THE MISSING LINK?
Town staff, an army of consultants and a sprinkling of community leaders met Friday morning June 19 at the Mammoth Lakes Community Center to discuss the future of the North Village.
The 64-acre North Village parcel is governed by a Specific Plan (NVSP) which allows for 135,000-square feet of commercial space and 3,600 lodging rooms.
The NVSP is currently half built-out, with a Residence Inn (Berner Street) and the Rockspring Mammoth (on the former Nevado’s corner at Main/Minaret) under construction. The other three corners at Main/Minaret and what is now the parking lot across the street from the Village along Minaret are the largest undeveloped parcels.
What planners are trying to figure out now is how to make a Village with traffic, mobility and parking issues (at 50% build-out) better-functioning at a future 100% build-out.
A tall task.
Attendees included Pat Agnitch, Kathy and Tom Cage, MMSA’s Tom Hodges, Fire Chief Ales Tomaier, Planning Commissioners Dawn Vereuck and Michael Vanderhurst, who also works for MLT, MLT’s Betsy Truax, four Town staffers (Town Manager Patterson, Community Development Director Bobroff, Public Works Director Hayes and Recreation Manager Stu Brown), two Caltrans staffers and four consultants from an outfit called NCE.
*I have no idea how the attendees were invited/selected. Or what type of future public outreach is planned.
Of course, any planning discussion like this always comes with a certain amount of revisionist history and gentle finger-pointing.
Kathy Cage, who served on Mammoth’s Town Council during the NVSP’s formation, said “We never anticipated the Village as a mountain [access] portal.” Really? How is that possible NOT to anticipate?
Then there was the usual lament over the parking structure that was never built. With MMSA VP of Development Tom Hodges noting that a 300-space structure these days might cost $150,000 per spot or $45 million.
I had to go back to my Feb. 24, 2007 issue to look up the history of the garage that wasn’t.
What had originally been planned as a 345-space, four-story garage at $18 million was reduced to a 270-space lot for $14.5 million.
It was supposed to be located on the one-acre lot the Town owns next to the Westin and financed by the Town and its Village “partners,” including Starwood, then-owner of Mammoth.
Starwood had planned to build a 1 Hotel at what is now the Village parking lot, which prompted a deal.
$3.2 million for the project was supposed to come from the Town selling right-of-way property at Mammoth Crossing. The rest was supposed to come from a bond (to be repaid by the private partners) and DIF revenue.
1 Hotel didn’t get built. DIF revenue didn’t materialize. And that was the end of that.
The Town’s one-acre lot now contains a surface lot with 40 spaces.
Any future parking proposal looks like it’ll feature an expensive, paid lot with the financing bond guaranteed by the Town.
Vereuck referenced a presentation Hodges made to the local contractors’ association where he suggested the Mountain would like to build a 400-space surface parking lot at Chair 4, but that certainly won’t relieve congestion at the Village bottleneck.
A silver lining idea introduced by the consultants in terms of transit and mobility would be to introduce a “Lake Link” option.
Lake Link is a micro-transit system operating in South Lake Tahoe.
It’s free and on-demand, and shared rides for up to 9-12 passengers can be booked through a mobile app.
Of course, wait times at peak hours can be unpredictable.
And you’d also be subsidizing a service to compete with the private sector.
And you’d also need a stable of vans and drivers.
One subject that came up again and again was the idea of pedestrian bridges which would cross over Canyon Blvd. and the Main/Minaret intersection to improve mobility.
Kathy Cage cited the visual impact such bridges would create and wondered whether the idea of Mammoth as a Village in the trees is quaint or outdated.
I thought to myself, “Now that we’ve built the Limelight and we see what’s happening at Rockspring, haven’t we pretty much abandoined visual impact as a consideration?”
Stay tuned.
Inyo Supes deny appeal
On Tuesday, the Inyo Board of Supervisors upheld a planning commission decision and approved a variance for a 6’ fence in 40 Acres.
The variance was made for homeowner David “Mayflower” Bradford, who will be allowed to construct the hog-wire, visually permeable fence along his property line at 2581 N. Round Valley Rd.
Typically, only a 3.5’ fence is allowed along a property line. A 6’ fence requires a 50’ setback.
Bradford wants the fence to deter deer from plundering his vegetation.
Neighbor Ed Falzon appealed, disputing Bradford’s claim of “exceptional circumstances.”
In his appeal, he said, “Any hardship claimed by the applicant is self-inflicted because the applicant chose to plant vegetation and that vegetation prevents compliance with the setback requirements.”
The most hilarious part of the appeal hearing was Bradford’s offhand mention that his family came to America on the Mayflower. How is that relevant?
He also claimed that Mr. Falzon has a long history of aggravating his neighbors. Again, immaterial.
Nevertheless, Supes took pity on Bradford. Supervisor Scott Marcellin made sure to wrangle at least one concession out of Mr. Mayflower, which was to ensure that Mayflower’s pond would remain accessible to firefighters.
The vote was unanimous.
Bishop Council Flocks to Kiss Ass
By a 3-2 vote, Bishop City Council canceled, effective immediately, its contract with Flock Safety, walking away from a $187,500 investment.
The City had signed a five-year contract with Flock, and had already paid the $187,500.
Coucilmembers Schwartz and Freundt were in dissent, suggesting that the Town continue with the contract until a replacement provider is found.
However, Councilmembers Muchovej, Kong and Garcia carried the day.
Public comment suggested Flock Safety is not a good steward of the public data it collects – though why anyone in Bishop thinks their data is worth collecting is beyond me.
Nevertheless, it’s an election year. So Councilmembers needed to appear responsive.
Police Chief Nate Derr did not voice an opinion either way on the issue. He did note that Bishop Police uses Flock on a regular basis and it’s aided the department in 87 cases.
It saves staff time, he said.
The funny part was that Council had consensus to cancel the contract, but was divided because they are worried about vandalism in City Park, tacitly acknowledging that the cameras serve as a deterrent.
In other news, Bishop Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Tawni Thomson acknowledged it’s going to be a long process getting folks accustomed to the new Chamber Visitor Center location.
Walk-in visits to the new location are down 63% year-over-year.
On a positive note, Thomson said parking has not been an issue, with the four parking spots in front of the building proving sufficient.
Bishop City Manager Pam Foster announced that the Silver Peaks Affordable Housing project received its last batch of funding and should break ground by the end of the year.
Silver Peaks is a 60-unit project which will serve folks who make less than 80% of the Area Median Income (AMI).
The project location will be the three-acre site behind the existing mobile home park at the corner of MacIver and Spruce Streets.
Foster also alluded to an offer made by United Airlines to extend air service year-round.
That would mean daily service through mid-September and then four days/week through the fall with one daily flight to San Francisco.
The cost: About $200,000.
How that cost will be divided among regional partners is the big question.
Eastern Sierra Council of Governments Executive Director Elaine Kabala briefed Bishop’s Council about the ongoing Chipmunk Canyon Existing Conditions Analysis. You can view an interactive map and take a survey at https://chipmunkcanyon.altaplanning.cloud/.
The tentative close date for the survey is July 13 and the initial report is due in September.
