Long Battle Ends over New Timeshares in Homewood, Nevada

One Nevada developer has finally received government approval to commence constructing six timeshare units at Homewood, Nevada, in the Lake Tahoe area. The West Shore development received the go-ahead earlier this month after the developer agreed to downsize the plan from nine timeshare units to six timeshare units. The proposed timeshare vacation homes will be constructed on Highway 89, across from Homewood Mountain Ski Resort approximately twenty miles north of South Lake Tahoe and six miles south of Tahoe City.

Conditions of the approval, according the website for Placer County, California government, include demolition of an existing property known as the Marina Lodge; constructing a facility for washing boats; building screens to block views of existing boat racks; and contributing $100,000 to the Homewood Home Owners Association for public beach access.

This particular project is one more instance where local government officials agonize over whether an area should be zoned for use as residential property, traditional hotel property, timeshare units, or as fractional ownership. I think it is the concept of fractionals that has really added to the justifiable confusion and concern of planning boards.

Residential property has predictable patterns for use, density, and the type of traffic, tax revenue, and demands on government services it will create. The pros and cons of hotel use are equally predictable. In both cases, a zoning or planning board can realistically project what an area will be like in five, ten, or even fifteen years, based on its zoning. But when you add timeshare vacation property—most especially fractionals—to the mix, neither the standard projections for residential property or for hotel property accurately apply.

As developers of fractional properties or timeshare units often explain, fractional ownership (whether it is one week at a time or a thirteen-week increment) creates more business for area restaurants, attractions, and other businesses and services that benefit from tourist trade. On the other hand, fractional owners generate less business for services such as dentists, hardware stores, or computer repair shops, which are all good examples of places a vacationer is less likely than a resident to spend money. And from a third perspective, some restaurateurs argue that timeshare units (because so many of them have kitchen and dining areas) and fractionals (which essentially offer all the features of a private home) hurt their business by comparison to hotels, where guests often have little choice but to dine out three times per day.

It’s always a tough call for those who carry the responsibility of planning our cities’ futures, but this past year, I have definitely seen more instances like this one. City planning boards are compromising and permitting developers to intermingle small developments that have a limited number of fractionals or timeshare units, into areas that are traditionally zoned for residential use only.

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