Measure Z “Yes” votes far outnumbered no votes during the special ballot election Tuesday in Mammoth Lakes.
The semi-official results from the Mono County Elections Department showed 858 “Yes” votes for a 69.87 percent total and 370 “No” votes, equaling 30.13 percent.
Votes were received 1,228 of 2,900 registered voters, according to the Mono County Elections Department, which noted it will have official numbers Friday afternoon.
The “Yes” vote on Measure Z means that if the Mammoth Lakes Town Council wishes to expand nightly rentals into residential zones, that the people will have the right to vote on it first.
Supporters of “Yes on Measure Z” stressed that “Measure Z does not deal with any properties outside of the residential zones, it does not lock anything in forever, it does not touch the commercial or resort zones, and it does not restrict the Town Council from doing a single thing other than requiring them to ask the voter’s permission before expanding nightly rentals into residential zones.”
“Yes” supporters also quoted Mammoth Lakes Town Attorney Andy Morris from a July 1st Town Council meeting: “A YES on Measure Z “does not change the zoning code…. It doesn’t ask people to vote yes or no on single family rentals, all it does is say that the voters will have to weigh-in before any changes can be made in [the three residential] zones.”
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The reason, Elizabeth, that only full time residents get to vote is simple. You can only vote in an official election where you are registered to vote, which is your primary residence. How could this happen anywhere? It happens everywhere!
If the town gets to now “vote” on nightly rentals, you better make sure that EVERY property owner that pays their property taxes gets to vote on this. Not just the full time residents!
Even if a property owner is there 2 months a year what business is this for anyone else?
How one sided is this that full time residents get to vote only?? Never heard this could happen anywhere!
You bet there will be trouble if all residents don’t get to vote. As for paying TOT, you think condo rentals are actually paying there TOT and homes will not?? More TOT will be brought in with home rentals since they cost more. The town will be full of more classier people / families that actually spend more money than the trashy condo rentals that are bringing down this town!
Face it, times have changed, it’s the Internet age and people rent out there homes and do not need companies to do it for them. Nightly home rentals does not mean a person will rent there home out nightly. Some of the owners would just like to do it 4 or 5 times a year to offset there cost. If they rent out there home seasonly ( over 31 days) why is this better? These people simply sublet during the season collect money and ruin the owners home. People will take better care of their homes if they are allowed to rent them legally providing jobs to many of the workers in town that need jobs too.
Lastly, just because a home is rented less than 31 days, does not mean extra noise, trash, rowdy college kids. Try nice classy families that want a bigger home in a beautiful place to spend together. These families will spend money on the mountain, restaurants etc and get this town out of the ghetto.
The noz group, which included Fernie, Richardson, Wentworth and Raimondo, made Z all about whether Mammoth should open nightly rentals in residential neighborhoods and they got whooped. If they were actually concerned with the community good they would have been working to make the resort zones stronger by shutting down illegal rentals in the residential neighborhoods and actually collecting taxes in the legal resort zones. The voters saw through the Council’s cynical “quality of life” ordinance for the self-serving smoke screen that it was. Words are cheap, and this Council’s words are worth pennies on the dollar. What a giant waste of town money and time this Council has become.
The only person I would ever trust to rule over me is myself and could never vote for anyone else. Who or what is better then self-control? Who are you going to vote for, Hillary, Donald, or another “smoking gun”? And if I ever were to be elected king, King MJA the 1st, I would dissolve the kingdom straight away and make everything equal again, including myself, Oneself. Equality is freedom and self-evident until we elect others to govern us and throw it all away.I believe the time has come for a new independence day!
Those who do elect others to govern or control themselves, lose their own independence, weakening themselves by losing their own, our own self-control. No wonder mankind has become so weak that it is destroying not only itself but everything else. Government has weakened us to the point of self-destruction. Government is the industrial war machine, the nuclear power, the money, the corporations, the corruption, the waste, the haves and the have-nots. the injustice, the inequity.
I think it is time to vote for ourselves, for everything, including measure Z! =
In situations where the people trust the town council, trust the governing process, trust the numbers that are reported, I agree, these kind of elections are unnecessary. Obviously whether they are necessary really isn’t the point. Neither is number of turn out. The size of voters is ample enough to conclude that 70% of the voters do not have confidence or trust in local government to administrate in their best interests. It is a pretty simple conclusion.
As far as being ham strung by measure Z, look Town Council, you get medical benefits, you get a small wage, you just deal with it, the people have spoken. You intentionally mislead voters, including myself, during the vetting process-shame on you. Just shut up and deal. (oh and do not try this stunt again)
In this age of instant communication, why do we need to be represented by anyone but ourselves. Why do we elect others to control us? This representative form of democracy in America was necessary at a time when there was no communication, telephones, etc., nor were there expedient forms of travel. Today things have changed. We have the means to vote for everything, instantaneously. I think measure Z was a great indicator of a new form of government thats time has come. Ma be Mammoth can show the rest of our country the way to go. Self control, now there is a government for me! =
While the idea of direct democracy, on the face of it, is appealing (who WOULDN’T want to vote on the things they care about?), it would be a failure. As it is, less than half of the registered voters bother to regularly vote. Do you really have the time and energy to educate yourself on everything it takes to administer a government agency and then make an informed – and legally correct – decision on EVERY matter that the council votes on? How would the most mundane but critical of tasks – like hiring a town manager, or a police chief – be accomplished? Would it be a town-wide interview? Who would put together the job description? Who does the evaluation – just the angry folks who feel like voting that day or do we have a mandated system? Who is accountable for the staff’s actions? Who holds the staff accountable? How does a town manager get direction from 7,000 different people?
The best that any community can do is to communicate clearly with their representatives and VOTE for the person that bests represents their views. You will not agree with them 100% of the time. 99% of the time, you won’t even pay attention to what they are voting on, because it doesn’t concern you directly. But that other 99% concerns SOMEONE, and I can’t hold you responsible for not voting the way I’d like on the 1% that’s important to me under your system – but I can hold those 5 responsible every 4 years in the current one.
Yeah! What we need is a few rich landowners (stakeholders) who will take the responsibility of making the decisions for what we the people need so that we the people can get back to watching sporting events on TV. That’s what the founding fathers intended…
Sorry Mammoth, I haven’t been attention on this matter. But did I just read that you had a vote on being allowed to vote?
Sure glad town council wasted $50,000- we’ve got all that extra airport
money as well as measure “R” funds and the TBID tax. Thanks Again
Should we rename this town to Boondoggleville ?