By Deb Murphy
Even before WSW Consulting made its Community Housing Action Plan presentation, the Town of Mammoth Lakes added a potential 12 units with a plan to convert a Sierra Manor commercial building.
Add those units to the minimum 172 penciled in at the Shady Rest location and the town has just 426 left to go in the next five to seven years, the majority of which have to come in below market value to meet the needs of employees in a tourist economy.
One of the solutions, said consultant Wendy Sullivan, involves the town committing to hiring what those at the workshop held prior to the Town Council meeting November 15 identified as a Housing Czar. Mayor John Wentworth wasn’t daunted. “Community housing is the world we live in now,” he said. “I have no doubt we can pull resources together to get this done.”
The full Town Council will review and vote on the action plan at its December 6 meeting.
Some of those resources, in the form of proposed Community Development Block Grant applications, were on the agenda for the full Town Council meeting following the housing workshop.
The three grant applications total $4.1 million. In ascending order of funding, the first is a $100,000 Planning and Technical Assistance request to develop a transportation and infrastructure technical implementation plan for the 25-acre Shady Rest parcel. While the current plan indicates a build out of 172 units, the 17 developable acres could handle 16 units per acre and many at the workshop and council meeting thought the more the better. According to Jennifer Halferty, executive director of Mammoth Lakes Housing, a state density bonus of 35-percent could be added as could an additional town density bonus.
Next up, a combo program with $700,000 earmarked for home buyer assistance and $300,000 for housing rehab, meted out in $10,000 increments. Both forms of assistance come as a deferred payment, secondary mortgage and zero interest, deferred payment loan respectively.
The $3 million request will convert 238 Sierra Manor Road to 12 apartments, 11 one-bedroom units and one studio for low-income households. A portion of the funds will also go to refinance the purchase price.
Low-income households are defined as a household of two earning less than 80-percent of the area median–$48,550. Mammoth’s affordable housing issues aren’t unique in the Eastern Sierra where developable land is at a minimum and tourist economy jobs pay in the $12-$15 an hour range.
The Mono County Supervisors will be looking at housing program guidelines at today’s meeting.
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theres no affordability in greed
No one is going to build “affordable housing” when the cost of land and construction far, far exceeds what could be collected in rent to pay off all the loans and make a profit. Let’s pay all the maids, busboys and lift workers $25 an hour so they can afford to to live in some cheap, run down dump. Or we can give a discount to all the people who make their own beds and run the vacuum before they leave. I wish I had an answer to this problem.
Same old song and dance, we have clowns running this town and greedy clowns selling (to include realtors) this town.
“Community housing is the world we live in now” says John Wentworth. Hey John, what do you mean “now”? Has been for decades along with parking which has also gone unresolved.
These are two issues that have been talked about for far too long, but that’s it, talk.
Thank you Rusty, thank you Town of Mammoth, you have failed miserably at providing the residents of Mammoth of what we need, an AFFORDABLE place to live to serve the visitors and fulfill the promises you made to them.
I guess for those of us that have an affordable place to live we will always have a job because businesses have such a difficult time finding and keeping employees because not too many new residents can afford a place to live, even with two jobs. Unfortunately that creates a recipe for burnout for many of us, which is understandable. And if you can’t understand that then you are out of touch with the reality.
I have absolutely ZERO faith in this town that they will have the housing issue resolved anytime soon. I’m glad John Wentworth does, I hope he proves me wrong.
Mammoth, much like so many other ski areas, used to be a cool and funky little ski town full of hardcore skiers, still a ton of extremely talented skiers, snowboarder and athletes but the funkyness is long gone.
“World class snooty, ritzy place where only the rich and the affluent can live, ya know. It’s important for people like me to be here because this is what Telluride is all about, funky culture, ya know…”
“There’ll be no funky culture left, you’ll go to The Last Dollar Saloon you’ll see a bunch of rich dweebs looking around at each other going where is everybody? I thought this place was cool and funky.”
Rasta Stevie – from the movie Blizzard of Aahhh’s