Local business owners intending to improve housing needs for year-round residents in Truckee have proposed a new diverse housing development on Jibboom Street, Residences at Jibboom. The housing project will replace the current empty lot and condemned building with a small apartment complex and condominiums.
Housing for locals by locals
Truckee has evolved from a rural county outpost to a popular mountain destination that has continued to grow into the bustling town it is today. Urban escapees, families, remote workers and the young flock to the area looking for an alternative lifestyle. The area has seen such an increase in traffic that Truckee’s Welcome Center is now the third busiest in the state of California, with over 220,000 visitors last year. This growth has transformed Historic Downtown Truckee into a vibrant district that offers lodging, music, dining, festivals and easy access to the outdoors.
The Truckee Community
Historic Downtown Truckee encompasses approximately ten blocks and 125 businesses employing an estimated 1300 people. A recent survey of 51 of those business found that 33% of employees live in Truckee, while 66% drive in from other areas. A primary reason for this disparity is that there are a mere 18 rental units within this district. Consequently, thousands of employees drive into this ten-block area to work each day and many of those employees commute from Reno due to the lack of housing.
What would happen to business owners, traffic, parking and livability if those employees lived within walking distance to work?
Housing improvements within the Town of Truckee require action (not talk) by developers, Planning Departments, agencies and utilities to mitigate the impact of changing demographics. Truckee has become a diverse town that can no longer be managed according to an outdated rural or suburban mindset. General discussion will not give rise to change.
Residences at Jibboom Street is a locals housing development serving the gap between people who make too much to qualify for affordable housing programs and too little to purchase a home. The Tahoe-Truckee region is growing while the available rental stock is either not keeping pace or has declined. An abundance of second homes that were once rented to a group of roommates have become vacation rentals.
…but that is not news to you so what is actually being done and by whom?
This infill development project will turn the current vacant dirt lot along Jibboom Street into housing for locals while enhancing the current open space. The podium style development will allow parking on the ground floor with living above.
We are proposing to construct workforce-housing units restricted to locals and condominiums with purchase incentives available to locals. 60% of the units will be available as long-term rentals to those living in the Tahoe-Truckee region and 40% will be for sale with local purchase incentives.
A small step towards solving the housing problem
This project along with others such as Coburn Crossing and the Artist Lofts will help alleviate some of the housing shortage, but they cannot solve the problem alone. A whole solution will involve community effort calling on residents, planners, agencies and utilities. Without community action, the problem will only continue to grow.