Letter: No on T - The measure will do more harm than good if it passes

I am an eight-year resident, a homeowner, a vacation home rental (VHR) permit owner, and I hold a profession that is involved with bringing tourists to our beautiful tourist town of South Lake Tahoe. I know how hard we work to get them to come here to spend their hard-earned money in our economy. Tourists have many options. VHRs, hotels, camping, North Lake, Utah, Colorado. They want the experience they want and VHRs are part of that experience. With limited options, they will go elsewhere.

However, I am not sure they will experience limited options if the ban passes. I would like to talk to the people who think this ban will solve the problems in their neighborhood. I sympathize with any resident who deals with problematic neighbors. However, this ban does not fix those issues for you. Our Police Chief Uhler said at a recent information session on Measure T that he will have no choice but to cut jobs associated with VHR enforcement because of the loss of permit fees. With the loss in officers to catch illegal VHRs, it is more likely that you could see more of them in your neighborhood. The vacation rental management companies have ways around the laws that prohibit short-term rentals as well. Go talk to them. What we stand to lose with the ban is permit fees that help us regulate an industry that needs some regulation. We will lose $3M in tax revenues for our City budget. We will lose the necessary enforcement for disturbances you dislike so much.

- Marlena Freitas