SPLIT DOWN THE MIDDLE
Published in the Dec. 20, 2025 issue.
On Wednesday morning, the Mammoth Lakes Planning and Economic Development Commission (PEDC) voted in favor of a map which would split the property of 102 East Bear Lake Drive into two parcels. Nolan Bobroff, Mammoth Lakes community and economic development director, and Michael Peterka, associate planner, presented the application. Jeff Dagan, the applicant, sat in the audience.
The property was developed as a single family residence with an accessory dwelling unit (ADU), nestled within the eight lot single-family residential Gray Bar III subdivision, created in August 2017. With PEDC’s approval, the lot in question will now be split between the primary single family residence on a 10,446 square foot parcel, and the existing ADU on another 7,510 square foot area. This lot split will result in a single family residence on both parcels.
During their presentation, Bobroff and Peterka focused on two questions: was the proposed project consistent with the State Subdivision Map Act? And did it align with the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA)?
PEDC’s vote Wednesday affirmed that yes, the application complied with the State Subdivision Map Act. This means the site is physically suitable for the type and intensity of development, and bisecting the lot will not restrict access to existing easements for the road, utilities, and snow storage. Even better, the subdivision will likely not cause substantial environmental damage or serious health problems (thank God).
Further, PEDC found the application did not fit within CEQA, but was exempt from it, due to the Minor Land Divisions exemption clause. The exemption applies to the division of property in urban zones for residential areas. Luckily for Dagan, his property perfectly aligns with this exemption.
Dagan has no intention to make the soon-to-be single family residence a short term rental property. Instead, his goal was to prepare for his future, in case Dagan and his wife decided to leave, but his 43-year-old son, who lives in the ADU portion of his property, wanted to stay.
“I don’t think he’s going anywhere,” Dagan said. “He loves Mammoth.”
Dagan’s personal connection to the property and his desire to keep it within his family reassured some commissioners.
“It did hurt my heart a little bit thinking that the secondary unit is going to be rented out nightly when they’re originally intended for locals,” commissioner Cynthia Fleming said. “But your son is a local, and he’s living in it.”
The ADU on Dagan’s property was built in 2018, before the state of California made drastic changes to ADU legislation. Meaning, this particular ADU needed to comply with the Lodestar Master Plan: Mammoth’s area specific long-term development plan. Under the Lodestar Master Plan, the ADU had to maintain setbacks of 10 feet on the rear, 10 feet on both sides, and 20 feet of the access road.
“Unlike modern ADU rules which allow you to do whatever you want, basically,” Bobroff said.
