Popular Tahoe ski resort won’t be open this upcoming winter season. Here’s why

A popular Lake Tahoe ski resort will not open this winter, with ownership citing a lack of financial support and challenges to finishing upgrades at the property.

Homewood Mountain Resort, a 1,200-acre ski area on Lake Tahoe’s west shore, announced the decision on its website on Friday. The ski resort has served the Northern California community since 1962 and was bought in 2006 by JMA Ventures, a San Francisco real estate developer.

In its announcement, Homewood said the closure is partly because the resort is still “awaiting approval of the amendments,” which include moving the gondola terminal, reducing residential density and opening the “view corridors of the mountain and lake,” according to the resort.

“Without a clear path forward, our financial partner has withdrawn their support for this ski season,” wrote the resort. “As a result, we are now in the regrettable position of being unable to operate or sell season passes for the 2024-25 season. We understand the deep disappointment this announcement will cause. It goes without saying that this decision was not made lightly. ”

In 2011, the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency approved JMA’s plans to develop more than 100 ski-in, ski-out homes and condos, as part of a larger redevelopment project, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. Progress stalled due to environmental lawsuits by the Sierra Club and Friends of the West Shore.

These lawsuits were eventually settled, but other challenges arose.

In 2022, a leaked presentation with the logo of JMA Ventures revealed what seemed to be a proposal to convert the ski area into a private, members-only resort, according to the Chronicle. The news sparked anger from locals, who had used the resort for years.

Homewood pushed back on that criticism in its Friday statement, saying “hypothetical fears and false rumors … have dramatically slowed the pace of the approval process. ”

Keep Homewood Public, a coalition opposed to the resort’s privatization, said it was “shocked and saddened” by the news of the resort’s closure.

“Homewood is the heart of the West Shore — we don’t want to imagine what could happen to our community if that heart were to stop beating permanently,” said the group on Facebook.