Planning moves forward with Mammoth Crossing
By Catherine Billey
Mammoth Times Staff Writer


An open house at the Mammoth Crossing Development (MCD) offices on April 28 was harbinger to an informational  presentation that developer Doug Regelous will make for the planning commission May 13.

MCD proposes a combination of resort lodging and visitor-oriented commercial development with some ground floor retail at three of the four corners of the Minaret Road and Main Street intersection within the North Village Specific Plan area.
Planning in the current economic climate is particularly difficult. “The earth is moving under everyone. And it’s so difficult to try to comprehend what the world might look like 12 months from now,” Regelous said.

The open house attracted a good cross-section of the community who availed themselves of refreshments while taking a gander at conceptual renderings of the proposed project.

“We actually had 65 people sign in, and I’m quite sure there’s more than that who didn’t, so I’m guessing 75 to 80,” said manager Mark Deeds.

Regelous said that 260 groups and individuals had been invited to the open house. “We will be inviting those same people to the May 13 planning commission meeting,” he said.

“Interestingly enough, it is the first time that this long-imagined and often-discussed corner will make a public appearance. We’re looking to put for the first time the underlying concept and proposed program for the three corners in front of the planning commission and the community.”

Conceptual renderings at the open house by Paul Merrick Architecture reflected the strong mountain architecture desired by the town for future development.
“We’re moving forward in this process simply to obtain an amendment to the North Village Specific Plan,” Regelous explained. “This is just to get us positioned so that we can begin to design a building.”

The current North Village Specific Plan, as it pertains to Mammoth Crossing site, has them at 48 rooms per acre.  
“We simply want to amend it so we are at the same density as everything else in the North Village [80 rooms per acre]. We’re not asking for more than what’s already there.”

According to senior town planner Ellen Clark, the most controversial aspect of the Mammoth Crossing project involves this request for increased density (up to 80 rooms per acre aggregate across the site) and height (from 35 feet up to 103 feet).
At the last public hearing on proposed development on Sept. 10, 2008 (pertaining to the draft EIR), criticism abounded – primarily from Fireside Condominium residents who said their views and lighting would be impacted.

Since then, Regelous said he has held meetings with Fireside and other homeowner association groups in the immediate neighborhood of the proposed project.

“We were always meeting with them. We are great believers in the public information sessions,” he said.
Although he doesn’t anticipate their taking issue with the Mammoth Crossing proposal, inevitably some individuals will. “We will do everything we can to accommodate their concerns and address them.”

The 2007 General Plan identifies the areas of town that are more accommodating of increased density than others. Mammoth Crossing is proposed in the resort corridor where such density nodes are deemed appropriate.

The next series of public hearings will take place in June at the planning commission, moving on to town council by August, Clark predicted.


In the meantime, the May 13 informational presentation at the planning commission will begin the dialogue with the community.
“It’s a chance for the commission and the public to be reintroduced to the project, since it’s been out of the spotlight for a while,” Clark confirmed. “It’s certainly not a hearing on the project. It’s a study session or workshop just to review.”