Letter: Please don't change my neighborhood!

As full-time residents of South Lake Tahoe for almost 40 years, my
wife and I are growing more and more concerned about the possible
effects of the proposed vacancy tax on full time residents if it is passed and implemented.

Our neighborhood, like many in the area, is a mix of full-time
residents and vacation homes. The vacation homeowners, most of them
long-time owners, are our neighbors like any other and are a part of
our little community. We enjoy them when they are here and when they
are not, our neighborhood is even more quiet and tranquil. We keep an
eye on each other. Many of them have owned these homes for years but such a tax penalty might force many to rent their homes to avoid it and not have to sell long-time family homes. A tough choice.

Before Measure T was passed we had several short-term rentals that really changed the quiet nature of our street and caused a lot of noise, garbage, and parking problems.

What concerns us is that if even a small number of these homes were to be rented full-time, the very nature of our community would be dramatically changed, and not for the better. Few of us have fences dividing our properties, as we all know each other and respect the privacy and property of each other. With the change to full-time rental homes this would be difficult to continue, and I would expect that many new fences would be required to continue the same level of this property and privacy respect. I can't imagine a whole house rented to only one or two people with what it would probably cost. Likely there would be many occupants along with an increase in visitors also.

Most of the homes in my area are older and don't have garages because
they were built as more seasonal-use homes, not full-time homes. If rented out full-time I am concerned that these homes would become cluttered with resident’s belongings that would usually be stored inside a garage. There is limited parking within the small footprint of the lots and some don't really have a driveway at all. The inevitable increase in the number of vehicles, snowmobiles, motorcycles, boats, trailers, work trucks and even large commercial vehicles, would have to overflow onto our local streets, making an already narrow street much more crowded and difficult to navigate. Winter would force many to park on snow-narrowed streets making
regular plowing or easy passage almost, if not impossible.

The increase in traffic, vehicles parked, noise and overall activity in these small quiet neighborhoods would in a major way detract from the quality of life that so many now enjoy and have enjoyed for many years. The very fabric of our quality of life I fear would be forever changed. I imagine that property values would suffer also. I am not looking forward to such changes. For those of us that live here full time, second homeowners are really great neighbors and I don’t want that to change.

Save our quiet neighborhoods, Please vote NO on the vacancy tax!

- Dan and Sally Jenkins