South Lake Tahoe, California — Tensions between Vail Resorts and local communities are not a new development, as they’ve faced battles with ski towns like Park City, Stowe, and even its namesake town, Vail, over the years. Perhaps its biggest fight yet is from South Lake Tahoe, which comes from its impact on local infrastructure.
SFGate reports that the feud between South Lake Tahoe and Vail Resorts continues to heat up after years of fighting over parking and whether Heavenly is paying its fair share of taxes.
Vail Resorts has been a community partner since it acquired Heavenly Resort in 2002. For years, South Lake Tahoe allowed Vail Resorts to use parking spots in the streets of South Lake Tahoe for visitors. While Vail and South Lake Tahoe had a functional relationship for many years, their influence over the region has grown with the acquisitions of Northstar in 2010 and Kirkwood in 2012. The growth of the Epic Pass has brought more people to the region, playing a part in the growing congestion that Tahoe faces.
The situation came to a head on January 2, 2023, when a storm that brought multiple feet of snow to Tahoe led hordes of people to visit Heavenly Resort. The California Main Lodge (also known as Cal Lodge) parking lot was full before first chair, so drivers went to the snow-covered streets of South Lake Tahoe. The congestion that followed infuriated local officials, who decided to question whether Vail should be doing more to help out the community.
Since then, the South Lake Tahoe City Council has questioned whether Vail Resorts is exploiting local infastructure. This has resulted in the council renegotiating the parking contract for the local streets and eventually voting to ban Vail from using street parking for the 2024-25 season.
In addition, South Lake Tahoe aims to annex the mountain’s California side. While South Lake Tahoe roads lead to the California Lodge, the ski resort isn’t a part of South Lake Tahoe. Annexing it would lead to Heavenly having a sales tax that would go to the city. They currently have a sales tax that goes to El Dorado County. The city can’t pursue a lift tax, which other ski towns have used, until the end of 2031, due to an agreement that led to the installation of the Heavenly Village gondola.
“The City has not identified any benefits to the resort, the community, or our guests from annexation…We have always collaborated with the City to share the costs and responsibility in the areas surrounding the resort, and we have offered to continue to do that.” said Shaydar Edelmann, the VP and GM of Heavenly Resort, in a written statement to SFGate.
The success of the annexation attempt is debatable, as Vail Resorts is currently against it, and they’ll need to buy in from them if it makes its way to the El Dorado Local Agency Formation Commission. While South Lake Tahoe Mayor Tamara Wallace claims that they’re offering a business-friendly deal to get buy-in from Vail, its success without their consent isn’t likely. For now, South Lake Tahoe can use the parking on the streets and the number of times plows clean up the roads leading to Heavenly, which Vail wants cleared more often, as leverage.
“If they really want to play hardball, I can play hardball and we’ll annex the whole entire mountain, all on the California side, because I’m not playing,” said Mayor Wallace. “This is what my community needs.”
You can read SFGate’s investigative piece in full here.
Image Credits: Heavenly Ski Resort
