 The 27-unit Whitney Portal Preserve Project proposed by Jim Walters would be located on the left side of the Whitney Portal Road in the sagebrush flat with Mt. Whitney and the Sierra as its prime background. File photo By Mike Gervais
Register Staff
5-21-2009 Whitney Portal Preserve got the OK … again.
The Inyo County Board of Supervisors upheld a decision by the county Planning Department to approve a tentative tract map for the development on Tuesday, after the Save Round Valley Alliance appealed the initial approval.
Jim Walters, owner of a parcel of property west of Lone Pine off Whitney Portal Road, began planning to divide his lot into 27 parcels that will be sold for private development approximately seven years ago.
At that time the Save Round Valley Alliance filed a lawsuit, claiming that the Environmental Impact Statement for the project was not adequate and did not address possible land-swaps with the Bureau of Land Management and other entities that would have moved the project from the Whitney Portal viewshed.
After a series of public comments the board found Tuesday that there were no adequate alternative parcels available for Walters to develop and endorsed the project.
According to Planning Director Mike Conklin, each site Walters examined for a land exchange “had unique issues that impacted their likelihood of development. None were deemed feasible.”
Walters and two Lone Pine residents, including Doug Thompson, owner of the Whitney Portal Store and Mt. Whitney Hostel in Lone Pine, testified in support of the project. No one from the Save Round Valley Alliance attended the public hearing.
“The basic issue that has been brought to us here is that there is a visual impact that my project would create,” Walters said. “It’s not the disaster that those who oppose my project suggest.”
Fifth District Supervisor Richard Cervantes, of Lone Pine, said, “There is no way, by the wildest stretch of imagination, that this project will obscure the views of Mt. Whitney.”
Walters has agreed to several mitigation measures to deal with concerns about the project. From mandated trees to conceal the housing tract from the valley floor to required water tanks for fire suppression on each parcel, Walters, and the Board of Supervisors, agreed that the project does adequately address all the concerns brought up by the Save Round Valley Alliance and meets the requirements of the California Environmental Protection Act.
“I’ve been aware of this project since it’s conception,” said Thompson, adding that Walters “has gone above and beyond the (California Environmental Protection Act) minimum standards. We all know that the best place to develop is around town, but we just don’t have that land available. I support Mr. Walters’ project.”
Thompson went on to explain that the Lone Pine Campground is closer to Whitney Portal than Walters’ proposed development.
“This is something that is in a developed area,” Thompson said, “it’s nothing that’s going to alienate people.”
Lone Pine resident Jaque Hickman said that the Whitney Portal Preserve is a worthy project because the communities of Inyo County are deteriorating and in desperate need of new development.
“We need to upgrade our communities and 27 homes is not a huge development for crying out loud,” Hickman said, adding that “almost everything available in Lone Pine is a tear-down. I don’t see the problem.”
Lynne Almeida, a board member of the Save Round Valley Alliance and Bishop resident, did write a letter to the Board of Supervisors to comment on the proposed development.
“… it’s clear that the homes in this proposed development are not intended for folks who live and work in this county, and are being primarily marketed to second-home owners who will not live here full-time and who, nice as they may (or may not) be, will not be active members of our community,” Almeida’s letter states. “Except for maybe a few weeks per year, they won’t live here. For the most part, they won’t work here, volunteer here, shop here or send their kids to school here.”
Walters said that, while some homeowners in the Whitney Portal Preserve may not be full-time Inyo County residents, all property owners will pay property taxes that will go into county coffers.
Almeida also said that the Environmental Impact Statement for the project does not “seriously consider” the potential cost to the county and taxpayers that may arise from the project.
“These costs range from potential lost tourism revenues, to maintenance, to provision of emergency services, to state-funded homeowners’ fire insurance,” Almeida said.
Again, Walters said that each parcel of property would generate taxes that would help the county maintain emergency services. He added that the Lone Pine Fire Protection District has agreed to include the project in its coverage area, and each piece of property would come equipped with a water storage tank for fighting fires, and the preserve on a whole will have a community water tank for emergencies.
The board voted unanimously to approve the project. Fourth District Supervisor Marty Fortney added that “the opposition didn’t even bother to have the common courtesy to show up after costing this man all this money – to me, that’s rude.”
“I’m very pleased that the Board of Supervisors again made a unanimous vote,” Walters said after the meeting. “I say again, because they voted unanimously four years ago to. The vote was not a surprise. Although the Save Round Valley Alliance did not show up, I do anticipate another round of lawsuite and I am ready for that, I am ready for them.
“It’s been a long journey in that I first looked at this land in 2002, and it does seem that there is a problem with our government system when a person can be thwarted in his development plans when the opposition doesn’t even have the decency to show up – as indicated by one of the board members,” Walters said.
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