FREEZE! PUT THE CLIF BAR DOWN

At the Mammoth Lakes Town Council meeting on Wednesday, the Council voted unanimously to update the Municipal Code to clarify responsibilities about waste management that attracts wildlife.

Nobody at the meeting said explicitly, but the update was the town’s response to a controversial bear incident in the fall, in which beloved Victor the Bear swiped a visitor and was consequently killed by US Fish and Wildlife (USFW).

At the time, the town was chastised because it did not issue a citation to the visitors and poor education efforts about wildlife. Apparently, the municipal code was too vague, and didn’t allow for appropriate citation at the time. Soon after the public outrage, the Town launched an outreach program seeking to inform visitors how to behave around wildlife. The code change was one part of that.

The additions were largely linguistic (i.e. changing the title of one chapter from “Feeding of Wildlife Prohibited” to “Feeding of Wildlife and Wildlife Attraction Prohibited”), but also amended the code to include a clear definition of “responsible party,” clarifying who is responsible for issues related to solid waste. 

If you were around for the Victor the Bear situation, you remember this was a big problem in the citation arena – who was responsible for poor trash management at the campsite? Does the blame fall on the camp host or on the tourist?

And, predictably, this caused a ruckus in Council Chambers Suite Z as well. Councilmember Bill Sauser was unhappy with the proposed amendments because he has a personal dumpster at his house which he keeps unlocked (for humans) in the name of samaritanism, to “keep trash off his street.”

He also picked a bone with the idea that he could be cited if he didn’t clean his barbeque every time he used it and a bear broke into his house. Bears have broken into Sauser’s house many times, evidently, the most recent time being that one broke into his bedroom window and “chased [him] through the yard.”

He insisted instead, that the problem was more so that bears are no longer as afraid of people as they once were. Councilmember Rice asked if the Mammoth Lakes Police Department still hazes bears, and Daniel Cassabian, MLPD Chief, said they do not routinely because it requires a permit from USFW.

Councilmember Brent Truax took issue with the consistent use of the term “storage or possession” in the amendments, because he was worried he would get cited if he had a granola bar in his pocket.

Town Attorney Andrew Morris assured him nobody would yell, “freeze, put the CLIF bar down,” even if “possession” was the language included in the code. Cassabian backed him up, and said this code was ultimately to give enforcement the “tools” to cite people, and it was going to be used at discretion. 

Truax remained fervent in his abhorrence of the word, and brought up the fact that he presently had eggs in his car and didn’t want that to get him in trouble. He made a motion to approve the amendment with the redaction of the word “possession,” which passed unanimously.

Town staff intend to follow up on the ordinance with an educational campaign to inform residents about the new regulations and best practices for living with wildlife, available in both English and Spanish.

Ribbon-cutting for 60 Joaquin

Prior to the meeting, Mammoth’s Council held a ribbon cutting ceremony for its newest affordable housing development at 60 Joaquin.

The new apartment complex comprises four deed-restricted units aimed at middle-income buyers.

 Nolan Bobroff, during a presentation in February, described this project as the town’s “first endeavor into building our own units rather than purchasing existing units.”

First recent endeavor anyway. 

Editor’s note to Bobroff: The Town also built Meridian Court, Aspen Village, et. al. in the mid-2000s but you were in college at the time. 

The Town has another program, the Bridge program, in which it subsidizes a property in order to make it more affordable to purchase. 

It’s a program similar to what the Water District has been doing for decades. 

On Joaquin … the Town spent approximately $3 million on the four-unit development and has set the preliminary purchase price for each unit at $550,000. 

Still, that number is “not set in stone,” said Nolan Bobroff, Mammoth’s Community & Economic Development Director in February. While aimed at middle-income households (150-200% AMI), he said this price point may still pose challenges for some potential buyers. 

So, town staff is working with Eastern Sierra Community Housing (ESCH) to determine whether it can lower the price.

As for who’s eligible for the units, the town is advertising the development via  social media outreach, ESCH and the Chamber of Commerce to attract buyers.

The current ESCH list for people looking for housing is 15 households long for homebuyer programs, with incomes ranging from 80-200% AMI. 

In the meeting soon after the ribbon cutting, Angie Tapley, a hairdresser in Mammoth, said she’d been on the list for years, initially in the 180th spot and is now at the top of the list during the public comment section. 

She was grateful for the town’s help in assisting her with housing in the past, but said the subsidies in the Bridge program were too low. The average subsidy awarded through the Bridge program is $100,000 – $150,000 per unit, according to the Town’s website.

Tapley said for her AMI bracket, the subsidy cap didn’t allow her to afford a one-bedroom loft or a two-bedroom. Tapley also spoke at ESCH’s meeting on Monday night.

If applications for potential buyers at 60 Joaquin exceed the four-unit capacity, the town will either hold a lottery or fill it through a first-come, first-served basis, depending on the level of interest in the limited units available.

The third phase of the Parcel will similarly be built and sold through the Town, but that development is still in early design stages.

Airport update

Mammoth Yosemite Airport is again trying to construct a storage unit for their equipment, Sierra Waugh, Deputy Airport Manager, presented to the Council.

Mammoth Yosemite Airport first tried to build the storage facility – housing an Aircraft Rescue Firefighting vehicle and snow removal equipment – in 2023. But it didn’t get any bids. 

It was an inopportune time to go to bid, Waugh said, because there were lots of people looking to contract buildings. Additionally, due to changes in commercial service, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) determined that some of the designed spaces were no longer eligible for federal funding.

Staff has since redesigned the building plan and renamed the building to include a “multipurpose” use in order to open it up for funding outside the FAA.

The re-designed building will include seven bays, two restrooms, a lobby, workshop, training room, break room and office space. 

Design is on track to be completed this year with the building structure and phase 2 sitework likely going out to bid in early 2026 for construction next summer.