Proposed Tahoe Area Plan Housing Updates Synopsis

BY Chris Wood, IVCBA Housing Committee

Washoe County is updating the Area Plan for Incline Village/Crystal Bay to allow higher density housing in Incline Village’s town center. 

The County is conducting workshops for citizen input on the updates. The first workshop is January 6 at 11:30 a.m. (to 1:30 p.m.) in Incline Village at the Community Center (next to the Library). A second workshop is scheduled for January 14 from 3-5:00 p.m. at the Incline Village Raley’s conference room.

By May 25, the County intends to place the final amendments updating the Washoe Tahoe Area Plan (“WTAP”) before the County Planning Commission for a vote.

The WTAP will conform to Tahoe Regional Planning Agency (TRPA’s) housing proposals for the entire Lake Tahoe Basin as established in their recently amended Lake Tahoe Area Plan. In town centers, including Incline Village, that plan allows greater height allowance for building up to 65 feet (current is 56 feet). It allows parcel coverage up to 100%  with a storm water treatment system (current: 70%) and “alternative strategies to meet parking demand” for new buildings (currently 1-2 parking spaces required per housing unit).

Since TRPA adopted the amendments at the end of 2023, concerns have continued about whether these proposals will increase workforce housing as needed or whether the WTAP will allow more market-price housing that the workforce cannot afford. The Washoe Tahoe Local Employees Housing Needs Report said in September, 2021, that by 2026, next year, 1,205 affordable housing units are needed. 

While TRPA says its amendments are intended to encourage workforce housing, criticism has been that there are protections absent. The 3 tiers of workforce housing (“Affordable”, Moderate” and “Achievable”) in some instances do not require Tahoe Basin employment, or if these do there is no income or asset cap for the purchaser. This raises the specter of housing not serving its direct purposes.  

     Further, Washoe County in January 2023 amended its development code for the Incline Village town center (“Commercial Regulatory Zone Special Area 1”) to allow single family housing units (condos) in the 45 acres of Incline’s town center only if these are part of “mixed-use” development or “when they are affordable housing units”. There is currently no limitation on market price condominiums in the Washoe County Code in Special Area 1. TRPA’s plan for Washoe Tahoe recommends a minimum of 10% of housing development be workforce housing. Critics say 10% is not enough to serve 90% non-workforce occupants.

Other concerns focus on mechanisms to enforce workforce housing requirements. Deed restrictions are to be used under the WTAP (per TRPA’s Area Plan). Deed restrictions limit who can rent or purchase the affordable housing. Deed restrictions have been in use around the Lake Tahoe Basin for years, but there is no universal enforcement mechanism. While TRPA has performed some limited Deed restriction enforcement, there is no agency in Nevada. 

There are also questions of where in land-challenged Incline Village/Crystal Bay can workforce housing be constructed? Aside from the US Forest Service land (which has over 14 acres already develop in IVCB) other public agencies own approximately 11.5 acres in IVCB. The WTAP (per TRPA) would allow “No Maximum” limit on housing per acre, but if all 11.5 acres were to support 1,200 needed workforce housing units, that would come out to more than 4 times the current unit maximum of 25 per acre.