City of South Lake Tahoe earns coveted Prohousing Designation from Governor Newsom

SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. - Governor Newsom has awarded 10 new jurisdictions with the coveted designation that makes them eligible for incentives to scale up efforts to advance housing, and South Lake Tahoe is one of them. This brings the total number of cities and counties with a Prohousing Designation to 47.

The designation is given for the community's efforts in encouraging the development of housing at all income levels. This designation comes with funding incentives and additional resources to help speed housing production.

Berkeley, Brea, Crescent City, Fairfield, Pinole, Rancho Cucamonga, Richmond, West Hollywood, and the County of Los Angeles are the other jurisdictions that earned the new designation.

“We are excited to receive the Prohousing Designation and recognition from the State of California for the efforts the City is making to address the housing crisis,” stated Mayor Cody Bass.

From the Governor's office: The City of South Lake Tahoe’s Prohousing application displays a commitment to furthering Prohousing goals by supporting public transport, allowing tiny homes, and increasing workforce housing supply. The city created an in-lieu fee to support public transportation. Developers can pay this fee to support public transportation access to a project site in place of some parking requirements and decrease parking requirements for qualifying projects located in close proximity to a transportation hub. The city instituted the Workforce Housing Funding and Inclusionary Housing Ordinance, which allows all in-lieu fees collected to be deposited into the workforce housing fund to provide funding for reasonable costs associated with the development of low- and moderate-income housing. Finally, the city has amended its residential development and design standards to establish clear requirements for moveable tiny homes that will reduce development costs.

Why it matters: To meet the housing needs of all Californians, the state needs to plan for 2.5 million new homes over the next eight years, with at least one million serving the needs of lower-income residents. That critical goal can only be reached if local governments actively work to implement state housing laws and follow best practices that go above and beyond those minimum requirements. The Prohousing Designation rewards communities that are willing to cut through red tape, reduce construction and development costs, and create housing policies with a growth mindset by providing them with funding incentives and additional resources that help scale up those innovative efforts.

“At nearly fifty prohousing communities, California is making progress – but we can do better," said Governor Newsom. "At a time when the state is facing a housing crisis, every local jurisdiction should be stepping up to earn this distinction.”

South Lake Tahoe has a broad spectrum of housing successes - policies, incentives, production, Lease-to-Locals, housing on three city-owned lots on Riverside, Sugar Pine Village, and the newly authorized $200,000 as a deposit assistance program.

When Sugar Pine Village is completed there will be nine affordable housing projects in the city limits (with the number of units): Sierra Garden (76), Evergreen Tahoe Apartments (26), Tahoe Valley Townhomes (70), Tahoe Senior Plaza (45), Kelly Ridge (33), Tahoe Pines (28), Aspens (48), Sky Forest Acres (18), and then all phases of Sugar Pine at 248.

The new housing designation allows the City of South Lake Tahoe to receive exclusive access to Prohousing grants and additional points in the scoring of competitive housing, community development, and infrastructure funding programs administered by the Department of Housing and Community Development (HCD). The 47 communities now designated as Prohousing were eligible to apply for a share of $9.5 million available in PIP Round 2, to be awarded this summer.