Devin Middlebrook

The Tahoe Chamber collected 190 nominations from the community for the 13th annual Blue Ribbon Award to celebrate the businesses, non-profits and individuals that make the South Shore of Lake Tahoe so unique. Local businesses have been a resilient backbone of the community throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, and honoring their contributions, achievements and milestones is more important than ever before.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Years of work by a team of professionals and public outreach has led to the release of the Draft State Route State Route 89 Recreation Corridor Management Plan.

Those who have been on this congested segment of roadway around Lake Tahoe are aware of the long list of issues including traffic issues, parking issues, and safety issues during the summer and popular weekends.

In South Lake Tahoe, Truckee, and Mammoth Lakes, our public lands are woven into the fabric of life. These lands are symbols of our strength and keepers of serenity in these turbulent times. As we've seen locally, our parks and public lands are a beloved resource and one that is essential for our collective recovery. If we want our parks and public lands to be there for us for the long haul we need to invest in them now.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - City Council has two items on their special meeting agenda for Wednesday, April 8 at 1:00 p.m. The meeting is live-streamed on Channel 21 and on the City’s website at www.cityofslt.us.

There will be no formal action on the first item. They will be discussing their newly appointed Transformational Change Committee which is comprised of Councilmembers Cody Bass and Devin Middlebrook.

At their meeting last week, the council created two other committees as well that will address the response and recovery to the COVID-19 crisis:

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - During their special meeting Wednesday, the South Lake Tahoe City Council discussed three topics related to the current COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

One of their action items was to vote on an urgency ordinance that would establish a moratorium on commercial evictions due to COVID-19. During their emergency meeting on March 20, 2020, the Council unanimously supported a provision to put a temporary moratorium on residential evictions.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Ever since the South Lake Tahoe became an incorporated city on November 30, 1965, there have been five elected councilmembers. Annually those elected members vote for one of them to hold the position of mayor for a one-year term.

That has now changed.

On Tuesday the South Lake Tahoe City Council unanimously approved the proposal to have mayor terms of nine months "so they can all get a chance in their four-year term."

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - In a quest to allow staff and City Council time to address strategies and goals and less time spent on preparing reports for meetings, the South Lake Tahoe City Council moved on Tuesday to adopt a new meeting schedule for 2020, one that gives them one major meeting a month along with budget workshops, closed sessions, joint agency meetings, team building sessions, and public forums.

Californians, including the people of Lake Tahoe, love our public lands. We love the cold deep blue waters of Lake Tahoe, the rugged mountains, and the varied forests that are part of the nearly 100 million acres of land all Californians can claim ownership of. We love these public lands not just because of their natural beauty, but because they are central to our way of life. Many of us live here, or moved here, because of what they provide - culture, lifestyle, and livelihood.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - As the Global Climate Strike was taking place around the world will millions of people participating, approximately 200 people in South Lake Tahoe held their own on the shores of Lake Tahoe at Lakeview Commons.

Several speakers addressed the crowd, one bigger than organizers imagined.

"This is a fantastic turnout," said organizer Stephen Wright of South Lake Tahoe. "Kids even left school."

Wright was referring to a group of students who walked from South Tahoe High to Lakeview Commons (a 4-mile trek) to join in.

South Lake Tahoe’s renewable energy leadership is providing the opportunity for the installation of substantive solar projects on the rooftops and properties of public buildings throughout the Sierra. The City took on this leadership role in May after signing a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to become the lead agency for the Sierra under the Solar Energy and Economic Development (SEED) Fund, a not-for-profit program aimed to empower public agencies to evaluate and participate in regional collaborative procurement of municipal solar projects.

SnowGlobe remains a popular and divisive event in South Lake Tahoe. It brings thousands of visitors during our busiest holiday and drives room rates through the ceiling. It also is now proven to violate El Dorado County noise regulations which the County refuses to enforce. It violates the Bijou/Al Tahoe Community Plan noise regulations which the TRPA refuses to enforce. It violates the requirements of the Temporary Activity Permit which both the City and TRPA are working to revise.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - When the City formed in 1965 it was incorporated as a general law city for the purpose of having more local control over public services such as police, fire, and snow removal.

Now there is discussion about changing to a charter city. During their March 5 meeting, Councilmember Cody Bass asked that this subject come forward at a future meeting and Councilmembers Jason Collin and Devin Middlebrook said they were interested in learning more about what the differences are between the two, and what it would mean to South Lake Tahoe to switch.

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. - 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.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - Giving people a positive experience as they travel along the west shore of Lake Tahoe will require removing congestion from the roadway is one of the goals of the State Route 89 Recreation Corridor Management Plan.

A collaboration of 17 agencies and organizations have been working on the plan which covers the stretch from 15th street in South Lake Tahoe to the Placer County line at Sugar Pine Point State Park. Along the plan area are popular areas to view scenery, hike, bike and visit beaches along a 12 mile stretch of undeveloped shoreline.

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. - The three newly elected South Lake Tahoe City councilmembers were sworn in on Tuesday along with the new city clerk, and a new mayor and mayor pro-tem have been selected.

Devin Middlebrook, Tamara Wallace, Cody Bass and Sue Blankenship all took the oath of office in front of a packed City Council meeting on December 11, 2018.

Brooke Laine was unanimously chosen for mayor and Jason Collin was unanimously selected for mayor pro-tem.

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - What should be the final count of ballots for the November 6 election in El Dorado County was released today, giving clarity to a hotly contested ballot measure in South Lake Tahoe. The citizen generated Measure T calls for a ban of all vacation rentals in South Lake Tahoe except for those in what is called the "tourist core."

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Measure T, the South Lake Tahoe ballot measure that proposed a ban on all vacation rentals outside of the tourist core area starting in 2021 is a bit closer to passing.

In the second incremental release of votes counter after Tuesday, November 6, the Yes on T vote is at 3265, with No on T counts at 3207 - less than one percent difference. 267 ballots were tallied in this last release for Measure T.

The following was sent to South Tahoe Now early Wednesday morning as the second set of results were posted:

Update - 1:20 a.m. 11/7/18: With a large voter turnout the processing of ballots is taking longer than normal. A power outage caused by a car hitting a power line near Blackwood Avenue caused some excitement for voters but did not delay the count as there are procedures in place for such an incident.

Local public safety employees hosted the eighth and final South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates' forum on October 25 at Lake Tahoe Community College.

It was a full house at the event which was hosted by the South Lake Tahoe Police Officers, the California Nurses and the South Lake Tahoe Firefighters associations and gave everyone a chance to hear from the nine candidates about their views before the November 6 election. Each association gave them two questions a piece, plus a couple asked by audience members during the two-hour long forum.

At the first required filing of campaign paperwork, South Lake Tahoe City Council candidates raised just over $47,000 for the 2018 election season. Mayor Wendy David's $13,499 led candidates, which included a $10,000 loan to get her campaign started. Funds raised by a group formed to challenge Measure T, which bans vacation home rentals in the City outside the tourist core area, has raised $270,112.77 with most of it coming from the National Association of Realtors, local realtors and companies associated with the rentals.

LAKE TAHOE, Calif./Nev. - The Tahoe Prosperity Center once again is hosting the Tahoe Economic Summit, an event that delves into issues many locals are concerned with including housing, the economy, innovation, entrepreneurship and an educated workforce.

This year the summit "Transforming Tahoe," will be held on October 19 from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.,

Heidi Hill Drum, the TPC executive director, says their goals each year are to bring in expert speakers on important issues and then have engaging conversations around how we can positively impact our region through breakout sessions.