SO AMBITIOUS!

Published in the Dec. 6, 2025 issue.

Change was in the air Wednesday night at the Mammoth Lakes Town Council meeting. Mayor Chris Bubser’s term ended and former mayor pro tem Amanda Rice took her place.

Councilmember Brent Truax was subsequently nominated and approved to fill Rice’s shoes as second-in-command.

Before getting to the most significant item on the agenda, revamping regulations for lofts, the council moved towards approving the items on the consent agenda. Chief among them was finalizing and executing an agreement to pay Dudek, an environmental consulting firm, $244,992 to develop a Climate Adaptation and Action Plan (CAAP). 

The majority of the money, slightly less than $200,000, was awarded to the town as a Caltrans grant in July. The town was then required to provide a cash match of 11.47% (approximately $25,807) towards the total cost of the project, a price that was approved in the sweep of the consent agenda.

The council funded something that does not exist.

Yet.

According to the staff report, the Dudek consultant will begin work on the CAAP this month and is expected to complete the job in June of 2027.

The CAAP will help the town to identify and address climate vulnerabilities, as well as create a plan to improve transportation and other infrastructure resilience. As climate change increases the likelihood of events such as the recent Pack Fire in the Eastern Sierra, a CAAP could be instrumental in mitigating risks. The CAAP will build off work the town has already completed, in areas like the local hazard mitigation and community wildfire protection plans.

Other resort towns have already made similar moves. In April of 2023, Truckee adopted a Climate Action Plan which aimed to have 100% of the town’s electricity come from renewable sources by 2030 and all of the town’s energy to follow in renewable suit by 2050.

“We don’t want to be left behind and be the last town in America with propane,” Bubser remarked.

The council then shifted its attention towards the new state adopted building codes and the local amendments made by the town. This was presented by Tom Perry, the town’s building official, and Nolan Bobroff, the community and economic development director.

Every three years, the state revises its building codes. Projects that have already been permitted or had a building permit application submitted prior to Jan. 1, 2026 are not required to comply with the new codes. Permit applications submitted after the Jan. 1 deadline are required to meet them. 

These code changes will apply to new construction, alterations, remodels, changes of occupancy, and relocated buildings.

In the past, the town has been able to make amendments to the state codes, as long as they provide reasonable justification. This year, however, the state passed a law that prohibits this change-making.

“We’ve always had pretty free rein to do that as long as you could justify them by citing unique local climatological conditions,” Bobroff said. “What we can do is continue forward with our local amendments that we’ve previously enacted.”

During his presentation, Perry first focused on Assembly Bill 130, which curtails the authority of local governments to amend residential building standards on the basis of physical conditions.

Perry assured the council that the Town of Mammoth Lakes has no violations of this code.

Perry then discussed codes which provided significantly relaxed regulations around sleeping lofts (CBC Appendix P), and also yielded a snow load much higher than current standards (ASCE 7-22). The town will keep its current snow load regulations, which adheres to localized case studies.

The new criteria for sleeping lofts allow these spaces to have a floor area of less than 70 square feet, ceilings as low as three feet, the allows ladders for egress and stairways as narrow as 20 inches.

“We’ve never had language in the building code that has allowed for that,” Perry said. “[This could] address the housing crisis and find more places for people to sleep in existing housing stock.”

However, these provisions can only be used for voluntary remodels, and are intended for those wanting to alter a loft such that it complies with code. Perry acknowledged that not many people are willing to remodel their loft just so it abides by the rules.

“This doesn’t really affect what we already have in place,” Perry said. “This is for people who want to voluntarily remodel, which a lot of people don’t.”

But Bobroff explained this legislation does have its place. In the past, lofts that did not comply with the rules during TOT inspection were required to remove the beds and place a placard on the stairs which read “this loft cannot be used for sleeping purposes.”

“We felt that was a little disingenuous because we know once we left, beds probably went back in,” Bobroff said. “If they choose to remodel it and make it compliant under the building code, they could now use it to sleep.”

Basically, you can use your loft however you want. Just throw a splash of paint on there!

This update would not alter occupancy code, which still states there can be two people per bedroom, including a loft.