Mono Lake Parcel Is Purchased

The Mammoth Mountain Ski Area has purchased a Mono Lake parcel threatened with private development, easing concerns that a stunning stretch of the Eastern Sierra could be marred by housing construction.

But Mammoth’s $3-million purchase, which closed last week, is not entirely altruistic. The resort wants to trade the 120 acres for national forestland it leases for ski and lodging facilities at the base of the mountain, raising a new set of conservation concerns.

“Most people do not want to see development of the [Mono] property, and it’s great if that threat has been removed,” said Sally Miller, senior field representative of the Wilderness Society. “That does not translate to support of privatization at the base of Mammoth Mountain.”

The U.S. Forest Service has long wanted to acquire the Mono parcel, a private tract in the 118,000-acre Mono Basin National Forest Scenic Area. But the asking price far exceeded the Forest Service appraisal. And the owner was proceeding with plans to subdivide the property into two dozen housing lots.

“The threat was very, very imminent,” Inyo National Forest Supervisor Jeff Bailey said.

Mammoth’s chief executive officer, Rusty Gregory, said his company had been negotiating with the land’s owner, Bill Cunningham, for more than a year. He did not want to see the Mono property developed and also saw the potential for a deal in which Mammoth would exchange the parcel for federal land that Mammoth has leased for decades for its Mammoth Mountain Inn complex.

The company wants to tear down the 1950s-era buildings and replace them with a new complex. Owning the land would make it much easier to obtain financing, Gregory said. “The whole area is quite old, and we’d like to redevelop it and are looking for ways to make that financially feasible. Owning the land is one way to do it.”

In a Feb. 11 letter, a deputy of Regional Forester Jack Blackwell said the Forest Service supported the Mono-Mammoth land exchange “in concept” but said it would be subject to environmental approvals.

Bailey said Wednesday that an exchange might not involve the base lodge property, which is surrounded by national forestland, but other parcels Mammoth leases closer to town. “We, or they, may go in a different direction. We don’t have anything formal. That letter gives them an indication we want to proceed with the land exchange process,” Bailey said.

If Mammoth obtained the mountain base tract, that would create a small island of private property surrounded by public national forest. And that, said local Sierra Club conservation chairman John Walter, could be problematic. “We’d sure like to see some assurances on what can be done on that land if he gets it.”

Gregory said he would be open to development restrictions. “Absolutely. I think that’s essential for any sort of privatization of the land up there.”

Andrea Lawrence, a longtime activist and former Mono County supervisor, said she had no objections to a trade involving the base property.

“It’s not sprawl. It’s been there for 50 years,” she said, adding that development could be contained in an arrangement similar to one recently imposed on a golf course expansion. A Mammoth Lakes course got land to expand through a Forest Service exchange and agreed to maintain the property as open space in a covenant with a local land trust.

The Mono basin property, which is next to Tioga Lodge, has been in the Cunningham family since 1918.

“I always wanted it as open space and they know that, but we have wanted a fair valuation of the property,” said Cunningham, who criticized the Forest Service appraisal process as “corrupt.”