Agency eyes affordable housing at Tahoe

Sunday, Dec. 5, 1999 | 9:52 a.m.

Staff is recommending the two counties and El Dorado, Calif., do more to deal with the problem, which has been blamed for a shortage of ski resort employees for the upcoming season.

The agency's governing board will consider the issue at a Dec. 15 meeting.

"It's kind of a wake-up call," TRPA planner Peter Eichar told the Tahoe Daily Tribune. "It's an effort to get these counties to really start pushing for this."

In 1996, TRPA's governing board approved a report identifying each jurisdiction's responsibility for providing affordable housing.

Only two California jurisdictions - the city of South Lake Tahoe and Placer County - have demonstrated a sufficient commitment for addressing the problem, staff members said.

"The belief here is we have given them enough time," Eichar said. "We should actually see some projects on the ground."

The agency's governing board could prohibit higher-priced subdivisions from being built in areas where affordable housing is allowed.

The prohibition could stay in place at least until the board revisited the issue in December 2000.

Lake Tahoe ski resort operators say a lack of affordable housing is making it more difficult than ever to find workers.

The big question potential employees ask concerns where to live and many simply are unable to find housing, they said.

To deal with the problem, ski resorts and other major Tahoe employers have begun a joint marketing program to attract employees.

Among other things, they chipped in to print a four-page insert that was placed in 90,000 copies of college newspapers across California this fall.