The Abridged version:
- The Placer County community of Tahoe City may add new housing in the coming years, aiming to meet the needs of its local workforce.
- Potential development at 3205 North Lake Blvd. could include about 110 new units serving a mix of incomes, with options for affordable rentals and for-sale homes.
- Research shows that most low-income households in the region are inadequately housed, and with a shortage of attainable options, many workers have moved out of the area.
Tahoe City may get over 100 new housing units soon, if county plans come to fruition.
Placer County officials hosted a community meeting last week at North Tahoe High School to discuss a potential housing development at 3205 North Lake Blvd., previously known as Dollar Creek Crossing. The development would help meet the demand for affordable and achievable housing in the North Tahoe area as part of the county’s overall goal to drastically increase its supply by the end of the decade.
Community members and organizations say that more attainable housing is crucial to meet the needs of the local workforce, including those who have had to move away due to a shortage of housing within their budgets.
“Rental rates have remained high and sometimes unapproachable for local workers,” said Jackelin McCoy, program manager at the Truckee Tahoe Workforce Housing Agency. “Workers in industries like tourism and restaurants definitely need housing, and the affordability gap is still so large.”
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Development plans
Currently, no specific plans for the site exist, but county housing officials have a vision for development.
Marie Maniscalco, a senior Placer County housing planner, said that initial development at the site would include about 110 units. Fifty of the units would be classified low-income housing, 40 would serve moderate-income households, and 20 would serve households of above moderate-income earners.
There would ideally be a mix of rentals and for-sale homes.
“It would be something like a mix, looking toward higher densities along North Lake Boulevard and lower densities along the neighboring streets,” Maniscalco said.
County housing planners expect to issue a request for proposal to solicit potential new developers in the first half of 2027, if the Board of Supervisors approves their request in October. Community members could see project plans and design renderings by the end of 2027.
The Dollar Creek Crossing site has been eyed for housing development for two decades, though construction plans from the early 2000s never materialized. The county purchased the site in 2019, intending to facilitate a mix of housing types. But after agreements with one developer fell through and officials found that existing plans were not financially feasible, plans eventually shifted in 2025 to build a fully affordable rental community.
Those plans, however, fell through as officials and developers struggled to find funding. Now that the county’s rights to negotiate an agreement with the plan’s former developer have expired, officials will be on the hunt for new development partners.
The demand for housing
According to a 2025 housing needs report published by the Tahoe Truckee Community Foundation, the region needs nearly 8,000 new housing units to accommodate workers and local residents making under 245% of the area median income.
Most households without adequate housing are lower- and middle-income, according to the report. Over 75% of working households classified as low-income lack adequate housing — meaning a total 3,679 more units need to be built to meet their needs.
“The housing burden, where people are paying more than 30% of their income, is great,” Maniscalco said. “People are feeling extremely heavy with all of the expenditures that they’re experiencing. It really burdens the entire community.”
Those who stand to benefit most include people working in tourism, hospitality, health services and county government.
Placer County Supervisor Cindy Gustafson, who previously worked in local government in Tahoe City, told Abridged by PBS KVIE that earlier work by the Mountain Housing Council indicated that the area’s wage-housing gap was greater than that of San Francisco. More recent conversations with working community members have reflected an especially strong need for achievable housing.
“That’s teachers, firefighters, nurses, county employees, public utility workers,” Gustafson said. “They may earn too much for affordable housing programs, but they can’t afford a home in our region.”
Many people who have moved away from the North Tahoe region but continue to work there live in the Reno area, McCoy and Gustafson said, with some people choosing to reside elsewhere in Placer and Nevada counties.
The closest affordable housing complex to Tahoe City is about 20 minutes away in Kings Beach.
McCoy said that regional affordable and achievable housing is crucial for reasons beyond the affordability gap. Commuters must travel daily from cities like Reno, taking long drives on Highway 50 where they may face unfavorable weather conditions and frequent crashes.
“It makes it so challenging during the winter,” McCoy said. “There’s a component of ‘yes, I need housing,’ and a life-threatening component as well.”
The county is soliciting feedback online from local residents on aspects of potential development, including location, types of housing, income levels served, the use of public funds and more. Maniscalco said that so far, over 100 community members have responded to the survey, which will close Sept. 19.
Community members have expressed a desire for more achievable for-sale homes, Maniscalco added, as many of their neighbors have left the area. Revenue from a transient occupancy tax has emerged as a popular potential source of local funding.
