Homewood Will Not Open This Season — Who Is to Blame?
Homewood Mountain Resort’s announcement late afternoon on Oct. 11 that it would not operate this season for only the second time in its 60-year history sent shockwaves through the North Tahoe and West Shore communities. The ski area said its decision was based on the slow approval process for its revised master plan amendments and opposition from a local grassroots organization, which in turn scared off a financial partner. However, opponents of Homewood’s plans to potentially privatize the mountain believe that its development partners opted to close the resort after it became clear that they would not be able to move forward with making the mountain a members-only ski resort.
Some learned of Homewood’s intentions to not open this winter when they received an email last Friday from Andy Buckley, Homewood’s vice president of mountain experience: “Homewood Mountain Resort is still awaiting approval of the amendments to the 2011 approved Master Plan that were submitted in May 2024 to the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency. Hypothetical fears and false rumors regarding public access to the mountain from Keep Homewood Public’s leadership have dramatically impacted the pace of the approval process. Without a clear path forward, our financial partner is now unwilling to provide the operating funds for this year. As a result, we are in the regrettable position of being unable to operate or sell season passes for the 2024-25 season.”
Homewood Mountain Resort, along with landowner JMA Ventures and operator Discovery Land Company, did not return phone calls or emails requesting an interview, but instead directed Moonshine Ink to a statement on its website: “For many years, Homewood Mountain Resort has been subsidizing the community’s ski experience while operating at a deficit … For the last several years, we have relied on our financial partner for the annual subsidy … Without a clear path forward, our financial partner has withdrawn support for this ski season.”
Who the financial partner is remains unclear. The main equity investor in Homewood is Mohari, a global investment company in luxury hospitality based in Cyprus that partnered with JMA ventures in October 2023. Discovery, which oversees sales, marketing, and operations of the new development, partnered with JMA in April 2022.
Kathy Astromoff, spokesperson for Keep Homewood Public, said she was shocked at the news.
“To us it’s essentially just another way of keeping the public off the mountain,” she said.
She believes that Homewood’s decision had something to do with a Tahoe Regional Planning Agency meeting on Sept. 25. That meeting of the Regional Planning Committee for the TRPA Governing Board was for informational purposes only and was the first TRPA meeting on Homewood’s new proposal to redevelop the resort. According to Astromoff, TRPA staff made it clear that approvals for projects and entitlements were predicated on the mountain remaining public, and were seeking concrete answers on what access the public would have to Homewood.
“We think they [Homewood] held their intentions to privatize up until Sept. 25, when the TRPA told them privatization was out of the question under current approvals,” Astromoff said. “We think they closed the mountain because they couldn’t get their way.”
JMA Ventures and Discovery initially floated the idea of making Homewood a private ski area in March 2022, but due to intense public opposition and TRPA scrutiny have since backtracked, stating that the mountain will remain public. However, both Keep Homewood Public and the TRPA said they have been waiting for enforceable language from JMA/Discovery about public access since May, when Homewood submitted amendments to the 2011 master plan.
“TRPA found that it did not have enough details for what was going to happen down the road, and it left open how do we come up with the required framework to define public access,” said TRPA spokesperson Jeff Cowen. “In this new territory, we need Homewood to give us a more concrete, detailed approach so we can review that.”
Cowen said the ball is in Homewood’s court as the agency awaits answers to questions about preserving public access. If Homewood were to move to privatize, it would be considered a change in use and would require a regional plan amendment, a much different and bigger application process.
The TRPA said it is also not approving piecemeal projects like replacing the Madden Chair until the agency has received all requested documents from Homewood and has a better picture of the overall vision of the ski resort’s future. The status of the Homewood redevelopment project is incomplete.
“TRPA is required to determine the consistency of any permit application for its conformance with the Homewood Mountain Resort Master Plan and to ensure the project fits within the central and essential character and nature of the Homewood development,” wrote Cowen in an email to Moonshine Ink. “The broader vision for resort operations had to be known. TRPA required that an application to amend the master plan be reviewed and approved before additional projects could be considered … The submitted May 10 is relatively silent on public access.”
Homewood does not need any TRPA approvals to continue operating as normal. This is also not the first time Homewood has closed. The resort shut down for one winter in the ’80s when it merged with Tahoe Ski Bowl.
West Shore residents were stunned and angered by the news of Homewood’s decision.
“Considering the timing, it feels like a slap in the face,” said Homewood resident Paul Hartman, who has been skiing at Homewood for 2 decades. “They are trying to frame themselves as the victim in this situation, they are blaming everybody else. Now they are shutting down when things didn’t go their way. It feels childish.”
While Hartman said his family has had Ikon passes for years as well, on weekends they stuck to Homewood. Now they will have to brave the weekend ski traffic going to Palisades Tahoe. But he says he is okay with not skiing at Homewood for one season if it means the resort will remain open to the public.
“In the long run, I feel like I would rather wait this out,” he said, “let them have their temper tantrum this year as opposed to the community being locked out of the place for good.”
