County supervisors to take on multiple issues

Today’s agenda includes airport renaming, housing, forest wildfire management

At its regular meeting this morning, the Inyo County Board of Supervisors is scheduled to proclaim the existence of a local emergency and request the governor proclaim a state of emergency as a result of severe and extensive flood damage in Death Valley National Park and continuing monsoonal weather, according to the meeting’s agenda.

County staff is set to present a proposed resolution and additional details will be presented at today’s board meeting.

Last week Death Valley National Park reported work continues to clear and repair roads that were overwhelmed with mud and debris due to recent flash flooding. Most park access to the more popular parts of the park remain closed.

A partial opening allows for access to limited areas including Panamint Springs Resort, Father Crowley Overlook and Lee Flat.

State Route 190 is open to the western portion of Death Valley National

Park. The road remains closed from the Trona/ Wildrose Junction in Panamint Valley through Death Valley Junction. Additional areas are expected to open no earlier than Aug.19 as work to clear debris and repair roads continues.

With an emergency proclamation, the county would have access to state emergency resources if the county needs them.

Housing

At its meeting Tuesday the board of supervisors also is scheduled to hold a public hearing on the county’s housing element as required by the California Department of Housing and Community Development. The element forecasts the housing needs for the unincorporated part of the county with potential solutions on how to meet those needs.

The state’s Regional Housing Needs Allocation for the county anticipates a demand for an additional 205 housing units by 2029 for households at all income levels, from “extremely low” to “above moderate,” according to the county housing element.

This will be difficult, as county staff has pointed out, because more than 98% of the land in Inyo County is public land and under federal and state management or owned by the city of Los Angeles, leaving less than 2% of the land in the county that can be developed.

Some of the state requirements for the county’s housing element include:

• The county must create a program and amend the zoning code for reasonable accommodation by fixing possible barriers in the code to housing accessibility for disabled and elderly people. This program would allow by right changes to zoning

design standards without a variance in such cases. Something like a wheelchair ramp that has to be built in a front yard setback for accessibility is an example of a project this would cover.

• A program to design a safe parking program and identify a site for at least 61 unhoused individuals to park and have access to onsite restrooms and security (to be completed within two years).

• The county will need to regularly meet with regional partners, such as the city of Bishop, Mono County and the town of Mammoth

Lakes, to coordinate affordable housing strategies for extremely low-income households.

• Identify additional extremely low-, very lowand low-income Regional Housing Needs Allocation sites if Los Angeles Department of Water and Power will not commit to housing on the sites it owns. The Regional Housing Needs Allocation is the state’s estimation of housing units the county will need over the next eight years.

• Facilitate dialogues with other land use management agencies to find properties for release for affordable housing, such as the state, Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.

Inyo National Forest

Supervisors also are scheduled to receive an update on Inyo National Forest Fire Management and the Great American Outdoors Act from Lesley Yen, forest supervisor for the Inyo National Forest.

Yen is set to provide information on agency fire management policy as well as updates on the forest’s current and anticipated recreation and public access projects funded by the

Great American Outdoors Act.

Enacted into law in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act established the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund to address the deferred maintenance backlog for five federal agencies, including the National Forest Service, and provided permanent full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

According to the Forest Service, the Great American Outdoors Act gave the agency new opportunities to deliver benefits to the American public through major investments in recreation infrastructure, public lands access and land and water conservation.

“These investments improve outdoor recreation and contribute to economic growth and job creation in rural America,” the agency stated regarding GAOA benefits.

Bishop Airport renaming

The board also is set to hold a discussion on renaming the Bishop Airport the “Bishop - Dave McCoy Airport,” after Bishop resident and Mammoth Mountain founder Dave McCoy.

On June 21, the assistant clerk of the board of supervisors received a written request from Bishop resident Randy Short to rename the Bishop Airport the “Bishop - Dave McCoy Airport.”

The request, according to the county, was submitted per county policy, which also requires three letters of support from community members.

The county has received five letters of support that were collected in February 2020 following McCoy’s passing.

These letters were part of a formal request dated Feb. 26, 2020.

Per county policy, the request should have been agendized within six weeks of receipt. The request was postponed to accommodate additional discussion with the proponent and then, unfortunately, set on the backburner during the subsequent arrival of COVID-19 in Inyo County.

Short, one of the supporters of the original proposal, has now taken over for the previous proponent and resurrected the effort to have the airport named after McCoy.

The board has received a letter in opposition, citing the rename as potentially causing confusion and there being potentially others more deserving of the honor.

The Inyo County Board of Supervisors meets in regular session at 10 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16. Timed items, which include some of the items mentioned, are set to begin at 10:30 a.m.

The meeting will be held in the Board Chambers at the County Administrative Center in Independence, 224 N. Edwards St. You can stream meetings live and participate via Zoom through the county’s website at www.inyocounty.us/