Parking Meters? In Mammoth?

April 21, 2005

Planning Commissioner Neil McCarroll said April 20 that parking meters for Mammoth are inevitable, but not anytime soon.
    Speaking at an informal joint workshop on parking between the Planning Commission and the Town Council, McCarroll, a local attorney, said,
    “We’re definitely talking about paid parking. Not now, but in the future.”
    Having just come back from a seminar on parking, McCarroll said,
    “Let people park two hours for a quarter and the lot will be full; let people park for one hour for a quarter and the lot will be full; let people park for a half-hour for a quarter and the lot will be full. But let people park for only seven minutes for a quarter, 15 percent of the spots will be open. That’s perfect. You fiddle with those kinds of numbers.”
    The workshop, conducted before the regular Town Council Meeting in Suite Z of the town’s municipal offices, was a result of continuing parking problems in the town. Because of heavy snows, Mammoth restricts street parking between Nov. 1 and April 30.
    This season to date, Mammoth Mountain ski area has recorded 565 inches of snow—47 feet.
    It is believed that the closest parking meter to Mammoth is in Gardnerville, Nev., about 2 1/2 hours away.