Coming Soon: The Town of North Lake Tahoe?
A group of citizens who have been exploring the potential to create the long sought-after dream of incorporating North Lake Tahoe held its first public meeting last month. Speaking to a full conference room in Tahoe City, the Eastern Placer Future Interim Executive Committee, made up of nine North Tahoe residents, laid out what they had been working on for more than 2 years. The committee has already conducted an initial feasibility study, which concluded that not only is incorporation viable, but that the new town would generate a budget surplus.
Around 130 people gathered in a conference room at Granlibakken on Feb. 28 to hear a presentation from Eastern Placer Future about the case for local decision-making, what the group had accomplished so far, and what a new town would and would not provide.
Can we do better for all of us with local governance? That’s the question we’re asking.”
~ Andrew Ryan, Eastern Placer Future committee member
“Our communities are facing some challenges,” said Andrew Ryan, a member of the interim executive committee. “We all know about the housing challenges. We know about catastrophic wildfire. What makes us more resilient? Is that possibly local governance? Can we do better for all of us with local governance? That’s the question we’re asking.”
Currently, North Tahoe is governed by the Placer County Board of Supervisors, which is composed of five supervisors, only one of whom lives in Tahoe — Cindy Gustafson, who represents District 5. The county seat is in Auburn, 50 miles away. As committee member Steve Teshara said, “With a county, they have to make decisions that address all the districts. So, most of those decisions are made on county-level priorities. That doesn’t always reflect our needs. And sometimes those decisions feel like one-size-fits-all.”
Eastern Placer County has a population of 13,700, which is about 17% of District 5 and 3% of Placer County. Teshara noted that as the western slope of the county grows, District 5’s percentage becomes smaller and smaller. That means that Tahoe’s representation at the county level is being diluted.
That is one of several reasons for incorporation, the legal term for the formation of a new town. Other reasons listed include local governance and more responsive and efficient services. Additionally, committee members explained that now is the time because North Tahoe not only has a supervisor who is receptive to the idea of incorporating North Lake Tahoe, but she is also the chair of Placer County’s Local Agency Formation Commission (LAFCO), the regulatory body that manages the boundaries of cities and special districts in California.
Self-rule for North Tahoe has long been a goal of many residents, and this isn’t the first attempt at incorporation. There were efforts to make North Lake Tahoe a town in 1966, 1970, and 1988, but none of these made it as far as the current campaign.
“Once we submit our LAFCO application and assuming it is formally reviewed, our effort will have come the furthest of any of the previous efforts,” wrote Teshara in an email to Moonshine Ink.
Supervisor Gustafson was at the meeting and addressed the audience, explaining why she is supportive of exploring incorporation.
“The reason I took this job [supervisor] was not because of anything other than to help us get to a point where we could have a thorough discussion on this issue,” said Gustafson, who was reelected in the fall to her second term. “We need to know the facts, and the only way to get to all the facts is to go through this process where you do the comprehensive fiscal analysis, you see where all the tax dollars go, and you make the decision for yourselves … When people ask where do I stand, I stand with getting the information to the voters so you can decide.”
Eastern Placer Future completed the initial fiscal feasibility review, which found that the new town would have a budget surplus of 27%, or around $10 million. According to committee member Kevin Drake, North Lake Tahoe has a 70% to 80% higher revenue per capita than two other incorporated areas in our region, Truckee and South Lake Tahoe, due to North Tahoe’s high transit occupancy tax (TOT).
“That isn’t to say that that’s exactly where the numbers are going to fall, but there’s a margin of safety there that gives us confidence that this is actually fiscally feasible and it should also give us confidence that we can operate in an efficient way and we have the fiscal resources to do so,” Drake said at Granlibakken.
Other milestones completed by the group include creating a draft incorporation boundary. The proposed town would comprise almost the entirety of Eastern Placer County, stretching from Truckee in the north to the El Dorado County line in the south and to the Nevada state line to the east. It would exclude Donner Summit and US Forest Service lands but include Placer County areas of Truckee like Martis Camp and Northstar.
“I want to stress to everybody that we recognized how different the West Shore is from Olympic Valley, from Kings Beach, from Northstar to Tahoe City,” Drake said. “And part of this effort is to embrace those differences. Part of what makes us strong as a region is we’re not just a singular town. We have nodes, and each of the nodes have a different personality and different history, which is to be celebrated. It’s part of what makes North Lake Tahoe unique.”
The new town would provide general government services similar to what the Town of Truckee provides — a town council, town manager, finance administration, road maintenance, snow removal, zoning and land use decisions, and economic development. Committee member Danielle Hughes said that law enforcement would most likely be contracted back to the county. All special districts would remain the same.
The makeup of a town council is up for discussion. It could consist of at-large members, or members that represent specific districts within North Tahoe. Town councils usually have up to five members, but it could be seven.
Committee members acknowledged that the incorporation process still has a long way to go.
“It’s a long and bumpy road,” Teshara said.
First, the committee needs to raise $150,000 to $200,000 to fund the LAFCO application, legal services, and the outreach petition. LAFCO requires a petition signed by 25% of registered voters to make the application valid. Committee member Wally Auerbach said this means that in reality, they need to collect signatures from 35% to 40% of registered voters because 10% to 15% of signatures fail during the certification process. There are 8,500 registered voters in the proposed incorporation boundary.
Another step toward incorporation is negotiating revenue neutrality with the county. In other words, the county cannot be harmed by the separation. Think of it as a divorce, and the new town will need to pay alimony to the county to make it whole. There will also need to be negotiations over assets, such as real estate facilities and snow removal equipment.
“Revenue neutrality negotiations involving a new town and Placer County, as required by state law, will likely lead to the development of a payment plan,” Teshara wrote in an email to Moonshine. “The plan will schedule town payments to the county over time for the acquisition of equipment, buildings, and other facilities the town wants for its operations.”
Once those negotiations are complete, the county CEO gives his report to the board of supervisors, which has to approve it. Following the completion of LAFCO’s comprehensive fiscal analysis and environmental report, the agency can call for an election. One option is for voters to vote on incorporation and the town council at the same time, or alternatively, the latter at a separate election. Committee members say they are aiming for a November 2026 election.
Most importantly, emphasized committee member Alex Min, is that the campaign needs a lot of people to give donations to show community support. Eastern Placer Future has a link to its GoFundMe page on its website, easternplacerfuture.org. As of March 5, they had raised $42,000. The North Tahoe Community Alliance is offering a $50,000 matching grant.
“This is a team effort from all of us who live here and love this area,” Min said. “Our little group is the ones who have started it. But we need everybody to come in and help us carry this across the finish line.”
Although they are using North Tahoe or North Lake Tahoe as a placeholder name, the final name of the new town will be left up to residents. The committee announced that there will be multiple public meetings over the next year.
