Building in Martis Camp, Lahontan & Schaffer’s Mill: What Design Review Actually Requires

If you own a lot in one of Truckee's private communities, the question isn't really "what does it cost to build." It's "how long until I can start, and what happens if I'm slow."

Each of these three communities runs its own design review, and the rules are not the same. One gives you three years to finish. One gives you two, and puts a lien on your lot if you walk away mid-build. The third doesn't publish its rules at all. We build in this valley, so here's the honest version.

The part nobody tells you: you're on a clock, but it doesn't start when you buy

A lot of owners assume buying the lot started some countdown. It doesn't, at least not at Martis Camp or Lahontan. Both handbooks start the clock at design approval, not purchase. You can sit on a lot for a decade — you'll pay dues the whole time, but design review won't push you.

Once you're approved, though, it gets strict fast.

Martis Camp: construction must begin within one year of the pre-construction approval date, or the approval is revoked and you start over. Once you break ground, all improvements must be complete within 36 months. Going past that requires a construction variance. Walk off the job for four weeks — or four cumulative weeks in any eight-week span — and Architecture Review can step in after 30 days' notice.

Lahontan: same one-year window to begin, but the completion limit is 24 months, a full year tighter than Martis Camp. And Lahontan's abandonment remedy has teeth: if the site sits idle for a calendar month, the Covenants Commission can finish or remove the work itself after 60 days' notice — secured by a continuing lien on your homesite.

Schaffer's Mill: no published build-timeline rule that we could find. That's not a knock on the community, it's just how their documents are distributed — you have to request the resale packet and architectural guidelines from the HOA directly. If you own there and plan to build, get that packet before you set a schedule with anyone.

Two years versus three is not a detail. On a mountain build with a long-lead window package and one usable construction season a year, twenty-four months is a real constraint on how you phase the work.

The seasonal math is the thing that actually decides your start date

Both Martis Camp and Lahontan shut down earthwork October 15 to May 1. At Martis Camp, grading in that window without approval runs $1,000 a day, plus $500 a day for exposed soil. So the Sierra weather, not the committee, sets your calendar.

Lahontan publishes its submittal deadlines, which makes the math explicit. For the 2026 season, the latest suggested preliminary design submittal was May 13 and the latest final design submittal was July 8 — that's what it takes to get through review, get approved, and have soil stabilized before October 15. September 1 is the last date they recommend for a pre-construction site meeting.

Work backward from that and the real deadline for a 2027 build isn't next spring. It's this winter. Design takes months, not weeks, at this level — and that's before the review committee sees anything.

How strict is "strict"?

This surprises people: Martis Camp's handbook is deliberately not prescriptive about style. Their own words — "there are no numeric requirements for planar offsets and no requirements for roof slopes... no predetermined list of mandated architectural styles will be used." Review is openly subjective. They do name styles that "will very likely not be allowed" — Italianate, Egyptian, Regency, Pueblo, and Inflatable. That last one is in the actual handbook.

What they do enforce is size and height: Estate parcels 35 feet above natural grade (42 in limited cases) with 9,000 sq ft allowable floor area; Cabin parcels 28 feet and 3,250 sq ft max heated area. Merging lots adds 6,000 sq ft of allowance per merged parcel.

Lahontan is the more numeric of the two. "Old Tahoe" is the stated inspiration, but the design book says plainly there's no single Lahontan style. The hard limits: living area 6,000 sq ft on most homesites, 4,000 on size-restricted sites, up to 9,000 on merged lots. Height 30 feet on slopes of 15% or less, 36 feet on steeper slopes, 25 feet on single-story-restricted sites. No building where the slope exceeds 30%. Roof pitch minimum predominant 4:12, maximum 16:12.

One warning, because we've seen owners quote it: there's a widely-shared real estate "guide" claiming Lahontan allows 4:12 to 12:12 pitch and 35-foot heights. That contradicts the actual design book. Use the community's own document.

Both caps live per-homesite, too. At Lahontan, your specific site's limits are in the Development Notebook, not the general design book. Pull your own site's page before you assume 6,000 square feet.

What review costs, before you've poured anything

These are 2026 published numbers, separate from permit fees. Martis Camp: conceptual review $6,000 (Estate) or $3,500 (Cabin); construction administration $11,000 or $7,000; plus a $10,000 refundable construction deposit, $2,000 landscaping, $2,000 restoration. Lahontan: design and construction review together runs $10,000 up to 3,250 sq ft, $13,000 from 3,251 to 4,500, $16,000 from 4,501 to 9,000. Resubmittals $500. Refundable contractor deposit $20,000.

Worth knowing what the fines look like too. Martis Camp charges $15,000 per tree removed without authorization, $2,000 for starting construction without approval, and $500 a day for job site abandonment.

What's actually different between them

Martis Camp is the biggest and highest — 2,177 acres, 5,900 to 7,100 feet. Its own high-speed quad runs to Northstar's Lookout Mountain in about six minutes, a Tom Fazio course, and as of November 2025 the club owns a lakefront parcel at Tahoe. The most build freedom on style, the most process to get through, the longest completion window.

Lahontan is 906 acres with two Tom Weiskopf courses — the 18-hole championship and a 9-hole par-3. No private ski lift, no Tahoe beach club. In exchange you get the most transparent design review of the three: fee schedule, submittal calendar, and design book all published. As a builder, that predictability is worth something.

Schaffer's Mill is the smallest at 475 acres, about three miles south of Truckee, with a Harbottle/Johnny Miller course that opened in 2008 and was named the top new private club in California by Golfweek. It's also the one with real lot inventory left — active listings as of September 2026 ran roughly $445,000 to $700,000 across quarter-acre to one-acre sites. The tradeoff is the information gap: no published design guidelines, no published membership pricing.

If you own a lot and you're trying to decide when to build

Carrying a lot isn't free, but it isn't urgent either. No design review deadline runs from your purchase date at Martis Camp or Lahontan. What runs is dues — and those differ structurally. Schaffer's Mill bundles social membership into the HOA fee; the other two bill club membership separately, at a scale that makes the HOA number almost beside the point. Get your current numbers from the club membership office, not a listing sheet. We found four different figures for the same community.

The design phase is longer than you think. Between geotechnical work, a pre-design site meeting, conceptual, preliminary, and final review, Martis Camp runs a seven-stage process before you get a pre-construction meeting. If a builder tells you they'll have you in the ground this season and it's already September, ask them which submittal date they're hitting.

Pick a builder who has been through that committee. Not because it's mysterious, but because subjective review means the people reviewing your drawings have preferences, and knowing them saves revision cycles — each of which is a resubmittal fee and a month.

If you own a lot in Martis Camp, Lahontan, Schaffer's Mill, or anywhere else in the Truckee area and you want a straight answer about what your build actually looks like on a calendar, reach out. We'll walk your lot with you.