In the shadows of the Sierra Nevada, Netflix is building a 1,120-acre campus near Tahoe. However, what it will be used for is still shrouded in secrecy.The streaming giant purchased a sizeable parcel, known as Spring Valley Ranch, for $6.9 million in April 2021, under the name Plan C Holdings. Spring Valley Ranch is in Beckwourth, a tiny unincorporated town of around 500 in the heart of Plumas County, 44 miles northwest of Truckee. A Netflix spokesperson confirmed the company’s ownership of the parcel over email Tuesday. The company has also completed work on updates there and is now using the property.In August 2021, a public hearing took place at the county’s permit center office to determine whether the ranch’s new owners would be able to turn the facility into a “private corporate retreat consisting of Bed and breakfast inn, Place of assembly and Recreation facility.”The permits were approved, and Netflix set out on a two-plus-year path to refurbish the property, which came with a 5,252-square-foot home, a two-story guest cottage, three ponds, and a 4,342-square-foot barn and tack room, as well as retail and office space. According to the 2021 listing, Spring Valley Ranch is also fenced and features 368 acres of pasture for livestock to graze.Little is known or has been revealed, however, about the specific improvements that were made to the property by Netflix in the years that followed the purchase. But in April, locals started to see the parade of work trucks onto the property dissipate, replaced by large black SUVs, electric vehicles and rental buses, bringing in a different kind of clientele. “I can’t reveal much about what they’re doing now since they became members of our co-op,” Bob Marshall, general manager of Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative and Plumas-Sierra Telecommunications, told SFGATE on Tuesday. “It’s one of those things that everyone knows, and there’s a certain important name attached, but no one is allowed to say it aloud.”Marshall said he could not and did not want to speculate about Netflix’s plans for the giant ranch now that it’s open. Will it be a corporate retreat? A place for full-time workers who’ve relocated to the Lake Tahoe region to work?Or is there something even bigger in store?Plan C Holdings’ initial study of work, submitted to Plumas County in June 2021, offers a few clues. While the project “would include the construction of onsite recreational amenities,” the property becoming a big full-time residential space for Netflix employees, for one, was not part of the initial plan. “The proposed project would not induce substantial unplanned population growth in the project area,” the study said. “Project operations would include a small number of staff (approximately 3) that may reside on the site year-round and 15 day-staff, who are anticipated to be existing residents in the region. Further, the proposed project would not displace a substantial number of people or housing as the project site is currently a private ranch/residence and does not contain multi-family housing. Therefore, impacts to population and housing would be less than significant.”The Netflix spokesperson would not shed light on how the company might use the property now and in the future but denied any similarities between Spring Valley Ranch and Netflix co-founder and current board chairman Reed Hastings’ Colorado ranch retreat. Regardless of what the present and future uses of the Netflix property may be, Plumas-Sierra Rural Electric Cooperative’s Marshall said that thus far, the region welcomes the tech behemoth, with a healthy dose of skepticism and hope that they become good neighbors. “There’s hope. And I hope they’re part of the community, and it’s not just three buses that show up and go away,” he concluded. “There’s lots and lots of curiosity, especially when all contractors sign NDAs. makes all their friends say, ‘Hey, tell me everything.’ Everyone wants to look.“But as far as the area goes, there’s a lot more people noticing us. There’s a lot more people in their 20s and 30s moving here and end up having a not-boring life.”Marshall said he believes the region has benefited from a decision the cooperative’s members made, starting in 2010, to install fiber-optic cable in the region to expand its broadband capabilities. “Plumas and Sierra counties are the only places in California that didn’t grow between 2000 and 2010. It’s a beautiful area, but there was no economic development,” Marshall said. “We successfully got grants from the stimulus fund and the state of California and used our own money to change that.”Marshall said the co-op, which was originally spun up as part of the New Deal in Plumas and Sierra counties, has made an effort to ensure broadband access to the rural region. While the effort is still a “work in progress,” he points to the rise of several new or planned developments in the area — including Nakoma Resort and Frazier Trails, plus Netflix’s emergence — as proof that the region just north of the Lake Tahoe Basin is ready for its moment. “We’re seeing more and more people bringing their jobs with them, and they can go commute to Sacramento or the Bay Area once or twice a month,” he explained. “We’ve seen big growth and an increase in home prices in our region. … Stagnation is bad. Shrinking and dying is bad. But it’s also a situation where you learn from your neighbors. You don’t want to see everyone priced out.”