PLACER COUNTY, Calif. – Kings Beach, Tahoe City, Homewood, and Alpine Meadows are unincorporated areas and decisions related to those regions are primarily made by county officials, but that could change in the not too distant future.

A volunteer committee of residents and business owners, called Eastern Placer Future, are exploring the potential of turning north Lake Tahoe into its own incorporated town or city, much like the Town of Truckee or City of South Lake Tahoe. The resulting municipality would have its own local elected officials, making local decisions and providing local services.

“We want to have a voice,” committee member Danielle Hughes said at a community presentation on incorporation. “We want to have people that represent our needs and understand the challenges of our region.”

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The presentation was held through the community advocacy group, Strong North Tahoe, at the North Tahoe Events Center in Kings Beach on April 2, where Eastern Placer Future representatives shared information on incorporation as well as the process.

A local municipality has the potential to better attune to the specific needs and challenges of north Tahoe, compared to the Placer County Board of Supervisors who currently make decisions 80 miles away in Auburn, the presenters shared.

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“It’s not really a question of what we should decide,” Hughes said. “It’s who should be deciding those things for us.”

With the majority of the county’s population in western Placer and its continued pattern of growth, a concern of Eastern Placer Future and prompt for incorporation is the westward shift of the county’s focus and resources.

Local oversight with incorporation could also offer a more transparent accounting.

Why now?

The idea of incorporating north Lake Tahoe is not new. The attempt has come up more than once and the reason past attempts have failed shines a light on the reason volunteers are exploring another attempt now.

“Every single time it failed,” committee member Wally Auerbach said at the meeting, “it was because somebody stood in the way.”

Eastern Placer Future believes there are currently the right people in the right place. That includes Cindy Gustafson, the Placer County Supervisor for District 5 (includes Tahoe locales), who is a north Tahoe local.

“If our current District 5 Supervisor were to step down,” Eastern Placer Future’s website says, “she would likely be the last local person to represent us on the Board of Supervisors in our lifetimes.”

Gustafson not only sits on the Placer County Board of Supervisors, but also on a county commission that oversees these incorporations and boundary changes, the Local Area Formation Commission (LAFCO).

The Sun reached out to Gustafson about the supervisor’s stance on incorporation.

“I want to be extremely clear,” Gustafson said in a statement, “I fully support the community’s right to explore and evaluate options for local governance. The residents of North Lake Tahoe deserve the opportunity to study incorporation thoroughly and understand its potential impacts. However, I have not taken a position on whether incorporation is the right path.”

The supervisor added, “At the heart of our democracy — and enshrined in the Declaration of Independence — is the belief that government derives its power from the consent of the governed. It’s essential that this process be driven by the community itself, guided by facts, transparency, and meaningful public engagement.”

The general election in 2026 adds to the timeliness of the incorporation effort, which aims to have incorporation on November 2026’s ballot. Outside of a general election, an incorporation measure would undergo a special election, which is extremely costly at around $20 per voter rather than the $1.25 in a general election, according to the Easter Placer Future committee.

Areas of the proposed town

Areas comprising the proposed town include Kings Beach, Tahoe City, west shore, Olympic Valley, Alpine Meadows, portions of Ponderosa Palisades, Northstar and parts of Martis Valley. The area currently excludes forest areas in between that are state responsibility areas for fire.

“I want to stress, this is a very odd shape for a town,” committee member Kevin Drake said at the meeting, describing north Tahoe as a collection of nodes.

“We recognize the west Shore is different than Kings Beach, which is different than Tahoe City, which is different than Northstar, which is different than Alpine Meadows,” he said. “We think that’s a strength. It makes this region really unique and awesome and we believe that we have more in common than we do differences.”

What would change?

The establishment of a town or city would shift responsibility to the local municipality for a majority of services with a town council of locally elected officials making decisions.

Eastern Placer Future has identified the following as services that would shift to local control:

• Zoning
• Planning
• Permitting
• Stormwater management
• Snow removal
• Road maintenance

Parks and recreation as well as trash services could also be considered under the municipality.

What would stay the same?

Eastern Placer Future proposes public safety be contracted through the Placer County Sheriff’s Office until the municipality decides to provide the service.

The county would continue to provide Health and Human Services to the town’s residents.

The existing special districts such as North Tahoe Community Alliance, public utility districts, as well as the fire districts would likely remain the same. Eastern Placer Future noted it is not in their intention to merge those services.

Will it raise taxes?

Eastern Placer Future has received questions on whether incorporation will increase taxes. The group doesn’t believe the process will since plans integrate similar services to the community that already exist today.

Instead, Huges said at the meeting, “The process is going to get you back to that local decision on what your priorities are and those investments.”

An initial fiscal analysis reveals a potential town would be financially viable with estimated general fund revenues per capita 70-80% higher than the Town of Truckee or South Lake Tahoe.

“That is an estimate,” Drake explained, “but there’s a healthy margin of safety that gives us the confidence that we should be taking the next step in looking at this in more detail.”

Hughes addressed comparisons they’ve received to Truckee related to increasing taxes. “Those decisions were brought forward to the voters to increase taxes and to make those investments in their community.”

A potential incorporation would involve negotiations with Placer County on splitting taxes in a process to achieve revenue neutrality for the county, the presenters explained. It’s possible the new town or city would be required to make payments to the county for a period of time.

“It’s a bit of short-term pain for long-term freedom,” Drake said, explaining that every incorporation goes through this process.

The road to incorporation

Ultimately incorporation will be up to the voters with the proposed incorporation areas, but there are a few steps before the question lands on voter ballots in November 2026.

Easter Placer Future has already taken the first step with the initial fiscal review, determining financial feasibility.

A more comprehensive fiscal analysis and service plan of the potential town is next.

Then comes an application to LAFCO, which the group is hoping to submit in August. A part of the application involves showing support from 25% of registered voters, along with public outreach and engagement. Advocates will be asking for signatures on a petition between now and their LAFCO application submission.

They expect LAFCO’s review process to start in the fall and extend into the spring of 2026.

It’s after the review process that it could go to the ballot, requiring a majority vote to pass.

“It’s a fairly aggressive timeline,” Drake said, “but we’re moving in the right direction.”

Although the initiative is relatively new to the public, those at Eastern Placer Future started exploring the idea in 2021 and have been conducting conversations for two years with special districts, business communities, employers and county leaders, as well as towns that have undergone the incorporation process.

For more information, visit easternplacerfuture.org.

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