The Tahoe Regional Planning Agency Governing Board unanimously approved the Homewood Mountain Resort Master Plan amendments yesterday, allowing the project to move forward. Both the TRPA and Keep Homewood Public said they are satisfied that the revised master plan, which includes compliance and enforcement measures, will keep the ski resort open to the public.
“Keep Homewood Public is encouraged about today’s outcomes: Homewood is public and the gondola was approved,” wrote KHP spokesperson Kathy Astromoff in an email to Moonshine Ink. “The most important accomplishment was Homewood’s clearly stated intention to protect our public access.”
The Homewood Community Access Plan, which will be included in the master plan, includes specific language about keeping the mountain open to all: “Homewood Mountain Resort’s snow skiing products and packages (e.g., season passes and day tickets) will be available for purchase by anyone (including HOA members, visitors of HOA members, hotel guests, and visitors from the general public) … all skiing recreational areas on the mountain, including lifts, will be accessible by anyone with a valid ski pass.”
The TRPA Governing Board was interested in ensuring that there were strong compliance and enforcement measures in place to guarantee Homewood remains public. Unlike Heavenly, which undergoes environmental monitoring once a year, Homewood will be required to report monthly to TRPA during the winter months and once a year during the summer on both its environmental impacts as well as a financial audit on pass sales and prices. TRPA also can issue cease and desist orders and stop Homewood from operating if it does not comply.
“We are going to make sure that Homewood is following the spirit and intent of the master plan and if things come up where it looks like they found a way around it, we have ways to revise the permit and conditions,” said TRPA spokesperson Jeff Cowen. “We don’t have our hands tied behind our back.”
KHP attributes its success to both its own efforts and that of the community, but also to the TRPA. “This mountain would be private today if were not for the TRPA,” said Astromoff.
The governing board also changed the conditions for removal of the Tahoe Inn in Kings Beach, which JMA Ventures, Homewood landowner, owns. The dilapidated inn will now have to be torn down in the project’s first phase rather than in 2028.
JMA is partners with Discovery Land Company, operator of luxury private residential communities and resorts, and Mohari, a global investment company in luxury hospitality.
The Homewood Master Plan, which was originally approved in 2011, includes plans for a new village that includes public amenities like a market, ice skating rink, rental and repair shop, and coffee shop. Homewood has committed to building all of these in the project’s first phase. Amendments were made to the master plan by the developer to reflect changes they wanted a decade after the original plan was approved. The revisions are mostly architectural, programming, and engineering changes, such as moving the location of the gondola terminal to the village.
TRPA also approved a permit for a new gondola to replace the Madden Chair.
Homewood General Manger Andy Buckley says that a hybrid model — whereby Homewood generates revenue from selling passes and day tickets to the public as well as HOA memberships from people who buy one of Homewood’s 122 new residences — will sustain the ski resort.
“The hybrid plan really just means access for all,” Buckley said. “If we have visitation from the community and HOA members and their fees, those two things will make the business viable … 100% of the mountain will be available to everyone.”
Homewood will also offer a True Local Pass for full-time residents that will never be more than 65% of the price of Palisades and Northstar season passes, according to Buckley. A 5-year True Local Pass has also been added. “This never existed before,” said Buckley. “We want to show the people who are most concerned about pricing that they will always be a welcome addition to Homewood.”
Now that the project has been approved, Buckley is confident that the resort will re-open next season. Homewood announced in October that it would not open this winter after Mohari declined to provide operational funds due to a lack of clarity about the resort’s future at the time.
Homewood hopes to break ground this spring.
Although Keep Homewood Public has achieved its goals, there is no rest for the weary.
“In the end, we will be trying to ski there and making sure we all have the ability to ski there that we heard confirmed yesterday,” Astromoff said.
