Truckee coping with growing pains10 years after incorporation

TRUCKEE -- Ross Perot was on the ballot, and big hair was still in style.

In March 1993, when Truckee officially became an incorporated city, "A River Runs Through It" was playing at the Martis Village Theater, and the highest-paying job in the classifieds was for a computer aide at Kings Beach Elementary School at $9.80 an hour.

Things have changed in the 10 years since voters went to the ballot and made Truckee an official town -- and not all of them have to do with government.

Home prices and the cost of living have gone up in the last 10 years, while new businesses have come to Truckee to respond to a thriving tourist economy.

In 1993, for less than $200,000 you could own a three-bedroom, two-bath, single-family home. Today it's difficult to find a piece of vacant land for the same price.

The featured home in the March 1993 edition of Mountain Homes was a 4,000-square-foot house with six bedrooms, four bathrooms and an exercise/recreation room for $335,000.

"In 1993, the median sales price of a single-family home in Tahoe Donner was $186,000," said Bill Whitehead of Boice Countryside Realtors. That price now is $322,000.

"When I first moved here, there were homes in the 70s (thousands)," said Gale Etchells of Coldwell Banker. She came to Truckee in the late 1980s.

Like other real estate agents, Etchells watched housing prices climb dramatically during the dot-com boom. Before, Etchells said, Truckee was relatively "undiscovered," just a pit stop on the way to Lake Tahoe.

After watching prospective customers buy houses in Reno in the last couple of years, Etchells decided to get her Nevada real estate license.

"You get a lot less house in Glenshire than in Reno," she said.

As home prices have gone up, longtime Truckee residents have realized the value of their property, sold, and moved.

"We have seen some people who see some equity in there and move out of the area," Whitehead said.

Kathleen Eagan, Truckee's first mayor, has also seen that trend as more money has flowed in.

"I think that's changing the small-town character," Eagan said. "If there's more money, the people that are the core of the community, the fabric of the community, leave because they just can't afford it, or they realize the value of their investment."

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Although often criticized for its focus on tourism, Truckee's economy, most agree, is a lot better off because of second homes and the city's new status as a destination.

"I thought Truckee was stagnant," said Susan Diane, who moved there in the '80s then left to pursue a career goal shortly after the incorporation. "I knew something had to change. It was difficult to make a living, whether you were a contractor or something else."

The Truckee Donner Chamber of Commerce reports membership has doubled since 1993.

"Truckee's economy right now is doing great," said chamber member Karin Pierce. "The stock market may be in the toilet, but Truckee is doing great.

"We've really developed our place on the map," she said, adding that the chamber advertises in numerous national magazines, including Sunset, Ladies Home Journal and Better Homes and Gardens.

Robie Wilson Litchfield, Truckee's newest planning commissioner and a 33-year resident, noted that tourism has revitalized Truckee in many ways.

"There's a lot of people that wouldn't be able to live here without tourism and second homeowners," she said.

Diane agreed that many good things have come out of Truckee's destination status.

"Our property value is improving, and we're seeing Truckee become a destination, but I hope we don't become stuck up about it."