Some Incline residents want independence from Washoe County

Since the pandemic, local governments and organizations around the lake and in Truckee have been scrambling to come up with solutions to the housing crisis.

That’s included putting moratoriums on short-term rentals, building multiple workforce housing developments, and even offering thousands of dollars to second homeowners to rent their vacant homes to local workers and families.

Among this expedient change, Crystal Bay and Incline Village have been experiencing some of the worst effects of the housing crisis. Recently, the Village Market of Incline closed its doors after 42 years — in part due to a lack of employees.

Tahoe Luxury Properties real estate agent Amie Quirarte said that the Nevada side of the lake has always been a hot spot due to its low property taxes.

“…the second piece, which is arguably the biggest, is that there were so many changes happening in the political climate across every state and because… the coronavirus has become so highly politicized people left California… and Nevada was a really great state for people to relocate to as far as retirement benefits go and capitalizing on some tax benefits over there if you were switching your residency and Incline saw a huge demand,” Quirarte said. “We just saw a $60 million dollar sale over there – the prices are much higher there than on the California side.”

Due to the lack of affordable housing, much of the local workforce has been pushed out and left many businesses at a loss for employees. Incline Village General Improvement District has also been experiencing an impact to its ability to recruit and retain employees, according to General Manager Indra Winquest – but it does not have as much autonomy over housing as some may think.

“A lot of people think that IVGID has more abilities than it does in regard to how we control (housing) as the local government,” said Tim Callicrate, chairman of the district’s Board of Trustees. “The tough part is we can’t – we have to work with the county. Though we have many, many people here in town who have been really forthright and stepping up and trying to come up with a positive, workable solution. … we’re a general improvement district under the auspices of the county. These are zoning issues that we have no control over … so far we’re doing the best that we can with the limitations that we have as a general improvement district.”

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