{"id":1035,"date":"2022-06-13T18:50:55","date_gmt":"2022-06-14T01:50:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/?p=1035"},"modified":"2022-06-13T18:50:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-14T01:50:55","slug":"can-lake-tahoe-outgrow-its-dependence-on-tourism-a-new-report-offers-solutions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/06\/13\/can-lake-tahoe-outgrow-its-dependence-on-tourism-a-new-report-offers-solutions\/","title":{"rendered":"Can Lake Tahoe Outgrow Its Dependence On Tourism? A New Report Offers Solutions"},"content":{"rendered":"
Max Whittaker\/Special to The Chronicle. Img: Cris Alarcon<\/pre>\n
PLACERVILLE, CALIFORNIA, June 13, 2022 \u2014 The pandemic sent remote workers and streams of tourists to the mountains, adding new pressure to Tahoe\u2019s lean infrastructure and sparking conversations about how communities there will manage going forward. Workforce housing is in short supply, the affordability gap is growing, roads and trails are jam-packed, and tensions between newcomers and established locals routinely make headlines.<\/p>\n
Compounding the challenges, Tahoe residents have struggled with wildfires, smoke and periodic pandemic lockdowns that drove tourists away at key times.<\/p>\n
The problems were collated in a recent, extensive community survey in which a majority of respondents said they believed that Tahoe \u201cis on the wrong track.\u201d<\/p>\n
Following that survey is a new white paper, published Wednesday, that outlines proposals for \u201ceconomic resilience, investment and community inclusion\u201d across the sprawling region of 57,000 residents. Called the Prosperity Playbook, the 80-page document insists that Tahoe must grow beyond its reliance on tourism and cultivate a more robust community capable of supporting seasonal workers, high-earning residents and everyone in between.<\/p>\n
\u201cTahoe is more than a place to come visit,\u201d said Bill Mueller, lead author on the playbook and a partner with Integrated Communications Strategies, an economic development firm in Sacramento. \u201cIt\u2019s also a place to raise a family, to start a business, to have a great quality of life. That other part of the story doesn\u2019t always break through.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lake Tahoe is finally reining in bad boater behavior<\/p>\n
These Tahoe estates may set real estate price records, as the region sees \u2018more millionaires and billionaires than ever\u2019<\/p>\n
The playbook was prepared by the Tahoe Prosperity Center, an economic development nonprofit in Incline Village, Nev., which also produced the recent community survey. It is cosigned by Placer County Supervisor Cindy Gustafson and South Lake business owner Chris McNamara.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n
Below is a breakdown of four key objectives outlined in the playbook, designed to improve Tahoe\u2019s future outlook.<\/p>\n
Diversifying Tahoe\u2019s economic base<\/h4>\n
While Tahoe has been a resort destination for 70 years, community leaders worry that the region has become dependent on tourism. In 2020, the tourism industry was responsible for 62% of Tahoe\u2019s economic output, according to the center.<\/p>\n
But wildfire, smoke and pandemic lockdown protocols all cratered visitation to Tahoe for extended periods in the past few years, and more climate-fueled setbacks are expected in the future. To guard against such unpredictable events, the playbook recommends growing local businesses outside of the tourism sector. But that \u201crequires a change in mindset, in strategy, and in choice-making,\u201d it reads.<\/p>\n
A strategy the playbook lays out involves supporting \u201canchor institutions\u201d in the healthcare sector \u2014 a key industry behind tourism \u2014 by promoting Tahoe as a destination for medical procedures, recovery, therapy and healing.<\/p>\n
\u201cHealth and wellness has one of the highest potentials for economic expansion with its high-wage jobs,\u201d said Heidi Hill Drum, Tahoe Prosperity Center CEO.<\/p>\n
Creating affordable workforce housing<\/h4>\n
Tahoe\u2019s housing affordability woes, particularly for thousands of seasonal workers in the basin, have been well documented. But a real estate boom that has sent home prices soaring upwards of 200% since the onset of the pandemic has placed the issue front and center.<\/p>\n
Some believe the popularization of vacation-rental platforms like Airbnb and Vrbo are a primary culprit \u2014 in that they may provide incentives to homeowners to pull properties off the long-term rental market and rent them to weekend visitors instead.<\/p>\n
The playbook, however, emphasizes a need for \u201cinclusionary zoning\u201d to mix affordable housing units with new commercial developments and allow accessory dwelling units on single-family lots \u2014 a foundational concept behind California\u2019s SB9, a controversial housing bill that Gov. Newsom signed last fall.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s probably the easiest and quickest way we can access local workforce housing,\u201d Drum said. \u201cWe in Tahoe have incentivized large, luxury second homes and vacation rentals. But if we really want smaller, more affordable workforce housing units, our governments need to prioritize them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cultivating startup culture<\/h4>\n
As scores of Silicon Valley tech workers relocate to Tahoe, community leaders hope to channel that influx of brainpower to create new, lasting job opportunities for locals.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s a growing base of talent here, but it\u2019s disconnected,\u201d Mueller said. \u201cWe want to be able to create a place that allows new businesses to grow and scale.\u201d<\/p>\n
Without a large stock of available office space for rent, many remote workers have turned to shared workspaces, which have flourished around the Tahoe-Truckee area in the past few years, Mueller said. He believes those places can serve as a launchpad for a network of digital entrepreneurs, who might then attract capital and talent to the basin.<\/p>\n
Part of that equation also means leaning into the trend and promoting Tahoe as a desirable base of operation for startups.<\/p>\n
Fostering accountability<\/h4>\n
Tahoe is not short of improvement plans. But Gustafson, the Placer County supervisor who oversees Tahoe\u2019s West Shore, believes the new playbook offers a fresh perspective and flexibility to address the region\u2019s needs \u2014 in part, by fostering a widespread sense of accountability.<\/p>\n
\u201cObviously, local government has to be held accountable,\u201d Gustafson said. \u201cBut our business community, our retirees, our second homeowners all have to be accountable to keep Tahoe special.\u201d<\/p>\n
One way the playbook suggests is by tracking key progress indicators like per capita income, income levels above the cost of living, growth in non-tourism sectors, changing demographics and more. The Tahoe Prosperity Center is committed to creating a new website that monitors those by quarter in an effort to bring transparency to the changes occurring in Tahoe.<\/p>\n
\n
Gregory Thomas is The Chronicle\u2019s<\/a> editor of lifestyle & outdoors. Email: gthomas@sfchronicle.com. Twitter: @GregRThomas<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Many believe the lake\u2019s communities are at a critical turning point.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1036,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_coblocks_attr":"","_coblocks_dimensions":"","_coblocks_responsive_height":"","_coblocks_accordion_ie_support":""},"categories":[8,7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1035"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1037,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1035\/revisions\/1037"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1036"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1035"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1035"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.inedc.com\/22\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1035"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}