SOUTH LAKE TAHOE, Calif. – City council will designate Heavenly Village as an Entertainment Zone allowing adults over 21 to openly consume alcohol, make Heavenly Village a “Walk your Wheels” zone and move to terminate its contract with the concessionaire for the city’s Ice Arena after finding contract violations and mismanagement.

Regarding previously discussed items, city council passed its resolution directing staff to send letters of advocacy to politicians and agencies at almost every level regarding glyphosate and other herbicides.

Council also officially implemented its ordinance expansion allowing businesses to advertise with sandwich boards and passed a first reading of a revised ordinance to raise city council’s compensation by a standard 5%.

For the council compensation vote, Councilmember David Jinkins, who said he would abstain at the last meeting, ended up making the motion to increase council compensation. Councilmember Heather Horgan abstained, as she had previously indicated she would.

Heavenly Village will soon allow open alcohol consumption

City council passed the first reading of an ordinance designating Heavenly Village as an Entertainment Zone, allowing people 21 years and older to openly consume alcohol from licensed businesses within the limits of the village.

The zone would last from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m., every day of the year. 

In the Entertainment Zone, which state law opened in January 2025, those over 21 would receive wristbands, and licensed vendors would serve drinks in branded, recyclable or compostable plastic containers. 

Councilmember Scott Robbins added to the ordinance, with the consensus of council, a provision that would require Heavenly Village to ensure all of its trash cans are bear-proof receptacles within a year and one month from when the ordinance is officially passed. 

Robbins said council hopes to eventually require bear-proof bins citywide anyways, and the extra trash generated from the open container cups justifies adding the stipulation. 

“Yummy sweet smelling margarita residue is bear nectar,” he said.

State law does not allow the use of metal for the cups, as made clear when multiple council members advocated for more reusable options. Police Chief Jeff Roberson said that metal or glass containers can be turned into weapons.

All public comments were in favor of the zone, though some brought up the trash receptacle issue or voiced support for either sturdy, reusable cups or paper cups instead of single-use plastic. 

The Entertainment Zone’s implementation will be based on the city of Redding’s downtown corridor. The Redding Police Department told Chief Roberson that they saw no additional public safety concerns after the zone’s implementation and that the zone is sustainable in their experience, he said. 

Horgan expressed concerns that the public transit schedule ends earlier than the 10 p.m. open container cut-off which could pave the way for more drunk driving. But Mayor Cody Bass pointed out that people can consume alcohol until 2 a.m. indoors, so the outdoor drinking doesn’t make it any more of an issue. 

Robbins said he has advocated for increased transit on the Tahoe Transportation District board, and it’s largely a budget issue. 

“Walk your Wheels” policy coming to Heavenly Village

Also in Heavenly Village, city council will enact a village-wide “Walk your Wheels” policy, including the sidewalks along Highway 50. 

“The idea is to slow everyone down,” Chief Roberson said.

In response to Robbins’ questions about bicycle safety along Highway 50, Chief Roberson said: “We’re not taking the bikes, we’re asking them to walk.”

Robbins said council needs to “make the right thing to do the easy thing to do” in order for people to actually abide by the rules, adding that the bike infrastructure in that area is not safe or intuitive. 

Mayor Pro Tem Keith Roberts was a staunch supporter of “Walk your Wheels,” saying pedestrians need to be protected and that bikers could choose if they are comfortable biking on Highway 50 or if they prefer walking their bike on that sidewalk. 

“I don’t think it’s nuanced at all,” Roberts said. 

Chief Roberson said the Lime and Bird electric scooters are already geofenced to not be ridden in the Village, but that would now need to cover the sidewalk along Highway 50 as well.

A representative from Tahoe Restaurant Group who was speaking on behalf of two restaurants in Heavenly Village — Azul Latin Kitchen and Base Camp Pizza Co. — said the businesses support the “Walk your Wheels” initiative and called walking your bike in heavily trafficked areas the “decent thing to do.”

Another business owner who supported the initiative during public comment owns a gem shop in the Village. She said her elderly employees have reported close calls with bikes while walking into work and her shop was robbed by a person who rode away on a bicycle.

A Heavenly Village representative noted that it had increased the bike racks “tenfold” recently and said that while the village appreciates its bike traffic, the safest thing for everyone is to have cyclists walk their bikes.

Council moves to terminate contract with Ice Arena concessionaire

Unpaid utility bills, unresponsive management, understaffing, unreported financials, delays of basic maintenance, a lack of community programming and a website that hasn’t been updated since 2024. 

These are all reasons city council directed staff to move toward terminating its contract with Tahoe Sports & Entertainment, the concessionaire who operates the city’s Ice Arena.

Interim City Attorney Sergio Rudin said the contract itself is “one of the strangest I’ve ever read.”

A lawyer retained by Tahoe Sports & Entertainment gave a brief presentation to council rebutting the claims of mismanagement in the staff report and asserting that the city was at fault for some of them. 

About a dozen public commenters, most players in the adult hockey league, all said the ice arena was mismanaged and not living up to its potential for public good. 

Several said the adult hockey league has the interest but isn’t able to schedule ice time because the operator didn’t respond to them. They also said the facility has lacked a skate sharpener, a basic fixture for an ice rink, and some have commuted to Reno to play hockey instead, despite living in South Lake Tahoe. 

“There are closed doors in a public facility that should be left open,” said Cooper Townsend, a member of the adult hockey league. 

Multiple of the hockey players (called the “hockey lobby” by Councilmember Robbins) said they have skated at many rinks across the country and never seen one run as poorly as this one. 

The former manager of the facility, who oversaw operations while the city’s Parks and Recreation Department ran the facility from 2002 until the concessionaire took over in 2012, said during public comment that the Ice Arena used to be a vibrant place with a booked schedule and plenty of revenue.

Current Director of Parks and Recreation John Stark told council that his department would be able to take over the facility again, both in the interim and potentially long term.

The council ended up directing Stark to come up with a business plan to present at a meeting down the line to assess the viability of the city running the public facility again. 

The city attorney said that it will take a minimum of 90 days to terminate the contract with Tahoe Sports & Entertainment, so there will be time to plan for the transition without leaving the facility unmanaged.