PEDC approves Mountainside

Mammoth’s Planning and Economic Development Commission (PEDC) approved the Mountainside Project near Canyon Lodge with few reservations, and to little fanfare at its meeting last month.

The project sits on Rainbow Lane across from Canyon Lodge, and includes 16 townhomes, two of them freestanding and the rest duplexes. The townhomes would be whole ownership units and open to nightly rentals.

Developer John Hooper described the design as similar to the Grayfox project across from the Westin Monache, but said he intended to create more space between houses, as well as larger units, garages, and decks.

“I think it would be a welcome addition to this neighborhood; a newer, more modern addition,” he told Planning Commissioners.

Hooper requested reduced setbacks, from 25 to 16 feet on Rainbow Lane, and from 20 to 10 feet on the east property line. He also requested a height variance from 35 to 36.9 and 43.9 feet at various buildings in the development to accommodate the project’s larger garages, and therefore greater building width and height.

Neighboring buildings 1849 and Snowbird Condominium are 60 and 40 feet high, respectively.

Nearby residents expressed concern over the project’s requested variances. Sloane Malecki of Courchevel said that when she and her husband first purchased their unit, now adjacent to the proposed Mountainside site, they were assured by the Town’s Planning Department that future developments would adhere to strict codes.

“It’s rather troubling that my husband and I now find ourselves here today … trying to explain why the proposed development is damaging to us,” she said. Malecki argued that the combination of reduced setbacks and increased building height would have too great an impact on Courchevel.

Nearly twenty other residents of Courchevel and Snowbird agreed in letters submitted to the Planning Commission prior to the meeting.

But Planning Commissioners had no issues with the proposal. Nor did Commissioners address Hooper’s Affordable Housing Mitigation Plan (AHMP), which proposed the Mountainside project pay the current in-lieu fee for projects of nine or fewer units, although the project will have 14 units (the two separate units are too small to require workforce housing mitigation). That fee is $23,222 per unit, for a total of $325,108 for the 14 units.

The project was approved unanimously. A Courchevel owner appealed the ruling to Town Council, which will hear the appeal June 3.