"It all depends......." You can put restrictions into any deed to restrict it's future use. The Poulson "kids" may have put a number of restrictions into place, ot their parents may have. Half of the land has a conservation restriction on it. So, 14 plus acres are forest, in perpetuity. What's kind of strange, I think,is that as advertised, the other 15 acres {including where the existing house sits, is zoned as "high density residential." I'm not familiar with the zoning laws and exactly what that means in Squaw Valley. Generally high density would mean the maximum number of bedrooms allowed, per acre. That's often how it's structured in a resort area, along with height restrictions, baths, parking, etc.
If I had to guess, it's maximum value is generated by that zoning. The conservation restrictions may be near the house, may even be a donut around the house, and along the driveway in. 14 acres is a LOT in that area, and will protect quite a bit of privacy. BTDT.
This is a huge generalization, but with eight children, and who knows how many grandchildren, there is often a lot of disagreement when selling a home like this. I agree with the thinking that you can't sell it, cash the check, and still own/control it. But, you CAN restrict it. Problem is that the more restrictions, the less value. And you'll have some of them wanting to preserve it as is, "like when we were kids, as Mom and Dad would have wanted", and others who are saying sell it for as much as possible. I assume there is going to be a big tax bill to be split eight ways, among other things.
Who knows, maybe the restrictions on half of the property are a fairy new thing, and were the result of some discussion and agreement among the family. Often the response if there are one or two who are fighting to keep as is, is: "OK. you two buy the other six of us out." Gets harder with a $15Mil price tag. Makes the two seriously question the value.
Who knows. Sad when these things happen. I have some close friends who grew up spending summers on Nantucket, at their grandmothers old farm. It was nothing special, and pretty well used and well loved. I believe that she and her husband bought it in the 1930's for something like $10K. However, it also came with over 100 acres of land. Land is more expensive on Nantucket than at Squaw, particularly the it comes with a couple thousand feet of shoreline. My two friends are part of a BIG family. Many. many cousins and aunts and uncles at the time Grandma died. For at least two decades they had been after the family to have some real estate planning done. She has so many heirs that if she had gifted each the maximum possible, over a 20 year period, she could have had the entire thing out of her estate. The family would still own it.
Instead she died owning it. There were no restrictions on it. NONE. They tried very, very hard to have it appraised for as low a number as possible, which proved to be impossible. I can't recall the number, but there was no chance of them keeping it. They'd have to pay the tax, to begin with. And, there was plenty of infighting. Some just wanted the money, ASAP. I recall my friends saying "I hope it doesn't get ruined......" Well, you can't pocket tens of millions of dollars and still own it. It now has many, many very tasteful and mega expensive homes on it, on big lots for the island. 3-4 acre lots. The original house was torn down pretty quickly. You would have to strain very hard to recognize what it once was. The developers, as most do there, made a killing.
I have seen it happen a lot. If you drive up to the Mt Mansfield Ski Club, from the Spruce base area, you literally drive right over the site of my parents second ski house. Thankfully none of us owned it at the time the the MM ski company bought all of those houses. But it's odd. "Dad, where was Gramma and Grandpa's ski house?" Pretty much right under this road, under the car, as far as I can tell.....
Poulsons sold out, long ago. Having created a large fortune off a pretty modest investment from the railroad. Enter Alex Cushing and Laurence Rockefeller, and at least the first couple of chapters were history.
Will be interested to see what happens, and what the real market for it is. So much crazy money in the Bay Area, you never know. Would be a nice place to boot up, and use for guests for Larry Elison, when he comes over from his compound on the lake in Incline.
Tamara McKinney, overall WC winner, has the listing, BTW.