(emailed January 3, 2026)

Happy New Year! I know it has been a while since we’ve reached out to you and there is a lot to share, so please take a few minutes to read through our update below.

November marked the three-year anniversary of the developer (Raja Venugopal) holding an option to purchase the nearly 900 acres on the Butte owned by Golden Gate Ventures (GGV) that CBC and this community would like to see preserved. He has neither purchased the properties nor relinquished the option. If not for Mr. Venugopal, we are confident that these Butte properties would now be owned by the public and preserved into perpetuity for the public benefit. We are saddened by his disregard for this community’s passionate desires to preserve the Butte.

Mr. Venugopal continues to seek building permits for three short-term rentals (STRs) on the GGV properties. He argued through his attorney that these houses should be able to utilize water wells and septic systems instead of connecting to the City water and sewer systems. The city of Chelan responded that he must connect to the city water system instead of using water wells, but would be allowed to use septic systems (as opposed to connecting to the city sewer system). Mr. Venugopal is currently working to determine the specifics of how he could connect the three houses to the city water system. The City has not yet issued these building permits.

Meanwhile, CBC strongly disagrees with the City’s allowance for the use of septic systems for new homes on the Butte. We, along with our attorney, have described in great detail why City code does not allow this. We have met with the directors of Public Works and Community Development, had our attorney send letters to the City, and informed city council of this issue. Our most recent letter to the city can be read here (link). After discussing the issue with CBC, several members of the public provided comments at a recent city council meeting asking the City to enforce it’s sewer code, resulting in a fantastic Lake Chelan Mirror article (link).

The bottom line, however, is that as of this writing the City has not changed its position on the sewer issue and Mr. Venugopal continues to pursue the three building permits. At some point in the future, though, CBC and the public will have an opportunity to get the sewer issue in front of a neutral third-party, the hearing examiner. We’ll keep you apprised.

As you may be aware from our previous updates, Mr. Venugopal has stated that it is his intention to build an unspecified number of STRs on the Butte. He has indicated that it is his plan to eventually use revenue from these STRs to fund the building of some combination of affordable and market-rate residential housing on the Butte. Utilizing data from similar rentals in the Lookout development in Chelan, CBC has calculated that to achieve a return on investment greater than simply investing the capital in commonly-available market securities, well over 100 STRs would need to be constructed and operated. We must then conclude that either a) Mr. Venugopal intends to build well over 100 STRs on the Butte or b) he is willing to ignore community input and desecrate the Butte for a below-market return on investment. Neither conclusion is good for the Lake Chelan Valley community.

Building STRs is a lucrative commercial land use that disincentivizes developers from instead building less-profitable residential housing. If STRs are allowed to proliferate without restriction, economics dictate they will become a larger and larger percentage of the available dwelling units in an area, which has been observed in tourist areas throughout the country. It is a well-studied outcome that this proliferation leads to reductions in the availability and affordability of residential housing in such areas, which is a significant issue in Chelan.

Mr. Venugopal and other land owners and developers recently submitted documentation to the city of Chelan indicating their intention to eventually build 400 new STRs, along with a 250-room hotel and various other types of dwelling units on a portion of Chelan Butte, including properties below the GGV properties, but above Highway 97A. This is the type of project that Lake Chelan Valley residents can look forward to if STRs are allowed to proliferate unimpeded.

STRs already make up nearly 14 percent of all housing units in Chelan, far exceeding the STR percentages allowed by regulation in Winthrop (capped at 10%), Manson (capped at 6%), Lake Wenatchee (capped at 6%), Plain (capped at 6%), or the area surrounding Leavenworth (capped at 6%). The cities of Leavenworth and Entiat do not allow STRs within city limits. This issue has been identified by Residents Coalition of Chelan County (RC3), which has submitted a letter (link) to the Chelan city council imploring the City to take action in limiting STRs within the Chelan urban growth area.

In this letter, RC3 urges the city to place a cap on the number of STRs allowed in Chelan to incentivize the construction of residential housing instead of more STRs for the many, many reasons outlined in that letter. CBC fully supports RC3’s request and hopes that the Chelan city council will work diligently on this issue in 2026. This is likely one of the most important issues affecting affordability, livability, and impacts to infrastructure in Chelan that could be addressed in 2026.

I’ll leave it here for now, but please do not hesitate to reach out to us by responding to this email if you have any questions or comments. Note that previous Chelan Butte Updates can be found on our website and anyone wishing to be added to this email list can sign the petition to preserve the Butte found on our website. Thanks as always for your interest in, and support for, this important endeavor affecting the permanent future of the Lake Chelan Valley. Please see our Facebook and web sites (links below) for more information about CBC.

Brian Patterson, Ph.D.
Chelan Basin Conservancy President

on behalf of the CBC board:

Lisa Garvich – Vice President
Tony Crosetto – Treasurer
Debra Patterson – Secretary
Mike Cochran