Land trade pilgrimage
Gregory, Cohen, Alpers visit the House of Cards.
MMSA CEO, Rusty Gregory, along with CAO, Ron Cohen, and Mono County Supervisor Tim Alpers, traveled to Washington DC last week to discuss HR 1241. This land exchange legislation would allow MMSA to trade over 1,700 acres of public and private property in various counties in exchange for approximately 21 acres of Forest Service land surrounding Mammoth Mountain’s main lodge.
“We need to upgrade the 55-year-old buildings that are patch-worked together to compete for ski clientele,” said Alpers, who traveled at his own expense. “For the general image and reputation of our community, our town and MMSA.”
The bill has already passed in the House of Representatives, for the second time, and Gregory and company are eager to have the bill pass in the Senate before it recesses for the year. Cohen said the upcoming election season, which could turn over control in the Senate, along with several “monumental issues” still set to be discussed this year has “everyone on their toes over there [in Washington].”
“Our bill is very straight forward. It is bipartisan with no cost to the US government but significant benefit to the people and the people in Mono County specifically,” said Cohen. “If we only needed approval from Town Council and the Board of Supervisors, we would have been done 10 years ago,”
Gregory, Cohen, and Alpers met with California Senator Diane Feinstein and Gregory met with Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu, the Chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, along with all the relevant staff of both offices and the Committee. “Our bill is on their radar,” Cohen said. “Senator Feinstein wrote a letter while we were there to Senator Landrieu asking her to expedite our bill. Had we not gone there and done what we did I don’t think we’d have that kind of push.”
“I have optimistic confidence in Feinstein and her staff,” Alpers said. “She understands the importance of well balanced, well thought out deals. She has always been attentive to the Eastern Sierra.”
Cohen said Alpers was very helpful: “To have an elected official with a glossy legislative platform saying [our bill] is important because it’s important for our region had a great effect.”
“We’re hopeful that the [Senate Energy and Natural Resources] Committee is going to set a new hearing date soon and our bill will be on the list to be heard,” Cohen said. “They’ll tell you they’ll accountable to us.”
MMSA will “keep pushing and running down every possible avenue to get the bill through the Senate this year,” Cohen said. “We’re closer than we have every been but there’s no promise in legislation.”
He also said that once HR 1241 passes it will still take the Forest Service 1 to 2 years to process the land trade under the Land Exchange Act, which requires analysis through the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).
If the Senate does not pass HR 1241 this year, it will have to start in the House all over again next year. If this happens, Cohen said MMSA would continue to pursue the land trade. “It would be an unfortunate causality of the gridlock that goes on back there,” he said. “It’s up to us to continue pushing because that’s the only way you get anything done there.”
“The process is expensive in a state of suspension,” Cohen said. “We’ve gone out and secured [land] options of high resource value but we have to pay those owners in order not to sell it to someone else.”
Alpers called the time productive and praised Gregory and Cohen for their presentations. He also emphasized the need to move things along, “We’re running out of time to make this happen,” he said.
Alpers said he has become more of a believer in local politics after his meetings in DC: “The real vetting of these issues occurs at the local level. We have Town Hall meetings, public hearings… [There is] an incredible amount of transparency to formulate policy needed by the people.”
If the land trade goes through, “it’s going to be the biggest project in the history of this County. We really need magnitude of this project,” said Alpers, who estimates the project will create 500 jobs, 300 of them permanent. “It will increase our tax base: TOT for the Town and property tax for Mono County.”
“Let me just say that when you go to DC, it is absolutely majestic,” he continued. “Unfortunately the behavior inside of the monuments is not as beautiful as the outside.”
And Cohen seemed to agree: “Was seeing what happens in DC encouraging? No not at all,” he said. “But we’re encouraged by our bill’s prospects.”
