South Lake Tahoe, California – Heavenly and South Lake Tahoe may to have to come up with a new parking agreement, as the two sides are currently bickering over various issues.
KOLO News Now reports that the South Lake Tahoe City Council have terminated their 2013 Parking Agreement with Heavenly Resort, the latest case in growing tensions between the two sides. This parking agreement covers the California Base Loidge parking lots and Ski Run Boulevlard. However, this ruling could be reversed if Heavenly comes to the City Council to discuss parking plans and annexation its land from El Doraro County to South Lake Tahoe.
Before the 2023-24 season, Heavenly and South Lake Tahoe came to an agreement that allowed skiers and riders to park on residential streets. While some factors, like parking reservations, did improve the guest experience, the roadside parking made things messy for local residents. In response, they will be using various methods to block off parking spots in a variety of neighborhoods next winter.
Alan Masters, who has a home situated in the Heavenly Valley Neighborhood, described to KOLO why he agreed with South Lake Tahoe City Council’s decision.
“I do agree with that. I believe that Heavenly, well for the last 60 years, not one dime of their revenues have gone for tax purposes in the city. I have had people literally parking in front of my home, breaking out a barbecue grill and using my yard like a sledding hill, without asking. I’ve never gone to Reno, parked in their driveway and jumped in their pool. If you take a look at the roads in my neighborhood as an example. They are literally falling apart and it’s been a real challenge.”
The other issue is that South Lake Tahoe wants to annex the ski resort into the city. Currently, sales taxes generated at the ski resort’s California Lodge, let’s go with the taxes raised from an overpriced Gatorde as an example here, go to El Dorado County, not South Lake Tahoe.
This setup angers Scott Robbins, who’s a South Lake Tahoe City Councilman:
“Every ski boot that’s been sold at Cal lodge, or any of the mountain operations and not one dime of that has ever gone into the city to pay for the roads that serve their business is outrageous.”
Heavenly does pay $54,000 to the cities general fund and $3,500 to the snow clearance account. In addition, they contributed $106,000 to paving Ski Run Boulevard. Furthermore, Heavenly disagrees with the annexation plan, as doing this will require approvals from a variety of agencies, including the U.S. Forest Service.
Tom Fortune, who’s the VP & COO of Heavenly & the Tahoe Region of Vail Resorts, issued the following statement to KOLO:
“We care deeply about our South Lake Tahoe community. We have been meeting and providing information as requested regularly in good faith with the City on the matter of annexation. The City has not yet articulated the benefits of annexation, leaving us with many questions. Parking and annexation are unrelated and we are disappointed that the City is using parking to create leverage in the discussions around annexation. Canceling the parking agreement only raises costs for taxpayers and could impact the guest experience if not maintained as well as the resort team.
We provide significant revenue to the City by way of this agreement/contract, paying for parking on Ski Run Blvd., along with paying taxes to and contributing to other key services including snow removal and road paving, among other things. Vail Resorts also contributes more than $3.4M to Tahoe non-profits focused on critical community challenges like childcare, education and ensuring the mountains are for everyone through access programs. On the topic of annexation, ski resort operations are highly complex, with a long history of land-use regulations and requirements with partners such as the U.S. Forest Service, TRPA, and El Dorado County. We will continue conversations with the City about what comes next, especially given our many years of positive and productive collaboration and are hopeful they will do the same.”
Image Credits: Heavenly Resort
