Mammoth Creek Inn seeks to expand
Planning Commission approves design plan … with stipulations.
Mammoth Creek Inn’s expansion plans were approved by Mammoth’s Planning and Economic Development Commission (PEDC) on Wednesday at its regular meeting in Suite Z.
Owner Steven Hakim and architect Craig Tapley presented a tentative tract map and design for the expansion, which would include 12 condo-hotel rooms in two new buildings in the lot between Mammoth Creek Inn, The Cast Off, and Rock N’ Bowl.
Building A/B would have eight rooms (four studios and four one-bedrooms) and Building C would have four rooms (two studios and two one-bedrooms), with 12 enclosed parking spaces total. The buildings would be 42 feet tall, below the height limit of 45 feet. A site tour on Wednesday showed that trees would largely screen the view from Mammoth Creek Park of the proposed buildings.
Tapley said the expansion design was intended to use the same style and elements from the existing Mammoth Creek Inn and Rock N’ Bowl building, breaking up the building façades with hardie board siding, stucco, and Corten steel, among other materials.
The project is also intended to improve circulation through the Mammoth Creek Inn parking area, allowing vehicles to enter from Old Mammoth Road, but directing them to exit onto Chateau Road through The Cast Off parking lot.
Because the project’s density is seven rooms greater than the allowable 40 rooms per acre, explained project lead Nolan Bobroff on Wednesday, Hakim would pay a Community Benefits and Incentive Zoning (CBIZ) in-lieu fee of $6,000 towards a new transit stop or shelter in the vicinity of the project. This ‘community benefit’ satisfies the General Plan Policy requirements for mitigation of greater-than-allowable density.
Commission Chair Mickey Brown noted that the project has fallen into a transition period between the CBIZ policy, which Town Council rescinded in October of this year, and the Zoning Code Update. This means the project will still pay its community benefit fee of $6,000, although at .75 density, it would come in well below the proposed new Zoning Code requirement for 2.0 Floor Area Ratio (FAR).
Bruce Woodward, Rock N’ Bowl architect, was the first to offer his critique of the proposed expansion.
“In general, this is a project that seems to be meeting all of the criteria that’s in the Zoning Code,” he said. But, he added, “We’re going to wind up with another ‘bird house’ style project. I think it’s going to be an unfortunate addition to the Town of Mammoth Lakes.”
Woodward was alluding to the Mammoth Gateway project near The Loco Frijole on Main Street.
Woodward also requested representation of the design in context, something Tapley didn’t provide, and argued that Corten steel will ‘run,’ staining the glass on the building.
Finally, he implied the CBIZ fee wasn’t enough to compensate for seven units.
“It’s unfortunate that it’s able to use the CBIZ, that it’s buying seven units for $6,000,” he said; “The [Public] Art Fee for this project is going to be at least $20,000. To me, this seems so out of proportion.”
Woodward noted that the project also no longer has a lot coverage requirement, and that the proposed expansion will take up 82 percent of the lot. “It could be 100 percent,” he said. “But I don’t know if that’s really what we want to see in this town, but that’s what’s allowed now.
“As a design professional, and someone who designed the building next door, I find it a shame that this is going to happen next in that context, in that neighborhood, and next to the park. And next to their building out front, which is a much nicer-looking building than this.”
“Beauty is always in the eye of the beholder,” Tapley replied. “We don’t see the project as a series of ‘bird houses,’ as on Main Street.”
“We really took into consideration the overall look of the property next door,” said Hakim. “It isn’t without very careful consideration that we came to this finished project.”
Hakim also argued that the $6,000 in-lieu fee was “a moot point, considering the TOT [Transient Occupancy Tax] we’re going to bring to the Town.”
Chair Brown noted that because the CBIZ portion of the project already went before and was approved by Town Council, the Commission couldn’t do much about it.
“I don’t think we should hold that against the applicant,” argued Vice Chair Dave Harvey.
Other Commissioners received the tract map and design with mixed impressions.
Commissioner Tenney seconded Woodward’s request for a rendering of the buildings in context. “I really have an issue with the design not being integrated,” she said.
Although the proposed expansion meets all of the requirements, she said, “The building does not hang together … not for me.”
Meanwhile Commissioner Michael Vanderhurst expressed concern about the new parking lot traffic flow. “I can tell you, on a day when [Cast Off] is open, that corridor can be a bit of a nightmare,” he said.
“I’m concerned to hear that there’s a perceived materials issue at this point,” Vice Chair Harvey said, alluding to Woodward’s comments on Corten steel.
“I’ve been in the area for 25 years, used Corten for 15, and I’ve never seen it run,” Tapley replied. “I don’t want to get into a predicament where we have the Commission telling us what type of materials to use on the building.”
However, upon request from the Commission, Tapley did agree to sit down with the PEDC Design Review Group to refine the materials, subject to approval by the PEDC Manager.
With this stipulation, as well as the stipulation that Tapley provide an in-context rendering of the Mammoth Creek Inn expansion design, Commissioners approved the tentative tract map and design review 5-0.
