Industry News
The City of South Lake Tahoe, California sits tucked just below the beautiful mountains that are home to Heavenly Ski Resort. Vail Resorts bought Heavenly way back in 2002. Chairman and CEO at the time, Adam Aron characterized the resort as “undermanaged, undermarketed, and undercapitalized.” Now, over two decades later and after years of growth and profitability, the South Lake Tahoe City Council wants to send Vail Resorts and specifically Heavenly, an important message.
During the most recent city council meeting, council-members began talks of terminating the parking agreement the city has with Heavenly. The Heavenly Parking Agreement includes annual payments of $54,320 to the city’s General Fund and $3,500 to the Snow Sweeping account. With this, Heavenly receives a substantial amount of overflow parking along Ski Run Boulevard and Needle Peak Road, amongst other perks. Also, unrelated to the parking agreement, California Lodge receives assistant from the city’s public works and safety.
Back in June 2023, the South Lake Tahoe City Council gave the green-light to pursue annexing currently unincorporated parcels in the area, including Heavenly’s California Gunbarrel Lodge. Since Vail Resorts bought Heavenly more than 20 years ago, “not one dime of sales taxes from Vail Resorts has ever once gone into the City coffers to pay for the roads that their businesses drive traffic on,” Councilmember Scott Robbins noted in the most recent meeting. Bringing Heavenly’s California Lodge into the city limits would potentially generate around $47,000 in annual fiscal surplus.
After months of communication, Vail Resorts and Heavenly have yet to offer their position on annexation, nor provide requested information regarding point of sales locations and revenue. This has drawn the South Lake Tahoe City Council to begin their discussion on terminating the parking agreement. Mayor Cody Bass said, “I can’t understand the line of thinking that they would not want to move forward with annexation and I think the other message that needs to be sent is that becoming part of the city is the only way that those services will continue.”
If the parking agreement is terminated, what could the effects be on anyone visiting Heavenly to ski or snowboard? Since termination was not officially on this meetings agenda, the topic will likely be brought up during the next meeting.
