Rustic lodge, or super-rich ski area? Lake Tahoe resort plan sparks outcry

theguardian.com:

W ith its creaky, two-seater chair lifts, ramshackle lodge buildings and awe-inspiring Lake Tahoe views, Homewood Mountain is one of the last of an old breed of rustic, family-friendly ski resorts in California’s Tahoe region.

But developers have introduced a plan that some residents fear will shut down much of the public access to the mountain and turn it into a members-only luxury resort for the super-rich.

A property development company that owns the ski area, JMA Ventures, LLC, has partnered with a company that has been building ultra-pricey vacation home developments catering to celebrities and billionaires. Their plan is to build about 180 homes which would come with exclusive memberships to the ski area, newly named the Homewood Mountain & Lake Club.

The plan is being developed in collaboration with Discovery Land Company, which operates 27 luxurious golf communities in North America and the Caribbean.

Its Yellowstone Club in Montana, which it bills itself as “the world’s only private ski and golf community”, is said to have attracted such famous members as Tom Brady, Paris Hilton, Bill Gates, Jennifer Garner, Ben Affleck and Justin Timberlake – with one route to membership believed to be the purchase of a $22m condo which can require getting on a waitlist, according to reporting by the San Francisco Standard.

That article quoted an anonymous club member saying that more members of the club are top business leaders than celebrities, because “it’s just too expensive”. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, investor Warren Buffett and Google CEO Eric Schmidt are reportedly among them.

Some local Tahoe home and business owners have organized a group called Keep Homewood Public to fight the plan to turn Homewood into such a