WAITING TO CROSS

Published in the April 4, 2026 edition.

It’s good to remember that the Town of Mammoth lakes has envisioned something like the Mammoth Crossing project for over 30 years.

This was a reminder staff offered early in the Mammoth Town Council meeting Wednesday, hours ahead of the council considering an analysis to determine the extent of the feasibility gap of the Mammoth Crossing project.

By the end of the night, the council voted 4-1 to move forward with that analysis, an early step that does not approve the project, but may determine whether it can pencil at all.

In March, the council received an informational presentation from Newcourse Enterprises, the owner of the Mammoth Crossing site, outlining a vision to transform three parcels at one of the busiest intersections in town (Main Street, Minaret Road, and Lake Mary Road) into a mix of high-end lodging and residences, branded along the lines of Ritz-Carlton and JW Marriott.

But the project remains in its infancy. No formal application has been submitted. So far, the developer has only filed a concept review, an optional, early-stage process meant to gather feedback before anything binding is proposed.

It is moving towards a formal application, but in an unconventional way.

Newcourse is seeking a revenue-sharing agreement with the town, a mechanism in which a developer is allowed to retain a portion of tax revenue, typically Transient Occupancy Tax (TOT), over a set period of time to offset a project’s financing gap.

In simple terms, if the cost to build exceeds the projected return, the town can agree to forgo a portion of its tax revenue to help make up the difference.

Several past projects in Mammoth have pursued similar agreements, though none have come to fruition. 

To determine whether such a gap exists for Mammoth Crossing, Newcourse has offered to pay for a financial consultant to run the numbers.

For some council members, that made the decision to hire the consultant easy.

“Anytime we can have the proponent pay for a study to help educate us … we should jump in,” said Councilmember Bill Sauser.

But others were less convinced.

Councilmember John Wentworth cast the lone dissenting vote, warning that the town may be getting “the cart ahead of the horse” by analyzing a project that has yet to formally materialize, and raised concern that the developer could use the results of the study to tailor the project to meet whatever financial thresholds the town appears willing to support.

In time, he worried this could lead the town to end up in a position where it has agreed to a losing agreement against changing economic tides for a definite amount of time.

Mayor Amanda Rice, on the other hand, cast doubt on the reliability of the analysis itself.

“I feel like most of the studies you read… you see holes immediately,” Rice said, the town has been asked to make decisions based on incomplete or assumption-heavy data.

Town Attorney Andy Morris clarified that the consultant’s role would be limited to a quantitative financial analysis, or “just numbers.”

They would not be evaluating whether the project is appropriate for the community, he said. That decision remains with the council and the public.

And importantly, the town is under no obligation to act on the findings.

Even in a future scenario where revenue sharing is considered, the town would not be writing checks to a developer. Instead, it would be agreeing to forgo a portion of tax revenue, most notably Transient Occupancy Tax, over a set period of time. 

If a project underperformed or failed altogether, the town would simply collect less tax revenue, not assume the developer’s losses.

And, in that case, it “wouldn’t be the first time a project has gone bankrupt,” Sauser said.

The irony is that, revenue sharing or not, the council may have limited direct oversight of the project if it stays within the bounds of a long-standing planning framework.

The North Village Specific Plan, adopted in 1991, anticipated Mammoth Crossing as a cornerstone of the town’s resort core high-density lodging, commercial activity, and a defined “sense of arrival” at the busiest intersection in town, Community & Economic Development Director Nolan Bobroff explained in a presentation earlier in the meeting.

That plan was regularly amended from 2000-2014 since its inception, but the premise has always been to develop Mammoth Crossing into a major lodging and/or commercial hub. 

It established what Bobroff described as a “box,” or pre-set limits on height, density, setbacks, and use across the 64-acre North Village area. 

Projects that fit within that box and comply with existing environmental review can be approved at the Planning and Economic Development Commission level, without ever coming before the town Council.

Such was the case for the Rock Spring Hotel, currently under construction.

Only projects that seek to exceed those standards require council approval. Separate agreements, such as revenue sharing, would also come before the council.

At this point, the question is not whether Mammoth Crossing can be built under the Town’s rules, but whether a project planned for more than 30 years can finally make financial sense.