Cart before the horse

NEW Downtown Neighborhood District Plan raises old, red flags for some

By Katie Vane

Wednesday afternoon’s regular Planning Commission meeting in Suite Z offered the introduction of the Downtown Neighborhood Planning (DNDP) Study, successor to the controversial Hart-Howerton plan put forth by Mammoth Mountain CEO Rusty Gregory and Snowcreek developer Chuck Lande in August 2009. The new plan, presented by Community Development Director Mark Wardlaw, is the result of nearly a year of study and analysis, including feedback gathered from five focus group meetings and a series of public workshops. The aim of the study: to synthesize old (Hart-Howerton) and new (community-based) ideas for the future development of Main Street.

Wardlaw started the meeting by emphasizing that the new plan used Hart-Howerton ideas only as “a framework to discuss what we liked and didn’t like.” He alluded to a stronger working relationship with Caltrans, and thanked Mammoth Mountain Ski Area for continuing to provide funding and staff. Finally, he stressed that this new plan is much more “community-based” than the last.

But what quickly became clear was that Wardlaw considered the meeting less an opportunity for the public to get a first look at the plan, and more a mere formality preceding further discussion at Mammoth Lakes Planning Commission on July 14.

For one thing, Wardlaw and staff had on hand only enough copies of the DNDP Study to pass out to the Planning Commission — perhaps because a Study more than 100 pages in length is inconvenient to copy for the interested public also attending the meeting. But even some commissioners with copy in hand were confused. “Have we shot ourselves in the foot a little bit?” Commissioner Elizabeth Tenney wondered. This Study, she pointed out, “is absolutely daunting to the public.” And that public — the people who live and work in Mammoth — is presumably the most interested in what this new plan has to offer Main Street and the town.

Wardlaw defended the report format, arguing that “we’re wanting to present the decision-makers, which includes the Council, the story of the process.” In other words, this daunting document is meant more for the Council, which will apparently have the intellectual tools to process it, than the public.

When Tenney pressed her point, arguing that she was “just concerned we’re going to lose the audience that we want to support this,” Wardlaw’s response was curt.

“We’re not seeking direction today,” he said. “We’re giving you this to read, to prime you for our meeting July 14.”

Commissioners and audience members disagreed with Wardlaw’s assessment. Commissioner Tony Barrett offered direction to Wardlaw by emphasizing the importance of a DNDP appeal to Main Street business owners. Speaking “as a past business owner,” Barrett reasoned that, “you need to show them how this plan is going to benefit and effect them. We want to say this will effect them for the better. What’s the documentation to show that?” Commissioner Jay Deinken followed with the suggestion that the Study add “a separate, short users guide, like an executive summary for business owners.”

Wardlaw conceded that, perhaps after the Council weighs in, the DNDP could devise a “business outreach” program. “We have not gone out and polled business owners,” he admitted. “We can certainly do that.”

One business owner present at the meeting would have liked very much to be polled. Paul Rudder, owner of the Mammoth Luxury Outlet, and an outspoken opponent to the Hart-Howerton plan, addressed past and present concerns of Main Street business owners.

He argued that the Hart-Howerton plan, backed by Mammoth Mountain, was “not done because of desire on the part of Main Street business people.” And the current plan, still funded and staffed by the Mountain, didn’t sound much better to him. For one thing, the focus group used by the DNDP to discuss old ideas and generate new ones was “not selected by the town, but by the mountain.”

Moreover, Rudder argued, the focus group was comprised almost entirely of supporters of the previous NDP. “I was not invited,” Rudder said, “oddly enough, to participate in the focus group.” Apparently also “not invited” were many other Main Street business owners, who expressed concern about the original Hart-Howerton plan.

The result is a new plan that continues to support the old idea of a gondola that will bypass Main Street businesses. Concerned business owners singled out the gondola as one of the most threatening features of the original NDP, because it would create a transportation system that would ferry visitors from a parking lot located at the entrance of town to the foot of the Village, thus depriving Main Street of much-needed business. “Who even asked for the gondola to be put in the first time?” Rudder wondered.

Brent Cook, a Sierra Vista property owner, also got up to voice his concerns. He had a chance to review the DNDP Study carefully, and one thing in particular worried him. He noted that the report suggested developing street-front retail on the north side of a subarea of Main Street defined by Manzanita, where the Motel 6 is, but pointed out that there is a large hill there that would necessitate “digging a lot of dirt” before any new building gets done. Cook’s suggestion: “look at topography, rather than the street. If there’s a grade amount that’s greater than something, that’s where the retail should stop.”

Vagaries, such as those brought to attention by Rudder and Cook, could make town business and property owners justifiably nervous. Tom Cage sought to reassure those assembled by reminding them that, “This is the study. The concept. There are no bulldozers waiting at the edge of town. This is not going to happen tomorrow.” He added, “Hopefully there’s momentum so that in 20 or 30 years, Paul Rudder’s shopping center might still be there. Why not?”

Mark Wardlaw emphasized that the DNDP plans to do further analysis of things like traffic studies and Population at One Time (PAOT). But, Wardlaw said, “We’re not trying to define the color of the curb today.”

Perhaps it wouldn’t be useful to provide curb color in an already intimidating Study, but Rudder, and business owners and residents like him, could use a little more information. “We’re very concerned,” he stated simply, “that a change in concept of Main Street will be very destructive to businessmen who have invested a lifetime in building a business here.”

With any luck, future meetings will be less introductions than information sessions, shedding more light on the drawbacks and benefits of the new Downtown Neighborhood District Plan.