Advocates from Stateline Fight to Keep Lake Vista Apartments as Affordable Housing

Lake Vista Apartments is a 4.6 acre, 64-unit deed restricted affordable housing project on lower Kingsbury Grade in Stateline, Nevada. It was built in 2000 under a special agreement with the TRPA to replenish the Nevada side's affordable housing stock after the number of units at the complex on Kahle Drive was dramatically reduced in order to restore the meadow. The complex was built on a USDA affordable housing tax credit program which specified a minimum of 15 years of affordable housing use.

As a long-time tenant of the complex, I went with a group of my fellow tenants and a few community affordable housing advocates to speak on behalf of grandfathering the existing renters and maintaining the affordable housing use of the property, even if it switches from rental units to condos. In front of Douglas County's grand old courthouse turned county building I mingled with my fellow opponents.

"It's terrible that they held it down here in the middle of a workday with Kingsbury closed," said one tenant. "It's almost like they were trying to have no one show up to voice their opinion." If that was the plan, it wasn't working. I was secretly pleased that my campaign to get neighbors and local activists to come and speak had turned out so many.

We settled into the cozy wood paneled confines of the old courtroom and the planning committee began by addressing the other business on the agenda quickly approving Park Tahoe's plans to tear down the porte-cochère of the old Horizon building and proceed with the rest of their renovation plan before moving on to the subject we were all waiting for.

Kara Thiel of Feldman, McLaughlin, and Thiel represented the owners. Under the plan, the first unit of Lake Vista, closest to Kingsbury Grade would be converted to condos in 2015, with existing tenants given the option to buy under the condo program and distributed a packet to the audience with information on the USDA's low-income loan program. According to Thiel, the second unit of Lake Vista would not be eligible to convert until 2017; anyone in Lake Vista I wishing to remain a renter would be able to move into Lake Vista II as units became available.

Lake Vista resident John Macuci said: "We were lead to believe we were going to be able to stay here indefinitely." He also noted that "11 of those units are occupied by disabled people and seniors. We need to grandfather the existing tenants so that they can die here with peace and dignity."

I stood up and noted the economic necessity of the complex. "I'm Jack Durst and I am one of those disabled people who lives in Lake Vista. I am speaking up for affordable housing because this complex is some of the last remaining affordable housing on the Nevada side in Lake Tahoe. This is a uniquely good site for affordable housing because it's within walking distance of Stateline. All the people who live here, who work in the Stateline area, are able to walk to work. Those people would have to go a lot further without it."

Commissioner Don Miner noted the danger of scaring away developers by changing the rules mid-stream. "This is the first opportunity for a purveyor of affordable housing to make money off of it and gave the applicant a chance to counter the tenants," Miner said.

Applicant Lou Feldman responded to the tenants, "I fought to make this place affordable housing and I remember how much opposition there was when it was first proposed." He continued by promising that the property would remain a deed restricted affordable housing project, with an ownership price in the $200,000 range and that existing tenants would be grandfathered as renters for as long as they remained tenants in good standing.

Commissioner Margaret Pross moved that the planning document be amended to condition approval on the maintenance of affordable housing status of the project.

Cynthia Gregory of the Douglas County District Attorney's office noted that the Douglas County Planning Commission does not have authority over affordable housing and that the property's affordable housing mandate is imposed by the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, not the county. She said the amendment was changed to require the owners to comply with whatever affordable housing mandates the TRPA required. The amendment, and then the approval passed unanimously.