County OKs Glenbrook VHR ban

After more than two hours of debate and public comment, Douglas County commissioners voted 3-2 to ban vacation home rentals north of Cave Rock on Thursday.

Under the approved ordinance, rental operators at Lake Tahoe will lose their permits at the end of 2024.

Thursday’s county commissioner meeting opened with Chairman Mark Gardner making a statement about the pressure campaign that accompanied the issue, saying he wouldn’t succumb.

“As late as yesterday I received a text message that if I did not vote no against an issue coming up later today they would run a candidate against me in the upcoming election and work to my defeat,” he said. “I have also received over the past few weeks that if I should vote yes then a similar occurrence would occur.”

Gardner was the central figure in a video produced by Glenbrook vacation rental operator and documentary filmmaker Rick Ray.

After blocking a hearing on the ordinance for more than a year, Gardner shifted gears and agreed in November to a hearing on the proposal Commissioner Danny Tarkanian had been seeking.

That shift pretty much confirmed that the ordinance would be approved on Thursday and may have been why Gardner was targeted by opponents of the ordinance.

Commissioners Wes Rice and Sharla Hales opposed approving the ordinance.

Commissioners also voted 3-1 to have staff work on yet another revision of the home rental ordinance to reduce the number of vacation home rentals in Lincoln Park located just north of Cave Rock.

Meanwhile, petitioners seeking to eliminate all vacation rentals in residential neighborhoods are gathering signatures.

The petition would allow the rentals in neighborhood commercial zoning in East Fork, something that has been prohibited up to now.