hear opinions and concerns from the public on city matters. In order to hear from the people who cannot make City Council meetings they have created "eComment."

This new way to collect comments on agenda items was unveiled this weekend and is now in place, just in time for the June 2nd council meeting.

Since 2003 there has been Leadership Lake Tahoe and a few hundred people can now say they've graduated from this worthwhile program. What started as an annual joint venture between the two Chambers of Commerce that served the South Shore is now a biennial leadership experience.

I was a member of Leadership Lake Tahoe in 2006 and I can say that it changed my life.

Suicide does not discriminate. Suicide does not know income levels, race or neighborhoods. Suicide can happen next door.

Every day in California, Nevada, and every other state, there are friends, family and co-workers who struggle with emotional pain. And, for some, it's too difficult to talk about the pain, thoughts of suicide, and the need for help.

- Nearly 40,000 Americans commit suicide every year.
- In the U.S., suicide rates are highest during the spring.
- Suicide is the 3rd leading cause of death for 15 to 24-year-olds and 2nd for 24 to 35-year-olds.

If you've ever driven by South Tahoe Middle School just as the kids get to school, or as they depart, you know what an unsafe area it can be for students on bikes and on foot. Because of this, the Lake Tahoe Unified School District secured a $154,000 grant from the TRPA On Our Way program to work with the Lake Tahoe Sustainability Collaborative to conduct outreach and develop a connectivity and mobility plan for the area.

To City Manager of South Lake Tahoe, City Council

RE: motel housing

Honorable City Manager and City Council,

I am writing to you out of concern about the possible new ordinance regarding motel housing. In the past six years I have been involved with working for and advising various properties. The seven different properties opened my eyes to a separate part of our community that goes mostly unnoticed.

"You got to do something as doing nothing is costing you money," City of South Lake Tahoe Fleet Manager Ron Corbett told the City Council Tuesday.

The 260 vehicles and equipment maintained by Corbett's tea of master mechanics have a continually rising age. The City's police cars have an average age of 10 years, the Fire Department's vehicles are an average of 11 years old and the rest of the fleet has been around for an average of 17 years. If the fire and police departments hadn't just purchased new vehicles the ages of vehicles would have been much higher.

There are many sides to the South Lake Tahoe Vacation Home Rental (VHR) situation. On one side are the locals whose peaceful lives have been disturbed because they are the neighbors of vacation home rentals that are reportedly out of control with excess noise and trash that come from inconsiderate renters. On another side are the people wanting to enjoy South Lake Tahoe from the comfort of a private home. Yet another side are the second home owners who want to earn money from their vacation home.

You will soon be seeing this state of the art, high tech van traveling through the streets of South Lake Tahoe. Equiped with lasers, GPS, digital measuring tools and cameras, the van will be able to record the conditions of the city's infrastructure, thus allowing the gathered data to be evaluated to priorizie all maintenance.

Nationally it is estimated that there are $2 trillion of backlog mainenance to roads and other items in the infrastruce of cities and counties. Locally the number is estimated at $26 million.

"We have good news for the second year in a row," City Manager Nancy Kerry started with during her presentation Tuesday to the South Lake Tahoe City Council.

The budget for fiscal year 2013-14 closed out with a positive cash flow of $910,000. Kerry reported that a conservative fiscal philosophy and being budget conscious got the City through the recession. They have maintained a 25% reserve in the budget since 2005, a move that has allowed the City to be in the position to now grow the economy.

Boulder, Colorado has one. Portland, Oregon has one. Even Roseville and Truckee, California have one. If plans go as they appeared to during a presentation at the City Council meeting on Tuesday, South Lake Tahoe will soon have one.

What is it?

"It" is a combination BMX track and mountain bike skills park which will be located at the city owned Bijou Park.

Bijou Bike Park Association (BBPA) and Tahoe Area Mountain Biking Association (TAMBA) President Ben Fish laid out the proposed plan to the Council and community.

Less than a month ago the South Lake Tahoe City Council chose Tiffany Good from a group of five local community members interested in serving a two year term on the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Advisory Planning Commission.

Immediately after the appointment, Good was offered a job with TRPA so she needs to resign from the commission.

City Council will give direction to staff during Tuesday's meeting on how the position should be filled.

The Community Athletic Coordinating Council, an organization consisting of representatives of all youth and adult sports organizations in South Lake Tahoe will be holding a meeting on Wednesday, March 11, 2015. This meeting will be held at the Lake Tahoe Unified School District Boardroom, starting at 5:15pm. This is an open meeting and all interested community members are invited to attend.

Topics to be discussed include:

CACC 2015 Projects– Review and update
New Business

Vacation home rentals are an everyday part of life in South Lake Tahoe, though during weekends and holiday periods their impact is much more noticeable. With the large number of visitors "living" in the area neighborhoods next to full time residents their impact has created tension over noise, trash and parking issues.

In the City limits there are currently 1,574 houses that have a permit to be operated as a vacation home. In comparison there are about 15-20% that number in vacation cities Santa Cruz and Napa.

The City wants to recover some of the fees involved in the enforcement of a state mandated stormwater program which requires them to ensure commercial businesses are not discharging waste or pollutants into the storm drain system.

Keeping grease, oil and other contaminants out of the system is the goal of the program. Jason Burke, the City's Stormwater Program Coordinator, told the City Council on Tuesday that he will provide outreach and education to the high profile businesses that use grease and oil on a daily basis.

Cal Trans will make a presentation on replacing or rehabilitating an aging Echo Summit bridge during Tuesday's South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting.

The planned Echo Summit Bridge Replacement and Rehabilitation Project has been created because weather, age and use have caused severe deck cracking, extensive rust in the reinforcing steel and concrete cracking and spalling (breaking off into smaller pieces).

The bridge was built in 1939, is 30.76 feet wide and has three spans over Echo Summit.

The City of South Lake Tahoe looked into charging fees for mandated stormwater inspections of commercial businesses during Tuesday's Council meeting.

Since the City operates under a stormwater permit issued by the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board they must abide by their requirements which "include conducting commercial, industrial and municipal inspections in order to ensure commercial facilities are not discharging waste or pollutants into the City storm drain system."

The City Council Tuesday formalized the offer on the SW corner lot on Ski Run Blvd and Highway 50. The lot, along with 12,000 square feet of commercial floor area (CFA), was sold for $1.1 million to Halferty Development Company.

The City of South Lake Tahoe is set to sell the vacant lot they own on the southwest corner of Ski Run Blvd and Highway 50 during Tuesday's City Council meeting.

A purchase and sale agreement between the Halferty Development Company, LLC of Pasadena, CA and the City of South Lake Tahoe was created on January 5, 2015 and will be voted on January 20, 2015. The agreement shows that Halferty has offered $1,100,000 for the lot and will get 12,000 square feet of commercial floor space with the sale.

Twenty-one days after the election, the final results have now been certified by the El Dorado County elections department.

The closest race was for the three open seats for South Lake Tahoe City Council. The top vote getter was long time local Wendy David who had 18.05 % of the vote with 1727 residents feeling confident she'd represent them well. Coming in second was incumbent Tom Davis who received 1461 votes, or 15.52% of the vote. Austin Sass moved ahead of incumbent Angela Swanson and ended up with 1318 votes to Swanson's 1289, just .31% difference.

Janet McDougall used the public comment portion of a recent South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting to speak of her concern that people would lose access to Connelly Beach. Council members took interest and the subject is on Tuesday's Council agenda.

McDougall, a resident of South Lake Tahoe since 1963 and a graduate of South Tahoe High in 1975, spent 17 years working in the city attorney's office in town. She said that during that time she saw a growing amount of beaches becoming unavailable to the public.

The community is invited to the next South Lake Tahoe City Council meeting to hear Mayor Hal Cole's State of the City Address on Tuesday, November 18. He will be wrapping up his year as Mayor.

During the same meeting, the Fall 2014 Citizen's Academy Graduation will be held. The other agenda items will be posted on Friday, September 14.

City Council Chambers are located at 1901 Airport Road in South Lake Tahoe.