Walk down to Incline Beach this month and the construction fencing is still up around the beach house site, where work has been underway since spring. The old snack bar, the tiki bar, the restrooms that had been serving beachgoers since sometime in the 1960s are gone, replaced by a construction zone that's been the most visible story in the neighborhood all summer. Everyone who lives here has an opinion about the temporary entrance, the relocated concert series, the price tag that kept climbing at board meetings.

Meanwhile, a fifteen-minute drive up the hill, the district that runs both the beach and the ski resort has begun an architect-selection process that will shape what happens at Diamond Peak for the next several decades. Statements of qualifications from architecture firms came due on August 14. The selection committee interviews finalists next week. A winning firm gets notified October 9, and a preconstruction contract is expected to land in front of the Board of Trustees before Halloween.

The two projects are at different stages: construction is underway at Incline Beach, while Diamond Peak is moving through the architect-selection process.

What Actually Changed at the Beach This Year

The Incline Beach House Project has been on the district's books since 2016, but it didn't become physical until this spring. Crews closed the beach for setup and mobilization in late April, then moved into full construction on May 1. The main entrance shut down, a temporary entrance opened nearby with limited parking, and the long-running Music on the Beach concert series relocated next door to Ski Beach for the entire 2026 season.

The Incline Village General Improvement District, which runs both facilities, approved a construction contract of just over $9.4 million with CORE Construction in December 2025. By the time reporters covered the groundbreaking in April, coverage of the project put the full cost closer to $11 million once a decade of planning and design work gets folded in.

What residents are actually getting for that money, according to the 30% schematic design CORE Construction and HK Architects presented to the board:

• Restroom capacity roughly doubled from what currently exists
• A new 1,100 square foot commercial kitchen replacing the old snack bar setup
• An expanded bar area and a foot-wash station near the entrance
• Wider roof overhangs and more covered patio seating
• No showers, a detail the board specifically eliminated to keep the footprint manageable

The scale of the rebuild makes more sense against how hard the old building was already working. Incline Beach drew more than 100,000 visitors in 2021 and almost 90,000 in 2023, numbers the district has cited as justification for finally replacing infrastructure that was never built for that kind of traffic.

In its report on the project, KUNR quoted Paul Raymore saying the goal was to replace facilities that are more than sixty years old with something that actually meets what current residents and their guests need.

How the Annual Fee Fits Into Project Funding

None of this happened without a funding decision that showed up on every property owner's tax bill. The district's annual recreation and beach facility fee, the one that funds everything from beach maintenance to golf course upkeep, moved from $1,375 in fiscal 2026 to $1,530 in fiscal 2027, an increase of roughly $12.92 a month per parcel.

The district's own update on that decision is specific about where the money goes: final approval for the new Incline Beach House facility, an HVAC overhaul at the Recreation Center, skate and bike park work, and improvements at the championship golf courses. The update lists those projects; Snowflake Lodge is not included.

A Different Kind of Project Is Moving a Chairlift Away

The Snowflake Lodge at Diamond Peak has been standing since 1966 and has never had a real renovation, aside from adding more outdoor deck seating along the way. The main Diamond Peak base lodge got its last upgrade in 2008. Snowflake, sitting mid-mountain at 8,000 feet with some of the better lake views on the property, has just been aging in place.

That started changing in March, when the planning firm SE Group presented a needs assessment to the Board of Trustees. The findings went beyond the building itself. Guests were having trouble reaching Snowflake because the run leading away from it was too difficult for a lot of skiers, and the chairlift serving it will need replacement of its own before long. SE Group laid out four possible scenarios ranging from modest updates to a much larger rebuild paired with a new lift. The board didn't vote. They landed somewhere between the second and third scenario as a discussion point, with the chairlift question still very much open.

From there, the timeline has moved fast by district standards:

1. Statements of qualifications from architecture firms were due August 14, 2026
2. The selection committee is shortlisting and interviewing finalists the week of September 21
3. The highest-ranked firm is expected to be notified October 9
4. A preconstruction services contract is expected to go before the Board of Trustees sometime in October

Compare that to the beach house, where a construction contract, a groundbreaking, and a fully specified building program are already in hand. Snowflake is still at the stage of choosing who gets to design it.

Why the Gap Between These Two Projects Matters

The beach house already has a construction contract and a specified building program. Snowflake Lodge is at the opposite end of that process. The scope is still being debated between two scenarios. The chairlift question is unresolved. That funding distinction is one measure of how early Snowflake remains in the process.

That's not a criticism of how the district is handling it. Diamond Peak's own planning page is careful to say that no final design or construction authorization has been approved, and that any final footprint, capacity, or operating season will come out of further Board direction, environmental review, and public engagement. What it does mean is that the window for a resident to actually weigh in on what replaces Snowflake, and how big it gets, and whether that lift finally gets rebuilt, is open right now in a way the beach house window closed months ago.

Beach construction is visible through fencing, relocated concerts, and a temporary parking lot. Snowflake Lodge is still in the planning stage: statements of qualifications came due on August 14, with interviews and a preconstruction contract still ahead.

What This Looks Like Heading Into Ski Season

Nothing about Snowflake changes for this coming winter. The lodge will operate as it always has while the district works through architect selection and, eventually, design phases that take years for a project this size. But the decisions being made in board rooms this month, about how big the replacement gets and whether the chairlift comes with it, will shape what skiers find at 8,000 feet for a long time after the current selection process wraps up.

For anyone who has skied past Snowflake for years and wondered why lunch always meant either a crowded deck or the trek back down to the main lodge, this is the moment that question is actually being answered. Not at the beach, where the work is already visible. At Diamond Peak, where it still isn't.

If you're the kind of person who wants to understand not just what a property is worth, but what's actually changing in the neighborhood around it, that's the conversation Dayna Nielsen has with clients every day. Let's Connect if you'd like a local read on what's next for Incline Village.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.