PLAYING DE-FENCE
This article was published in the August 23, 2025 issue.
If you’re cruising east on the bike path along Meridian Boulevard in Mammoth, you’ll see a big sign reading, “NEW LUXURY HOMES,” leading into “The Reserve” development. Scan down the sign and you’ll see, “PRIVATE GATED COMMUNITY” printed below.
Turn left on that path, and you find yourself sandwiched between the gate and community. Heading north along Joaquin Street, the “community” pinches in, and the path is squeezed between a 6-foot tall fence and the frame of a house.
The path only closes in for about forty, maybe fifty feet. But for some neighbors opposite the fence, this pinch is enough of a reminder their community is shifting before their eyes.
For developer Mark Rafeh, it’s a sign of compromise. He’s the managing principal of Mammoth Springs Resorts, LLC, the company which developed The Reserve and that is currently in escrow to purchase and develop Sam’s Woodsite.
“We didn’t really try to push back on anything,” he said. “We just asked for clarity on what [the neighbors] wanted.”
Granted, it’s perfectly legal for Rafeh to build this way. Because setbacks are determined by property lines, there is no setback requirement for structures from multi-use paths, confirmed Nolan Bobroff, Mammoth Lakes Community Development Director.
The building plans were approved in a May 2023 Planning and Economic Development meeting, in which neighbors protested the development claiming the luxury build would impede on their local livelihoods. Rafeh acceded to some of their requests by lowering the project density and increasing the easements, but many neighbors still staunchly disapprove of the development.
For those individuals, the construction beside the bike path and the fence standing tall beside it, stand as stark reminders of their lost battle.
“Why is it that people who already live here have zero rights in a new development? Many people spoke up on ‘The Reserve’ construction, some changes were made, very minimal changes. […] Why don’t we have rights? The poor guy whose property is along the bike path has zero rights when a huge development over powers his house. He spoke out, no changes,” wrote one of these residents in an email to the Sheet.
The fence, she argued, blocks local residents out and infringes on their property. Rafeh said the fence’s primary purpose is to block out noise from the development to the neighboring community.
He said he had to build the fence opposite the bike path to the development because the preexisting houses push over their easements, and make it so there was no space to construct it on his side. He would have preferred it to be on the other side, too, he said
“Mammoth doesn’t have great surveys, so a lot of the homes that were built on the Joaquin side are encroached,” he said. “Building along that side was tough because some of those neighbors are literally pushed up along where the bike path is now.” For this reason, some people are supportive of the privacy the fence provides.
“In the end, it’s nice to have the wall right now, especially since they regraded the road,” one resident wrote in a text to the Sheet. “It used to come down by my first floor, but without the fence on top of the cement wall, people were able to walk by and stare directly into my bedroom when I had the door open to my deck. With the fence, only the construction workers on the homes they’re building can now see in my bedroom.”
However, she added, “I’m really glad I don’t own this house or I would be incredibly disappointed with the change.”
Rafeh said he’s found about a half and half split between people supportive of the fence and people frustrated by it.
“There’s never a time as a developer where we can make everybody happy, because everybody’s got a different agenda,” he said.
PEDC Chairman Michael Vanderhurst said he doesn’t remember the bike path or the fence coming up as an issue in the planning process, but he did recall the neighbor’s frustrations with the development when it was proposed.
“It was tough … my kids’ teachers and bus drivers and people I know through everyday life live there,” he said. “It was definitely a tough decision, but the developer, his plan actually came in at like one third of the density that was allowed. So he definitely did not want to max out his build.”
The other PEDC members serving at the time did not respond to the Sheet’s request for comment.
The fence has several wildlife openings on the southern portion, and will soon have more in the northern portion. The construction workers just haven’t put them in yet, Rafeh said.
In the winter, the bike path is not plowed for snow removal, Bobroff said.
