tourist

There was standing room only at Tuesday's City Council meeting as changes to the current Vacation Home Rental (VHR) ordinance were on the agenda.

Most of the audience was from the real estate and home rental management companies, both of whom felt there would be a lot of loss should a stricter policy be enforced.

While the summertime tourist to South Lake Tahoe should only be slightly affected, business owners along Highway 89 are worried about their livelihood with overnight road construction and blocked driveways.

During Thursday evening's Caltrans informational meeting at South Tahoe High, several owners of lodging properties, restaurants, sports and retail stores spoke about their concerns during the project which will last from mid-April to mid-October in 2015 and could even extend into the 2017 building season.

A preliminary environmental report has been completed on the Tahoe Valley Area Plan and is ready for public input.

This report is created so the agencies developing the plan can determine whether a nEnvironmental Impact Report (EIR), a Mitigated Negative Declaration (MND), or a Negative Declaration is required for a project under California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) guidelines.

South Lake Tahoe may soon be one less aging motel along the main stretch in town. On Tuesday, the Placer County supervisors gave staff the go ahead to purchase the A & A Lake Tahoe Inn for $1.425 million. The county wants to have the motel's 34 tourist accommodation units (TAUs) so they can add hotel rooms at the north end of Lake Tahoe.

The south shore motel rests in a stream sensitive zone. If the purchase goes through, Placer County would give the motel to the California Conservancy for demolition and restoration while keeping the TAUs.

Update: This property has sold.

If you've been hankering for a getaway at Lake Tahoe and have $98 million to spare, you're in luck.

Check out Shakespeare Ranch, which takes up 133 acres along 423 feet of shoreline. It's named for Shakespeare Rock, which overlooks the property and is said to resemble the playwright.

ASPEN, Colo. (AP) -- At first, Loly Garcia didn't have to travel far to her jobs in the chic hotels of this fabled tourist town. She shared a tiny studio apartment with her father, brother and a cousin after arriving from El Salvador more than 20 years ago.

But after she married and wanted a home of her own, she had to drive 23 miles west, past tracts of empty land and vacant mansions whose owners visit only a couple of weeks a year, to the mobile home park where she now lives.

The partnership between California and Nevada that created the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency turns 45 years old today, marking nearly a half-century of progress in the protection and restoration of Lake Tahoe and its treasured environment.

President Richard Nixon signed the Bi-State Compact creating TRPA on Thursday, December 18, 1969. Nixon’s signature followed the compact’s ratification by Congress and its approval by both states’ legislatures and former governors Ronald Reagan in California and Paul Laxalt in Nevada.

Most of us moved to Meyers because it's a rural community, away from the City & tourist congestion. I am pro-growth, most locals are, as long as it's appropriately sized growth for our community. The proposed Meyer's Plan however, opens the door to a Mega Resort, with incentives for large development and in my mind, lacks long range planning.

I started going to planning meetings last summer, just to listen, but it wasn't until December that I got really concerned. Here's a timeline of events, from my perspective:

More than 28 countries will be represented in South Lake Tahoe as the region becomes host for the International Commission for Alpine Rescue's annual conference.

For the first time in its 66 year history, the International Commission for Alpine Rescue (IKAR) will be coming to the USA for its annual Congress. Hosted by the US Mountain Rescue Association, the event will be held at Harvey’s Resort and Casino, Lake Tahoe, Nevada.

Douglas County Search and Rescue (SAR) is helping the host put on the conference which includes local hiking and tourist activities.

TahoeChamber has endorsed seven candidates for the upcoming election that best portray the values and abilities necessary to serve the South Shore business community. As directed by the TahoeChamber Board of Directors, the TahoeChamber Candidate Endorsement Committee (TC-CEC) used the pillars of the Chamber’s adopted Tahoe Future A South Shore Community Vision 2020 as the foundational criteria for evaluating candidates. The pillars include Economic Vitality, Quality of Life, Sustainability, Infrastructure and Intellectual Capital.

The following is an opinion article and does not necessarily reflect the views of South Tahoe Now:

Residents of Meyers and the surrounding South Lake Tahoe community have been actively participating in what is called the "Meyers Area Plan." During the last community meeting on February 26 several concerned citizens spoke about what they wanted, and didn't want, to see their in their town.

El Dorado County officials took the numerous public comments made both at the meeting and on-line and have created potential revisions to the Draft Meyers Area Plan.

The City of South Lake Tahoe is letting the voters decide the future of paid parking in the city limits during the next election on June 3, 2014. Voters will be able to either approve or repeal the city's paid parking ordinance.

During Tuesday night's City Council session, several options were voted on that address concerns the public had on paid parking. They will go into effect immediately, well ahead of the election.

The City of South Lake Tahoe's vision to recreate a community that encourages revitalizing commercial and residential areas got one step closer today with the TRPA's adoption of the South Lake Tahoe Tourist Core Area Plan. The area involved is the Highway 50 corridor from Fairway Ave at Bijou, up and down Ski Run Boulevard, and up to the Stateline.

Outdated development and pollution in the core of South Lake Tahoe could be on their way out with the adoption today of the City of South Lake Tahoe Tourist Core Area Plan by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA) Governing Board.

Mayor Tom Davis touched on more than a couple of dozen points during his State of the City Address which was presented to an overflowing full house at Tuesday's City Council meeting.

Among the Davis's highlighted city successes for the year:

Linear Park - Over $600,000 was spent on a paved bike path, landscaping and an additional 22 lights on a stretch from Wildwood Avenue to just before Pioneer Trail.

Creating street improvements in the Harrison Avenue area sits atop the list of the City of South Lake Tahoe's Capital Improvement Project priorities. Better stormwater treatment, a bike path, lighting, safer pedestrian walkways and ADA improvements are coming to Harrison Avenue in 2014 and the city will vote Tuesday to ratify agreements between TRPA, the state and the city to move the project forward. The project is funded through several federal and local transportation fund sources.

Former U.S. Vice-President Al Gore said, in his speech to scientists, elected officials, environmentalists, business leaders, fire department officials, students and others in the audience of the 2013 Lake Tahoe Summit, that what we’ve learned at Tahoe can help inform the rest of the world to protect their resources and communities.

With tinder-dry conditions after one of the driest winters on record, California fire officials will suspend burning permits along the West Slope and Eldorado National Forest beginning June 17. Fire restrictions in the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit will begin July 1.

CAL FIRE’s Amador-El Dorado- Sacramento Unit will suspend door-yard burning permits and the Forest Service will begin fire restrictions in portions of Eldorado National Forest.

Nevada son and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid addressed a joint session of the Nevada State Legislature today in Carson City. Here is the text of his speech:

Six months to the day after his spine-wrenching crash at the U.S. Freestyle Selections, Jake Hickman's skis hardly touched the snow as he floated down the slopes at Mt. Bachelor, an elated teen.
“The first day back, I felt like the biggest gaper ever,” said Hickman, joking about the experience in Tahoe tourist terms. “But then the second day everything came back, and the third day I was skiing like 70 percent of what I used to be. I felt really good.”

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. - Space shuttle Atlantis isn't going far to its retirement home at Kennedy Space Center's main tourist stop. But it might as well be a world away for the workers who spent d...

To Sherry Guzzi, the beaver dam on Taylor Creek was more than a watery jungle of sticks and branches. In that snarl of debris, she saw hope for a species long regarded as non-native in the Sierra but which new research claims has occupied the range for centuries and is key to ecosystem health.
Late last month, her hope was extinguished when the U.S. Forest Service tore down the dam to protect a tourist facility celebrating a non-native species: kokanee salmon.

Transportation projects are not always about new capacity for automobiles and trucks. Transportation projects may include improvements for, airports, railroads, mass transit, bike lanes and walking paths. These projects are often constructed to help environmental impact, provide for better safety and more economical ways for people to do there business or pleasure.

In this town there are some things that are considered local to-dos and then there are other things that are considered tourist activities. It's not that people living here don't want to go for ...