New mama for June Lake
This June Lake residence was given the green light to operate as a B&B.
A single-family residence in June Lake will soon become a commercial bed and breakfast known as Mama Bear’s Bed and Breakfast.
At Tuesday’s regular Mono County Board of Supervisors meeting, the Board voted 4-0 to approve a deed restriction as well as a General Plan Amendment for the conversion of a single-family home into a commercial use property. Board Chair Vikki Bauer had to recuse herself from the discussion and the vote because she owns property near the home in question.
First, Assistant County Counsel Stacey Simon explained that the Guerth family, owners of the property at 27 Forest Road in June Lake, was requesting the deed restriction in conjunction with the request to change the property from single family use to commercial lodging high.
The Guerths didn’t want the property to be open to all options afforded commercial lodging high zoning, according to Simon. The deed restriction not only makes the change a more expedient process, it also restricts some of those options.
The deed restriction also allowed for a confined CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) process according to county staff. The project was found categorically exempt from CEQA according to the agenda packet.
The Board easily approved the deed restriction, but when it came time to discuss the General Plan Amendment that would change the use from residential to commercial, and the use permit that would accompany this change, Supervisor Larry Johnston spoke up with two concerns.
The first was parking. According to the plans, the B&B guests would be given parking spots directly in front of the garage where the owner’s cars would be housed. There would also be one spot available on the street
“The owners/managers could become stuck in the garage,” Johnston pointed out.
Mono County Community Development Director Scott Burns said that the point had been discussed and it was determined that it would be up to the manager’s discretion to plan ahead and figure the parking situation out so as to not become stuck.
Johnston’s second concern was also connected to parking. He pointed to a clause in the use permit conditions that he felt could not be enforced.
“There shall be no parking allowed off site and parking on property owned by other persons shall be considered a trespass,” the conditions stated. “A violation of this section may subject any person to administrative, civil and criminal penalty, including fines and towing of any vehicle parked in violation of this provision in compliance with state and local law.”
Staff waved the concern away as a non-issue they did not believe would become a problem, claiming it could be something that was worked out between the property owners and the neighbors.
The Mono County Planning Commission had recommended approval of the General Plan Amendment and there had been no public opposition to the project to date according to Burns.
The home is a newer, five-bedroom, six bath structure on the outskirts of a commercial use area in June Lake. It is well below the allowed density for a commercial B&B, according to Associate Planner Courtney Weiche.
Board members agreed that it made sense to put a B&B in a single-family home rather than a congested condo area.
