Lead by listening

As a Planning Commissioner for Truckee, Jason prepares for each hearing by meeting with both project supporters and opponents. Jason brings a background as a Community Organizer, and he believes elected leaders should always focus on listening to the community first.

Build a vibrant community

Truckee's local businesses, non-profits, and local residents are what make our Town so special. Jason believes Truckee should be welcoming to all and support all types of community building activities. Jason has built community in his own life by helping organize Truckee Pride every year and developing more Truckee-centered activities for the North Tahoe Hebrew Congregation.

Help local businesses attract and retain talent

Local businesses say their biggest challenge is retaining talent. We can bring down the cost of living if our local businesses can hire locally, but the local cost of housing makes that harder. Jason recently heard from a business that lost all of their employees to the Bay Area because it was cheaper to afford a home! We have to reverse that trend in Truckee.

Build a locals discount program

Jason's family hails from Hawaii where almost all businesses offer a kama'aina discount, a local's discount. Truckee could learn from Hawaii, which has a similar pattern of a middle class community outpriced by a wealthy tourist class. Truckee needs a town-wide local discount program. We need to partner with local businesses and the Chamber of Commerce to build a program that works for businesses while supporting the local community.

Look for opportunities to speed up government processes

Time is money, and when our government is slow, that increases the cost of living for everyone. We should look for opportunities to reduce the time it takes to get permits and reduce the costs of those permits

Encourage second homeowners to rent to locals

Truckee has around 7,000 second homes. Of those, only 1,250 have a short-term rental permit. That means over 5,500 homes are mostly vacant. Our Town's most successful housing program, Lease to Locals, converts approximately 50 homes per year to full-time rentals to locals. Let's find way to double or triple that.

Support diverse housing types: studios, one-bedrooms, tiny homes, and townhomes

If we look at the number of single-family homes per capita, Truckee has almost 2x the National and California averages. In other words, we have a lot of 2,000 sq ft, three-bedroom, two-bath, single-family homes. But we're missing other types of housing: studios, one-bedrooms, two-bedrooms, tiny homes, and townhomes. We're missing the types of homes that young people and senior citizens need. If we can increase the diversity of housing, we can alleviate the housing problem in our community.

Maintain high development standards while speeding up the process and providing more certainty

In Truckee, we have a challenging climate and we expect high quality development. That shouldn't change. But if we have high standards for development, then we need to speed up the process in order to reduce timeline costs. We need to provide more clarity in our development code so there is less uncertainty about whether a project meets our standards or not.

Advocate for better fire insurance solutions

Everyone in our community, including renters and homeowners, is impacted by fire insurance. Truckee is one of the only towns in California with a dedicated wildfire mitigation budget (funded by Measure T). Yet we pay the same fire insurance rates as the rest of the Sierra. We need the Fair Plan to offer discounts to communities like ours with significant mitigation efforts.

Support local small business owners and non-profits

Our local businesses and non-profits are essential to the fabric of Truckee life, and we need to support and partner with them. We need a Truckee where anyone can start a business and thrive, and where we celebrate the unique, funky ideas that make Truckee. We need to ensure we listen to the problems that small businesses and non-profits are facing, and then take steps to address them.

Speed up permitting processes

Today, businesses, like a bakery or coffeeshop, regularly wait 6-12 months before getting an approval to open their doors. Those long waits cost business owners tens of thousands in rent and fees, which get passed on to customers in the form of higher prices. We need to make it easier and faster for anyone to open a business and thrive in Truckee.

Develop an economic vitality plan for the Town

The Town of Truckee has committed to developing an economic vitality plan. We need to prioritize that effort and ensure it does not experience any further delays.

Issue permits in days, not months

Whether you're starting a business, renovating your deck, or building housing, permits can take a long time to get in Truckee. Time is money, and long waits are adding to the cost of living here. We need to speed up our government processes. A permit should take days, not months.

Improve public trust in government

Trust in government goes up when the people see a promise made and delivered. It goes up when we do what we say we will do. The faster we can accomplish our goals, the more trust goes up. For example, the community voted to build a new Library. Even though the Library is funded through a separate agency, the Town should partner with it to ensure it doesn't encounter any delays.

Set measurable goals for all Town priorities

Truckee has a great list of priorities developed from years of community input. But beyond priorities, we need goals with measurable outcomes and regular tracking toward those. For example, if "Affordability" is a priority, we could have metrics like, "the average price of a studio apartment should be $1,500/mo" or "convert 500 second homes to full-time rentals within 4 years" Without measurable outcomes, we can't properly evaluate if we're on the right course.

Protect our local environment

Truckee is unique because of its natural environment. We must protect it. We should continue efforts to reduce waste and litter while encouraging recycling. We should continue to rehabilitate the Truckee river and invest in our trails, open spaces, wetlands, and parks.

Improve access to recreation

Many of us live in Truckee because of the wonderful access to the outdoors. We must continue to look for opportunities to expand and enhance our paved and dirt trail networks. We should support regional trail efforts, such as the Resort Triangle and Pines to Mines trails.

Reduce traffic on our roads

Traffic is one of the biggest concerns locals have. We need to partner with the resorts to meaningfully reduce ski weekend traffic. In addition, we need to fund and encourage alternative transportation methods, such as TART, bike trails, and the bike share program.