Why are our beaches so crowded – Part 2
Have you ever heard of “encroachment”? It means “to take over the rights or property of another little by little or in secret.” That is exactly what is going on with our beaches.
The problem is the Trustees have no intention of making things right – by following the original beach deed. Increasing revenue and being thanked for giving favors….it can be quite seductive. Worse, the Trustees want to make you think they will do the right thing. In reality, the changes they propose do VERY LITTLE to rollback the encroachment of your beach deed rights.
How did we get here?
1960-1968 Homeowners and residential parcel owners had to join a Recreation Association with a mandatory $50 per year fee. All guests accompanied by the owner.
1968 Beach Deed. Beaches were purchased using bonds. Guest price was $1 for adult and $.75 per child. All guests were accompanied by homeowner.
1972 Owners of commercial or industrial properties could obtain seasonal passes to the beaches upon approval of the application by the Trustees and payment of annual fees ($50/year in 1972, $100/year in 1977). They did NOT pay the $50 fee 1968-1971, and were NOT part of the Recreation Association 1960-1968.
1977 The IVGID Board created “Gold Card” privileges to reward the current outgoing trustees for their service to IVGID. Gold Card privileges entitle the holder to free lifelong use of any recreational facility owned by IVGID. This practice remained informal, and Gold Cards were occasionally awarded at the IVGID Board’s discretion. 1981 Gold Cards were issued retroactively to all past trustees and one past general manager, all of whom had served at some time since 1961.
1981 A parcel owner received three photo-id cards and five [transferrable] coupons. Until this time, all guests had to be accompanied by owner because beach passes were NOT transferable.
1982 The Trustees voted to reducing the Hyatt Hotel to one fee rather than paying 50% of the Rec Fee for each room (Resolution 1424). 
1985 Gold cards issued to retiring Trustees.
1987 Ordinance 7 passed by the Trustees included an option of punch cards which were transferrable.
1988 Gold/silver cards issued to employees for 10 (silver) or 20 (gold) years of service.
1989 Trustees voted employees (and their dependents) could be guests of IVGID, even though IVGID had never paid annual fees which paid down the bonds. The Trustees relied on the faulty legal advice from Geno Menchetti, now deceased. In 2019, IVGID had 1,012 employees, and in 2020, 902. The beach deed grants IVGID the right for the “maintenance and operation of the water pumping facilities [at Burnt Cedar Beach]”. No other rights were granted to IVGID in the Beach Deed.
1989 Boat launching business for non residents by local firm – 38% of customers are not parcel owners.
1993 Unlimited purchasing of punch cards.
1995 Restrict assignment of recreation pass privileges to family members or residents and limit the assignment to a minimum of six months.
1998 The Family Tree was expanded in Ordinance 7.
2000 Opening the beaches to the public on the 4th of July.
2013 “White forms” were introduced by IVGID to circumvent Ordinance 7. The forms allowed the person to pay IVGID for beach access.
2014 Circumventing Ordinance 7 by adding words to the Recreation Fee resolution to purportedly give the General Manager rights to give outside groups beach access.
2021 Resolution 1888 – temporary suspension of gold and silver card privileges due to COVID pandemic.
The Trustees need to go back to the deed. Please do not say “But so-and-so has paid their dues!” – Expanding access is infringing and encroaching on homeowner property rights is WRONG. The Trustees are FIDUCIARIES.
- No access for IVGID employees other than work (1988)
- No outside groups (2014)
- No white forms or other access invented by IVGID (2013)
- No opening beaches to the public (2000)
- Control punch cards with maximum 3 extra AND consider tying using technology to the homeowner card to prevent transfers
- No commercial or industrial properties – only residential
- No transferability of beach access
- No gold or silver cards, and
- No sale of recreation privileges.
Tell the Trustees to respect YOUR property rights. No one is going to protect your property rights unless you insist on it. The Trustees need to hear your concerns:
Why are our beaches so crowded – Part 1
The author, J. Gumz, is a long-time resident and property owner of Incline Village and a registered voter.
Please stop the encroachment on our IVGID facilities.
Thank you.
Thank you for your comment – please do alert your IVGID Trustees.
Tie each property to a QR code for a one time per day maximum limit (tied to the maximum property occupancy). Those without a IVGID picture pass pay a reasonable access entrance fee. All visitors wear a visible colored daily bracelet.
Enforcement; enforcement; enforcement!
As Trustees, you have the chance to do the right thing and return IVGID to the policies of the original Deed. IVGID has become too large, too political, too expensive for extended family members to go to the beach.
The administration and office staff should be reduced in numbers and the
entire organization should be simplified. Unfortunately, it has become like most public sector entities…bloated and inefficient.
Stop catering to renters and start addressing the concerns of the owners.
The Original Deed…if you can’t honor that then you shouldn’t be on the Board. Maybe we should follow the guidelines of Glenbrook and privatize Incline Village.
Thank you for your comment – please do alert your IVGID Trustees by email or phone.
Here is a brief summary of the Ordinance 7 changes. To be clear, there has NEVER been a policy requiring a parcel owner to accompany their guest to the beaches.
Ordinance 7 is the IVGID Ordinance Establishing Rates, Rules and Regulations for IVGID Recreation Passes (IVIGD Picture Pass) and Recreation Punch Cards by the Incline Village General Improvement District. The Board has been discussing recommendations provided by the Ordinance 7 Committee and special legal counsel. The self-defined goals of the Ordinance 7 Committee were to formulate recommendations for the Board of Trustees consideration to accomplish:
1. Reduce beach overcrowding
2. Provide fair access to all parcel owners/tenants
3. Protect the Beach Deed
The recommendations and proposed changes, as of the Board of Trustees meeting on 5/11, are summarized below. The referenced changes are NOT final, and may not be complete, until the Board takes action at the Public Hearing on May 26th at 6pm at the Chateau. You may view the past meeting materials and LiveStream on the District website:
1.Obtaining daily use and/or exchange passes is proposed to be eliminated. This was never part of Ordinance 7, but was implemented as an administrative procedure years ago. The issuance of daily use and/or exchange passes was suspended during COVID and has been included in the proposed language.
2.The proposed payment for beach access for an IVGID Picture Pass holders and their guests may be by credit card or the use of a IVGID Punch Card, so long as the Punch Card has the sufficient balance to cover all guest fees. There is no fee charged to the IVGID Picture Pass holder, only their guests.
3.An IVGID Punch Card is proposed to be allowed to be given to the guest of a parcel owner/tenant for access to the beaches. The Punch Card must have a sufficient balance to cover all guest fees. When a Punch Card’s value has been used in its entirety, it may not be reloaded. Punch Cards are proposed to be non-transferrable other than to the guest of a parcel owner/tenant.
4.Each Parcel/Dwelling unit is proposed to be eligible for a combination of up to 5 IVGID Picture Passes and/or Punch Cards. In addition, each parcel/dwelling unit may apply for up to 3 additional Punch Cards (not eligible for use at the golf courses) and/or up to 3 additional IVGID Picture Passes for dependents of the owner/tenant (not eligible for guest access or golf – it is a Picture Pass for the one person only). The maximum number of passes per parcel/dwelling unit is limited to 10.
5.Boat/Watercraft launching is proposed to be limited to holders of a valid IVGID Picture Pass or Punch Card only. All guest fees are to be paid either by the Punch Card(s) or for IVGID Picture Pass holders, payment may also be made by credit card. This is to comply with the Beach Deed whereby commercial use it not allowed. It is not deemed to be commercial business when it is a service provided to a owner/tenant.
6.The total number of guests per day is proposed to be limited to 25. Parties over 25 will require a group reservation.
7.There are no proposed changes as to how IVGID Picture Passes or Punch Cards are used at District venues beyond the beaches, with the exception of non-transferability of Punch Cards. Punch Cards are only transferrable to a guest of a parcel owner/tenant.
Although there was no Numbered “POLICY”, there were beach REGULATIONS. Owners were used to accompanying their guests which was a regulation implemented in 1964. There is nothing that shows this Regulation was removed, and until 1987 (Ordinance 7), there were no punch cards. So how did guests get in to the beaches? They were accompanied by members who had beach passes – like a golf club membership.
If the reader examines the Trustees’ proposed changes, they will realize the changes are unlikely to solve over-crowding and do NOT roll back the changes shown in the timeline including
1. employee and dependent access
2. gold/silver cards and
3. controls over punch cards to prevent transfer.
I read this and came up with the same conclusion- looks our beaches will still be overcrowded. Rule 6: Guests number will be limited to 25…whaaaat?
Sara Schmitz- thank you for keeping us informed. But you are our Incline Village council member, or Trustee or whatever your title is. You need to take some action and say “NO.” Stop being “political” and do the right thing! You are allowed to give us your opinion and tell why these proposals are wrong. These proposals seem like they will not correct the problem, but I am certainly willing to listen to an argument in favor of the proposals. However, you are not taking a stance on any of this. Please give us your opinion.
More concerns for owners –
A NEW PARAGRAPH to Ordinance 7 – THAT THE COMMITTEE MEMBERS DID NOT EVEN KNOW ABOUT. Late on May 24, this message was sent to the Ordinance 7 Committee by Diane Becker. She is AGAINST IT – you can read her statement below.
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May 24, 2022
Dear Ordinance 7 Committee Members,
I am writing to you as a fellow Member of the Ordinance 7 Committee incase you are not aware of a major change that has occurred to the draft of Ordinance 7 that occurred after the May 11 Board of Trustee meeting. I suggest that you review the draft of Ordinance 7 which posted today, Tuesday, May 24, at around 5:30 p.m. that is part of the packet for this Thursday’s Board of Trustee meeting. You will see that there is a brand-new provision which was not ever discussed at the Ordinance 7 Committee meetings, was never disclosed to the public in any manner before the end of the day today, and was not discussed by the Board at the last Board of Trustee meeting. If included in the Ordinance, this provision will allow All occupants of All hotels and ALL motels with beach access, to have unlimited access to the Incline beaches. The newly added provision at paragraph 75 of the posted draft of Ordinance 7 should be carefully reviewed by each of you, and I sincerely hope that each of you will contact the Trustees and Indra, both before this Thursday’s Board meeting to provide your comments on this provision.
I am disappointed that this provision is being considered by the Board, and I believe that unless there is a strong community opposition expressed to the Board, because of the threat of a lawsuit being made by the owner of one hotel, the Board will likely vote to include the provision giving UNLIMITED beach access to ALL occupants of ALL hotels and ALL motels. If this proposed change is made, the Ordinance 7 Committee will have made recommendations to reduce beach access for the Beach Deed beneficiaries who are property owners and tenants who actually live and work in Incline Village, while the Board will give the transient hotel and motel occupants unlimited access to the beaches, with no limitations on the number of occupants per hotel/motel/day at all.
While the Ordinance 7 Committee focused on and made recommendations concerning equitably reducing beach access for each user, the owner of the hotel who is pushing the Board to this rush decision was too busy to even participate in the Ordinance 7 meeting process to provide input on his concerns prior to his demands and threats of litigation made after the last Board meeting. Litigation is a long-drawn-out process wherein both sides, over time, ascertain the strength of their arguments and their positions, and based on that analysis the parties either go to trial or enter into a settlement. The District has not been given the opportunity to do this because the single hotel owner strategically made his threats, out of view of the public, and made last minute demands, effectively leaving out the public from any discussion of what was fair and equitable. And now the public is not even learning of this issue until two days prior to the vote on Ordinance 7.
Not only would the demands by this one individual result in unlimited beach access to ALL occupants of ALL hotels and ALL motels, in addition, each hotel and motel owner as a commercial parcel owner also will still receive its allotted IVGID Picture Passes and Recreation Punch Cards to bring in yet more Guests! So now the hotels and motels do not even have to use their IVGID Picture Passes and Recreation Punch Cards which they receive as parcel owners for their hotel room occupant guests, but can give them to any other guests (i.e., guests who come to dine, guests who otherwise pay to use their facilities, and even anyone they want!)
You should be advised that the Trustees could vote to bifurcate the issue of beach access for occupants of hotels and motels from the rest of the Ordinance, pass the rest of the Ordinance on Thursday, and then work on a fair additional provision on occupants of hotels and motels. I hope you will consider urging the Trustees to proceed by bifurcating the issues.
I hope that you will read and comment on this proposed provision to the Board of Trustees, and then (if you agree with my opinion) express to the Trustees that you object to this new, un-vetted, not publicly commented on, proposal to allow all occupants of all hotels/motels unlimited beach access which is a brand-new right never before asserted or granted to such beneficiaries in the past, and urge them to bifurcate the issues.
Additionally, if the Trustees enact the second alternative language proposed at paragraph 75 (see language below signature), I at least hope it will say something like “reasonable and equitable beach access and limitations as currently imposed on other beneficiaries under the Beach Deed”.
I respectfully believe that the new provision is unfair, unwarranted, not supported by the Beach Deed and should not be approved by the District. I hope you will speak with the Trustees on the need to spend some time analyzing the legal position of the District and also, time to separately come up with reasonable beach access procedures and limitations for occupants of hotels and motels.
I thank you for your consideration on this issue, and weighing in with the Trustees on your thoughts about this new development.
Best regards,
Diane Becker
For your ease of reference, the new provision related to occupants of hotels and motels follows:
[75. Occupants of Hotels & Motels may access the Beaches. Occupants shall pay the applicable Guest fee and access is limited to only occupants of the Hotel or Motel. Access will be administered through a District verification process. Owner(s) of the Hotel or Motel are responsible for ensuring that all Occupants comply with Beach rules and regulations pursuant to Paragraph 67. -OR
75. Occupants of Hotels & Motels shall be provided access to the Beaches, if any, consistent with the terms of the Beach Deed and through a District verification and administration process. This process, at a minimum, shall include the payment of a Guest fee. Access shall be limited to occupants of the Hotel or Motel.]