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Greetings from Kings Beach,
I’m Rebecca Taber, Placer County’s deputy director of the Department of Public Works in North Lake Tahoe. I’m helping lead our parking management efforts and I’d like to share the progress we've seen from this past winter's efforts leading into new plans this summer.
One thing that's very apparent for our community members here: Our businesses feel the pressure each summer when visitors flock to Kings Beach to enjoy the beauty of Lake Tahoe.
Many local business owners have told me that while they rely on summer tourism to survive, there are too many unmanaged cars in our region and it affects their bottom line. Beachgoers can end up taking the most convenient parking spaces all day on the busiest days and customers are left driving around and giving up frustrated or not even venturing out at all.
One of the key goals of the county's Parking Management Program is increasing parking turnover next to businesses in the commercial core to help boost the local economy.
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We've also heard of the weekend or holiday crowds clogging the roadways in the Kings Beach grid and residents are stuck dealing with illegally parked cars, concerns for those trying to walk or bike safely through town, and few solutions.
At the end of June, the Placer County Board of Supervisors provided direction to begin implementation of initial steps of our North Lake Tahoe Parking Management Program, starting with improved enforcement of parking rules.
A coordinated team of parking enforcement officers now have handheld parking citation capability to more efficiently and effectively patrol the area, warn people where they should not be parking and issue parking tickets to encourage parking compliance. This more automated parking technology facilitates enforcement of our Board’s updated parking fine schedule that was approved last fall.
The board also approved a pilot program for paid parking at the county’s Christmas Tree parking lot beginning in late July and concluding by Monday, Sept. 30.
The county’s Christmas Tree lot, located at 8676 North Lake Blvd. in Kings Beach, is the first test lot to temporarily implement paid parking in the county and is part of the initial phase of the county’s Kings Beach parking management plan, as recommended in the Resort Triangle Transportation Plan and adopted by the board in 2020.
The pilot program will run this summer along with public education and parking utilization data collection and our results will help us identify areas of future need for our implementation efforts.
Revenue generated from the parking program will first be used to fund parking equipment costs and enforcement operations, while surplus proceeds will be spent locally on Kings Beach’s mobility and transportation infrastructure, such as new bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and expansion of transit services.
We're also looking for input and feedback from interested key stakeholders as the temporary paid parking pilot progresses to help inform future program decisions. In the near future, we'll form a parking community advisory group to help guide the program long-term.
Read more about the Board's guidance here.
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One of the benefits of implementing paid parking in our region comes from better access to our region's free transportation options and the environmental impact we can make when we carpool. I always encourage residents and visitors to take advantage of our TART bus service and TART Connect micro-transit service when possible.
We at Placer County are committed to working with the Kings Beach community and surrounding areas to ensure that the new parking management initiatives are successful. I encourage you to share your thoughts through our new dedicated email address: NTParking@Placer.ca.gov.
Thanks for reading, and please see a few project updates from my team below.
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—Rebecca Taber, Placer County Deputy Director for the Department of Public Works
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North Tahoe Trail Segment 1 Update
Placer County’s North Tahoe Shared-Use Trail received a $1.2M California Tahoe Conservancy community sustainability and climate resilience grant earlier this year. Segment 1 will connect North Tahoe Regional Park to Carnelian Bay with 2.52 miles of paved trail. The project is moving closer to construction, estimated to begin in the summer of next year. READ MORE
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Tahoe City Downtown Access Improvements
Placer County is working to construct parking and traffic flow improvements, as outlined in the Tahoe City Mobility Plan, which include the expansion of the existing public parking facility at Grove Street, improved pedestrian and bicycle access to Tahoe City commercial businesses and construction of a section of Class 1 multi-use trail for the Lake Tahoe Region. The preliminary design and environmental document have been completed for this project. READ MORE
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Join Placer County's Tahoe Engineering Division
Our office is hiring! We're looking to add two engineers and an engineering manager to our Tahoe team. These salaried positions include a Tahoe branch assignment premium of up to an additional $1,000 per month. Each position will remain open until filled. APPLY HERE
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The Placer County Board of Supervisors approved a range of changes to the Short-Term Rental Program ordinance last month. These revisions reflect feedback from the former STR stakeholder working group, county counsel, appeal hearings officers, and fire and building safety personnel.
The following changes have been made since February:
- The condo-hotel definition was revised to provide an alternative to fire sprinklers and alarm systems for properties entitled as or zoned to allow commercial lodging
- Bedrooms clarified to specify they must meet building code that was in place at the time the structure was permitted or today's code
- Local contact must be within 35 driving miles of the STR property
- Defensible space inspections required every three years
- Current permit holders must pass their local defensible space inspection by Nov. 30 to retain their permit
- Accessory dwelling units built after June 9, 2020 (the date the county’s accessory dwelling unit ordinance took effect) shall not be permitted to be an STR, to align with county ADU regulations
READ MORE
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Emergencies can happen anytime, anywhere - even in beautiful Lake Tahoe.
TahoeAlerts is your one-stop resource to sign up for the various emergency alert systems throughout the region.
To stay safe, make sure you know what’s happening wherever you’re at by signing up for emergency notifications at TahoeAlerts.com. Sign up for all the locations you frequent. WATCH VIDEO
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The Placer County Board of Supervisors recently approved a contract with Tahoe Downtowner LLC to continue the Tahoe Truckee Area Regional Transit micro-transit service TART Connect through June 30, 2027, with two one-year renewal options.
TART Connect is free to the rider and offers curb-to-curb, on-demand service for any trip within the defined service areas. READ MORE
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We're spotlighting several of our teams – including Public Works, Environmental Health and Code Enforcement – for receiving a National Association of Counties award for their collaborative program to address litter and garbage issues in the North Lake Tahoe area. This program, which has enlisted the partnership of Clean Tahoe to help with cleanup efforts and community education, has resulted in trash complaints decreasing significantly: from 66% of countywide complaints in 2020 to less than 5% in 2023. Clean Tahoe removed approximately 18,000 pounds of trash from the environment during 2023.
But a picture’s worth 1,000 words – just check out the before and after photo below. Find more information of their website. LEARN MORE
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OTHER NEWS
UPCOMING EVENTS
- Virtual TOT-TBID Dollars at Work Annual Grant Cycle workshop, July 18
- Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting, July 23
- Placer County Planning Commission meeting, July 25
- Placer's Virtual Buyer-Realtor Workshop, July 29
- Olympic Valley Municipal Advisory Council meeting, Aug. 1
- North Tahoe Regional Advisory Council meeting, Aug. 8
- Placer County Planning Commission meeting, Aug. 8
- Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting, Aug. 13
- Kings Beach Visitor Information Center grand opening event, Aug. 15
- Placer County Planning Commission meeting, Aug. 22
- Placer County Board of Supervisors meeting in Tahoe, Aug. 26-27
Find more recurring events happening in North Lake Tahoe here: Concerts at Commons Beach, Tahoe City Farmer's Market, Free Concert Fridays in Kings Beach, Bluesdays At The Village At Palisades Tahoe
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