But by 2025, Homewood’s parking lot beers and creaky ski lodge stairs are going the way of the dodo, replaced by luxury upgrades. A new members-only model would effectively turn “Homiewood” into a playground only for one-percenters willing to buy real estate to access the 1,253-acre mountain. 

In response, West Shore residents formed Keep Homewood Public, a community organization fighting the proposal. 

“We’re all-in on Homewood as a community enhancement project,” says Keep Homewood Public volunteer and West Shore resident Kathy Astromoff, referring to the language used in the resort developer’s 2011 public proposal. “But limiting the benefits to members instead of the public feels like a bait-and-switch. Shouldn’t a community enhancement project actually enhance the community?”

Developers already received approval to develop the aging resort

According to Keep Tahoe Public, going private wasn’t always the plan. In 2011, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, which oversees development in the Tahoe basin, approved a redevelopment master plan for Homewood. The plan included a hotel, high-end condos and expanded parking, as well as community features like an amphitheater, bike share program, and expanded trail access.

Though not universally loved, proponents pointed to the plan’s renewable energy sources, improved public transportation, and employee housing as reasons to support the plan. It also included language that read, “A central goal of that plan is to restore Homewood as a key gathering center for Lake Tahoe’s West Shore and to maintain the heritage of a ski resort that can be enjoyed equally by local residents and visitors,” which residents point to as proof of a promise to maintain public ski access. 

Now, 17 years after JMA Ventures bought the resort and surrounding land, the plan has shifted. While Homewood will still get a new hotel, new housing developments, and resort infrastructure upgrades, it’ll be hard for day-trippers and locals to experience them: JMA and its development partners plan to make the resort primarily private. Homewood will switch to a membership-based model tied to property ownership in the area, according to JMA and development partners Mohari Hospitality and Discovery Land Company. 

In a November 2022 letter to TRPA, JMA Ventures founder Art Chapman wrote that the resort would stop selling individual lift tickets, allowing only passholders and members to ski at the resort. However, Homewood would “be [open] to residents multiple times each month (no holidays or weekends),” and that the resort would sponsor “community days,” during which day tickets would be available, with sales benefiting local nonprofit groups. JMA Ventures claims this maintains the public access promised in 2011, one of many reasons why the changes aren’t significant enough to warrant a new approval process. 

That’s also one of many reasons why West Shore locals founded Keep Homewood Public. The coalition isn’t dissimilar from Keep Truckee True, a community group that successfully fought a development plan at nearby Palisades Tahoe Resort.

Astromoff says that Keep Homewood Public is open to development and will support projects to improve the resort’s aging infrastructure, but thinks the swap to a private business model is too different from what the community was promised. 

“Our goal is to see Homewood redeveloped according to the 2011 Master Plan,” she emphasized. “Ultimately, though, we want to ensure accessible four-season public recreation at Homewood” — emphasis on public. 

Developers say Homewood’s new model is still in line with the 2011 plan

JMA Ventures told TRPA in November 2022 that it believes the current development plan is similar enough to 2011’s approved plan that no new approval process is needed, noting that it had reduced the density and number of commercial and residential units to comply with environmental findings and concerns.

Ski industry changes over the past decade forced JMA Ventures to tweak its business model, Chapman said. Skiers can no longer reach Homewood for day trips, thanks primarily to the standstill traffic on highways 89 and 267 since nearby Palisades Tahoe and Northstar California Resort were added to the Ikon and Epic ski passes, he wrote. He also said that the costs to run the resort, including insurance, maintenance and staffing, have left the resort in a deficit for the past five years. 

“The economic model that Homewood has depended on for decades, that of moderately increasing commuter ski attendance on holidays and more on weekends has been obliterated,” wrote Chapman. JMA Ventures says that nonlocal skier visits dropped by more than 40% since it purchased the land, and that visits solely from West Shore homeowners are not enough to make the resort model economically viable. 

JMA Ventures has yet to announce what membership in the “Homewood Mountain and Lake Club” will cost, though it says season passes will likely be available to local homeowners through select homeowners associations. One clue comes from the company managing the club: Discovery Land Company, a real estate developer and “operator of private residential club communities.” Discovery already manages more than a dozen private clubs within the U.S., including the exclusive Yellowstone Club in Montana, where member initiation fees are at least $300,000.  

JMA Ventures declined to answer questions from SFGATE, but did issue this statement: “Homewood will provide a robust array of all-year community and recreational access to the mountain including community season passes and daily ski access. A community gathering area at the North Base serves as the heart of the development, surrounded by a new general store open to the community along with a new amphitheater that will offer outdoor summer concerts. Locals will also enjoy seasonal pop-ups including mini golf and a winter ice rink. Community access to hiking on the mountain will continue alongside community offerings and services including bike rentals, electric charging stations, an ice cream parlor, and more.

In addition to offering community access, Homewood’s redevelopment plan also delivers significant environmental benefits to the Tahoe Basin and continues the resort’s two decades of environmental stewardship.

We look forward to engaging with the community soon and sharing additional key updates.”

The company appears to be positioning Homewood as a public-private hybrid, citing programs like a “Family Membership” (a three-generation lifetime ski pass to be offered at “market price”) and twice-a-month community ski days as proof that the resort will not be fully private. If all goes according to plan, the new access model will start for the 2025/26 ski season. 

Keep Homewood Public says it is a bait-and-switch

Both Chapman and Astromoff agree the new model was discussed in a series of public meetings with community members throughout summer 2022, but Astromoff doesn’t agree with Chapman’s assessment that the message was well-received. 

While JMA Ventures maintains that its current plan aligns with the 2011 Master Plan, members of Keep Homewood Public disagree. Between January and April, TRPA received more than 600 public comments opposing the new proposal. Comments ranged from concerns about the impact on businesses to complaints about architectural styles.

“These businesses rely on the tourist that visit Homewood for their income during the winter which is a very difficult time in the area. With the privatization of Homewood, the private members would unlikely venture outside of the resort amenities provided to support the local businesses,” wrote one resident. 

“It is shocking to see how the latest architectural renderings of the revised plan diverge from the original proposal’s thematic connection to ‘Old Tahoe,’” wrote another. “The buildings look like they were adapted from a low-end strip mall.”

For Astromoff, the biggest concern is that the plan seems like a bait-and-switch. From her view, residents were initially told Homewood would become a community gathering center, based on language in the original 2011 plan. She doubts JMA Ventures’ claim that running Homewood as a traditional resort isn’t viable, suggesting intentional mismanagement to justify the planned privatization. 

“If it’s not financially viable, given the explosion of visits to Palisades and Northstar in past years, that says more about JMA/Discovery/Mohari’s inability or unwillingness — to run a ski resort profitably than it does about the economic context,” she told SFGATE via email. “Why would they run for 15+ years with creaky old lifts and decrepit lodges, while charging top dollar for less terrain?” 

She also worries about the impact privatization and the loss of day skiers will have on area businesses, plus the impact of extra cars on the road. “Bad Tahoe City winter traffic will get worse as West Shore skiers and boarders drive to Palisades or Northstar instead of Homewood,” she says. “What could be a wonderful community center will instead become yet another walled-off bastion of privilege.”

Tahoe Regional Planning Agency yet to make a final decision

In light of the new business model, TRPA has not decided whether it will require a new master plan from JMA Ventures. However, the agency did ask JMA Ventures in early February to clarify points of the new plan to help make that decision. 

“TRPA supports redevelopment of the Homewood Resort and appreciates the long and challenging road that you and your team have traversed since our board’s project approval,” wrote Paul Nielsen of TRPA. However, the letter then listed no less than nine pages of what Nielsen called “Master Plan components of concern” — areas where the new plan seemed to differ from what TRPA approved in 2011. 

The issue will likely come up during TRPA’s Governing Board meeting May 24. 

Astromoff and Keep Homewood Public are hopeful that TRPA will require JMA Ventures to submit a new master plan, triggering a new round of public comment and input. “Thankfully, TRPA seems to have seen through JMA’s gambit at this point,” she says, “but it’s not yet clear how aggressively TRPA will defend the community’s interests.” 

She’s more worried about how quickly Placer County issued approvals and permits to date and worries the county will prioritize the development’s potential property tax revenue over the sales tax from day visitors to Homewood. 

“If that’s the reason, it’s quite the sellout by our so-called public servants,” she said. “By that logic, we might as well just sell the rest of the West Shore to the highest bidder and throw locked gates across Highway 89.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:30 a.m. on May 18 to include more details from JMA Ventures on what community access would look like.