Big Bear Lake's position
What is Big Bear Lake doing
Like nearly all desirable outdoor recreation communities, the City of Big Bear Lake is
experiencing a shortage of workforce housing units.
This shortage is likely the result of increasing residential property values, high demand for
second homes utilized by the owner, high demand for vacation rentals, and a regulatory
framework that may discourage the construction of new affordable residential units. As a result,
some permanent residents have been forced to relocate away from Big Bear Lake, and many
local businesses have and continue to experience difficulty retaining existing employees and
recruiting new employees.
The City Council has identified workforce housing as a top priority, and Council and City staff
have recently discussed various potential strategies to increase the supply of workforce housing,
including:
the provision of certain City-owned parcels for development of new multi-family
residential housing units,
potential Development Code amendments to increase residential density and thereby
promote the construction of new multi-family residential units,
potential rezoning of blighted commercial properties for multi-family residential use,
an increase in the transient occupancy tax rate, with proceeds earmarked for workforce
housing initiatives,
the purchase of deed restrictions from existing home owners to require units to be used
perpetually for permanent resident housing,
offering subsidies to residential unit owners and/or long-term renters to promote the use
of housing units for permanent resident housing, and
partnerships to encourage large employers to purchase and/or lease housing for their
workforce.
City staff continue to pursue several of these strategies, and I expect to present viable initiatives
to the City Council as / when these initiatives are more fully developed in the future. As
discussed during the Council’s recent review of the Draft 2021-2029 Housing Element, it is
critical that the City move forward soon with initiatives that will make an actual, meaningful
difference in our community.