Mammoth Lakes Ca Development And Redevelopment

Cutting down thousands of trees for a new golf course, marketing $700,000 townhouses that will line the fairways, breaking ground on an immense condominium complex, tearing down entire neighborhoods, the billion-dollar make-over of this eastern Sierra community is well underway.

Residents of this Eastern Sierra resort town are used to walking their dogs and riding their bikes across 25 thickly forested acres owned by the U.S. Forest Service in the middle of town. Hikers have carved dirt trails through the pine trees and grassy glades known as the Shady Rest tract. But now the land has become the object of an intense tug of war over plans to build 172 units of affordable housing on the last large patch of open space left in the town's central area.