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Residents and industry split over proposed VHR buffer as council weighs options
Summary
Public commenters, VHR managers and real-estate representatives urged the South Lake Tahoe City Council to reject a 150-foot proximity buffer for vacation-home rentals and instead favor enforceable rules, a cap or staged permits; multiple speakers said the buffer would unpredictably reduce permits and shift impacts into neighborhoods.
Public comment at the South Lake Tahoe City Council’s May 20 meeting centered on proposed changes to the city’s vacation-home-rental (VHR) rules, with speakers across the tourism, management and neighborhood spectrum urging councilors to reconsider a 150-foot proximity buffer and to emphasize enforcement instead.
Dugen Smith, a city resident, told the council the staff table used to estimate permit counts “is misleading” and said a buffer is a poor way to control permit supply. “If you rolled this program out a 100 times, you would get a 100 different results,” Smith said, arguing a…
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