CLEARWATER REDUX

Tiny homes: potentially coming to a throughfare near you.

The Town of Mammoth Lakes Planning and Economic Development Commission is holding a public hearing on Wednesday, October 27, for a proposal to develop the Sierra Nevada Resort property for, among other things, “tiny home style hotel cabin units.”

The proposal is part of an ongoing plan to develop the property that has struggled to get off the ground since adoption more than a decade ago.

In January 2009, the Town of Mammoth Lakes adopted the Clearwater Specifc Plan to develop a mixed-use resort development in the Northern Old Mammoth Road District at the Sierra Nevada Resort and Spa site.

Entitlements for the development included 340 residential units with up to 488 lodging rooms, eight workforce-housing units, outdoor event spaces, retail/restaurant space, and an undergound parking garage, among others.

Due to a lack of available financing, the project wasn’t constructed. 

This warranted amendments that would increase financial viability for development. 

Although those amendments never materialized, the applicant is now requesting a new amendment to allow for some degree of development at the site. 

Brent Truax, Sierra Nevada Resort managing director, told The Sheet that the amendment is seeking approval for specific zoning to allow for development on the property to start.

Truax said that the project would involve removal of Frosty’s Mini Golf and the Jimmy’s Taverna/Red Lantern building to make way for the proposed units.

The move comes as a new group moves to acquire the property.

All in all, the amended project would involved “animating along Old Mammoth Road”, according to Truax.

“Animating” in this sense means improving the existing hotel/Rafters, expanding meeting space, a new outdoor park along the road, and surface parking.

He added that this is the only proposed phase for the time being, and that the developers are not looking at a potential second phase in the near future.

Those hopeful for a large-scale outdoor venue will have to hold out; the proposed park space is intended to be relatively small.

A staff report on the amendment referred to the development as a “less intensive expansion and upgrade.”

Truax put completion down optimistically for spring of 2022, adding “There are more than 25 consultants planning this out right now.”

Town Community and Economic Development Director Sandra Moberly stressed that any proposed development is strictly conceptual at this time.