Proposed Tahoe City hotel faces another lawsuit
By Melissa Siig, Moonshine Ink
The $60 million planned boutique hotel that would be Tahoe City’s first major hotel in more than 60 years is facing a second lawsuit. Five months after settling the first one, Kila Properties, developer of the Tahoe City Lodge, was sued again, literally days before the rundown Henrikson building was set to be demolished; this time by the family that owns the neighboring Bechdolt building.
At the heart of the lawsuit is a 68-year old easement that the family claims the hotel does not have the right to use. But to community leaders, the lawsuit represents much more than one party’s grievance against another; they worry that it threatens the core of Tahoe City’s revival and could discourage developers from investing much-needed funds on the North Shore for decades to come.
There are many facts that were neglected by the author, here are a few:
This is a 40 unit hotel with 78 for sale condos that could be used as hotel rooms when owners are not present. Creative planning language interpretation has allowed 118 units where only 56 units should be built upon approx 1.4 acres. Additionally the lodge was allowed to convert commercial floor area to tourist units by using non-permitted previous expansion of the Henriksen Bldg (known by Kila Properties)
Negotiations stagnated over the dispute of the easement language so MUST BE SETTLED legally by a judge’s ruling, not just the interpretation by the public utility district or Placer County.
The future potential of redeveloping/expanding the Bechdolt Building is being compromised by the shared parking agreement between the hotel and golf course and the taking of current parking spaces/land owned and utilized by Bechdolt tenants.
The Lodge location is not a blank slate and must share the easement with many users. Public health and safety has not been mentioned when queuing hotel guests in the easement and potential back-up on to SR 28 as well as confusion of ingress and egress of all users of the easement.
The Tahoe year-round destination equation is more complex than just adding a four or five star hotel. Providing moderate housing for teachers, fire, hospital county workers etc. to boost year round residency and not just vacation home rentals a must. Many other components.
Both the Homewood and Tahoe City Lodge lawsuits have merit and could have been avoided if compromise was achievable and negotiations fairly approached.
The message to developers isn’t that it’s risky to build in Tahoe, it’s understand the unique rules that govern the Tahoe Basin and respect the private property rights of your neighboring property owners.
Someone could put forward and perfect project and it would be opposed by someone.