HIGHWAY TO DWELL

Published in the Feb. 7, 2026 issue.

Why wait on a designated “safe parking space” that may never materialize when most of the Town of Mammoth Lakes could simply be repurposed instead? That, in effect, is the approach now under consideration.

Because Mono County is dragging its feet on making progress toward a “safe parking lot” for locals living out of their vehicles, the Town of Mammoth Lakes is moving ahead with its own ideas. 

At Wednesday evening’s Town Council meeting, staff unveiled two proposals that would amend the town’s municipal code to allow van-lifers on existing parking lots within town limits, either through participation by a private property owner or via a placard system.

*Oops, I really shouldn’t call them van-lifers, apparently. Councilmember Brent Truax was particularly concerned about semantics during this meeting, and suggested that van-lifers was a term which suggested a person was living out of their vehicle “recreationally,” so the Council and Town staff tried out some new verbiage to refer to the local class.

Community and Economic Development Director Nolan Bobroff suggested a few: “the unhoused, vehicle dwellers, the working homeless.” 

The Council appeared inclined to pass these ideas, and even called on staff to seek an expedited process to get them agendized sooner as an emergency item.

“Lets just move as quickly as possible so that everyone in this community understands we are taking this very seriously,” said councilmember Chris Bubser.

The policies are intended to bridge a gap while the long-discussed “safe parking lot” — a joint effort between Mono County, Mammoth Lakes, and Mammoth Mountain Ski Area– remains at a standstill. The project is planned for the site of the former sheriff’s substation, most recently used for a dogsledding operation.

The goal of the lot, located along Highway 203 just outside town limits, is to create a legal, safe place for locals to live out of their vans. In practice, however, the project has proven far more complicated than anticipated.

Mono County, which is overseeing the initial phase, has stalled on moving the project forward, as the extensive (and expensive) California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) regulatory review process has proven difficult to sidestep.

In its place, the town’s first proposal, which relies a private property owner offering parking spaces was presented as a “near-term solution.” Though it could take up to six months for the Town to identify willing property owners, it would be permanent once established.

Potential sites could also include government parcels, though Bobroff said the town is ideally waiting for a private entity, such as an employer of “vehicle dwellers” or a church, to volunteer a lot.

“As a municipality, we are required to follow all sorts of rules that are not the same set of rules as a private entity,” Town Manager Rob Patterson explained. “Second to that, there’s a lot of liability associated with this.”

For a more immediate fix, Bobroff also proposed a 90-day “emergency facility” option, in which the town would issue placards to approved vehicle dwellers camping on private property. The placards would signal to law enforcement which vehicles were authorized to stay overnight.

Much to the relief of one public commenter visibly living out of their vehicle, “registered” in this case refers to registration with the town’s program, not the state DMV.

Currently, the municipal code prohibits camping in vehicles on public streets, parking lots, rights-of-way, or parks. The proposed changes would carve out designated areas where van-lifers (sorry, working homeless) could legally park overnight.

Enforcement, however, remains murky. If a business or organization opened its lot, it would likely be responsible for monitoring who uses the space and alerting police if “recreational” van-lifers, or overstaying locals, were present. In those cases, the police department would be tasked with issuing citations.

That logic begins to unravel under the tiniest bit of scrutiny. If a lot is open to the public during business hours and to a limited group overnight, it’s unclear how it wouldn’t effectively be available 24/7.

However, the only councilmember to raise any real skepticism was Bill Sauser, who asked the Town Attorney, Andy Morris, what the legal challenges for such proposals might entail. 

Well, there’s no shortage of concerns.

“Living in your vehicle at 8,000 feet in a snowstorm, especially if it’s not a large vehicle, is not a safe thing to do,” Patterson said. “The potential for someone to die in a safe parking zone provided by the town is great.”

Morris pointed to several cautionary examples; a Monterey County case where a woman sued after overstaying at a county site and claimed tenant rights, a San Luis Obispo County shelter that saw an overdose and a fatal fire within eight months, and a San Diego County safe-parking program that was sued after agreeing to expand parking services.

“I just jotted down a list of what turned into about 15 issues that I shared with staff that we need to think through—and that wasn’t exhaustive,” Morris said. “That was just what came from looking at this for a little bit.”

If this all sounds familiar, it’s because in 2021 Inyo Mono Advocates for Community Action (IMACA) proposed a safe parking program in Bishop that included participant screening, Megan’s Law checks, and hourly patrols. 

Although the Planning Commission approved a conditional use permit for up to 15 vehicles near the Church of the Nazarene, the Board of Supervisors rejected the project 3–2, citing concerns over the site’s proximity to Bishop High School farm, and no revised proposal has been brought forward since.

So, as appealing as it is to the workforce housing-hungry government officials, this type of policy is hard to implement. 

Besides, some private entities already provide safety nets, albeit illegally. Tom Cage, owner of Kittredge Sports, admitted he lets his two van-life employees use his parking lot when “they absolutely need to.” 

And with roughly 94% of Mono County made up of public land, van-lifers (both recreational and local) generally rely on dispersed camping on the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management land, where they can legally stay up to 14 days at a time, or 28 days per year, but the agencies rarely enforce those limits.