Major changes may be coming to the south shore of Lake Tahoe. A grand plan is in the works to overhaul many of the tired old developments and improve the environment at the same time. The business community has a vision for luring investment in Tahoe’s future.
Lake Tahoe may be rich in natural beauty, but its economy is in trouble.
“The community here has imploded, schools have closed, the population has declined, it’s really a tragic situation,” Mike Bradford said.
Bradford owns Lakeside Inn, a casino at Lake Tahoe. For 50 years, casinos were the economic engines that drove the Tahoe area. In fact when the casinos were built, the idea was to make visitors forget the lake was even there.
“Everything was inside the casino building; it was undesirable to have anyone go anywhere else because that was lost revenue,” Bradford said.
But now Indian casinos have lured away most of the gambling customers.
“They are not coming here, nor are they going to come here so we are left with a product that’s no longer viable,” Bradford said.
Bradford is leading a coalition of businesses hoping to remake the area, focusing on natural beauty and turning it into a world class outdoor recreation center.
“Transform this place into a more environmentally appropriate use of the lake, that’s economically viable, that allows the community to recover,” Bradford said.
The businesses have put together what they call the South Shore Vision Plan — turning the ugly casino corridor into an upscale, walkable town and easy access to the lake.
Most of the money for the make-over would come from private investment.
The idea goes hand in hand with a government plan to reroute Highway 50 — the main road through South Lake Tahoe. Instead of going right down the middle of town, it would be moved to run behind the casinos and farther from the lake.
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The estimated cost is $65 million.
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