KINGS BEACH, Calif. – The Placer County Supervisors discussed several basin issues and topics during their quarterly Lake Tahoe meeting on Tuesday, June 26. 

The meeting began with several proclamations including a Commendation recognizing the 75^th Anniversary of the Tahoe Forest Hospital District and a Proclamation declaring the period of May 2024 through October 2024 as the Lake Tahoe Wildfire Awareness Campaign.

The supervisors also heard a presentation from Nevada County regarding the Truckee Library Joint Powers Agreement (JPA), which includes Nevada County and the Town of Truckee, along with an agreement with the Friends of the Truckee Library. The agreement was formed to help build a new Truckee Library. 

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The new library will be located in Truckee Regional Park, which will be more easily accessible to nearby Placer County residents than the current location off of Donner Pass Road. 

The Joint Powers Agreement is recommending a bond measure to extend its boundaries to include Placer County residents near Truckee. They are also in talks with Placer County on establishing a shared services delivery model.

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The supervisors all expressed support of the library and shared services and authorized the Chair of the Placer County Board of Supervisors to sign a Letter of Support for the Truckee Library JPA on potential regional library services within the eastern portions of Placer and Nevada Counties

The supervisors also approved the Truckee Fire Protection District Fire Facilities Impact Fee FY 2023/2024 Capital Improvement Plan Mitigation Fee Annual Expenditure Plan and 5-Year Report and increases to the TFPD fire facilities impact fee.

The changes include an increase to $1.30 per square foot for Residential Dwellings, an increase to $0.98 per square foot for Industrial, an increase to $1.37 per square foot for Retail/Commercial and an increase to $1.96 per square foot for Office, The new fees will take effect on August 26, 2024.

A large portion of the meeting was taken up with discussion of amendments to the Short-Term Rental ordinance. 

As of June 1, 2024 there 3,411 current permits and 489 remaining permits. While permits are approved on a rolling basis, April 1 marked the unofficial start of the renewal cycle. 

Between June 1, 2023 and May 31, 2024, 185 complaint cases were investigated. The top three causes were no STR permits, issues with trash and lack of exterior permit postings. 

A stakeholder working group reviewed amendments at July 18 and Nov. 29 meetings. Amendments were presented to the supervisors in a February 2024 meeting, during which the supervisors asked for more changes. 

Since that meeting, several amendments have been added or updated, including “the condo-hotel definition has been revised to ensure condo-hotel properties have staffed front-desk business hours management and on-call after-hours management to respond to nuisance concerns. It also includes an alternative for properties that don’t have centrally monitored fire sprinkler and alarm systems and are located in a zone district that allows hotel, motel, and tourist accommodation units and/or was entitled and/or built as commercial lodging or condo-hotel to reflect safety concerns from discussions with fire Districts,” according to the staff report. 

The bedroom requirement was also updated to match requirements laid out in the California residential code. 

The local contact used to be required to respond in person to concerns within 60 minutes but due to weather and traffic issues, staff realized it’s not always possible so they changed the requirement that the local contact must reside within 35 miles of the property.

Defensible space inspections will now be required every three years regardless of the STR renewal date. 

Accessory Dwelling Units permitted after June 9, 2020 may not be short-term rented to maintain consistency with the Placer County Zoning Ordinance. 

Many public commenters spoke, many of whom were permit holders or rented their homes temporarily or on a long-term basis. The previously suggested amendments had made it difficult or impossible to continue renting their homes. 

The most recent round of amendments should, in theory, address those issues and concerns. According to Supervisor Cindy Gustafson, the changes were not intended to make things harder or take permits away from people.

The amendments passed unanimously. 

The supervisors also heard and discussed several items regarding transportation and parking management, which will be covered in another Sun article.