Keeping The Town on its toes

Commentary
Keeping the Town on its toes
By Lara Kirkner Monday, September 18, 2006 5:16 PM CDT
Mammoth Times Staff Writer

No decisions have been made, no variances given, but people in the Town of Mammoth Lakes are nervous. So nervous in fact, that talk of Town staff allowing developers to run rampant fills conversations, even though many of the major projects have not even been through official public hearings, let alone been finalized. I understand the concern and I too get caught up in the fear of skyscrapers in Mammoth, so when neighbors of the Sherwin, a condo-hotel project that is being discussed for the corner of Old Mammoth Road and Minaret Road, expressed their concern that Town officials are breaking away from the vision of Mammoth and not listening to the community, I listened and began to believe... and then I made a call to Chair of the Planning Commission Roy Saari.
A calming presence on any occasion and a very levelheaded man, Saari explained that he didn't even have an opinion of the project yet, much less a final decision."Cardinal Investments (the proponent of the Sherwin), has gone back to the drawing boards and won't be presenting the project again to the public for another month or two," Saari said. "People around the project want sprawl and not height, but sprawl may not be accessible for the public. I need to hear public comment because as of now we have only heard from the neighbors of the property, not the whole community."
Yet the neighbors of the property speak with a strong voice-approximately 60 of them showed up at a neighborhood meeting regarding the Sherwin on Aug. 4, according to Janna Kiraly who owns a condo at Mammoth Creek Condos with her husband Karch." When I bought my condo, my real estate agent told me it was zoned for 35-foot [high] condominiums," Kiraly said. "I believed I would never lose my Mammoth Mountain view." At this point Kiraly says she feels very ripped off by the Town.
"They are allowing the builders to make money and I will lose money," she said. Local realtor and resident at Sunrise Condos, another neighbor of the Sherwin property, Steve Schwind, who has been in Mammoth since 1981, claims that the "major heartburn we are having is that nothing else in the area is above 35 feet. The property should be laid out comparable to the rest of the area." When asked how he would lay out the Sherwin, Schwind said, "Mammoth Creek Condos have a great layout on a piece of land that is about the size of the Sherwin lot. Mammoth Creek has 60 units and the Sherwin is zoned for 63, so I would probably lay it out similarly to Mammoth Creek." Schwind emphasized that the neighbors around the Sherwin are not opposed to development on the lot, and Kiraly seconded the idea when she said that she always knew something would be built there." We believe in private property rights but we also believe in following the guidelines," Schwind said. The catch in all of this is that Cardinal Investments is asking for the height variance in exchange for offering open space around Mammoth Creek for the public. Basically dangling a carrot in front of our noses in order to get what they want." To get a variance you have to offer something to the community," Saari said, and I'm not sure yet if the height they are asking for is a good tradeoff for the open space. Schwind adamantly feels it is not. "We are surrounded by open space, they (Cardinal) shouldn't get extra height for it." Cardinal Investments requested a maximum height for the Sherwin project of 75-85 feet at a Planning Commission meeting on Aug. 9 in order to keep 45 percent of the property available for a conservation easement. What we all have to remember is that things have not been set in stone yet. Luckily (in this case) our Town government moves at a slow pace and major projects such as the Clearwater, the Sherwin and Mammoth Crossing still have a long way to go before they are finalized, and will definitely go before the public first. It's hard to say at this point whether Town officials are turning a deaf ear on the public and straying away from our vision statement when they haven't made any major decisions yet. It is great to know, however, that our community is paying attention and is not afraid to speak its mind since Town officials are taking these major projects into consideration. Now is the time to make concerns known. Let's keep sending them back to the drawings boards until they get it right.