Local: The Mono County General Plan and the Mammoth Lakes General Plan state that resource development activities should be carried out in a way that protects public safety, and that the town must also limit the total peak population of residents to 52,000 people.
No particular project design measures were planned to mitigate impacts on population and housing. The project is not projected to induce substantial population growth in the area because the nearby town has a sufficient supply of housing to accommodate the workers, even during the construction and the decommissioning, where up to 120 workers could be working on site at the same time. Further, there are no houses on the site of the project, and nobody will need to be displaced.
Cumulative Effects
The report addresses the cumulative effects as follows: “Due to the large surplus of housing currently available in the county […], it is highly unlikely that the cumulative impacts of all of the planned and proposed construction projects combined would have a noticeable impact on population growth or housing displacement in Mammoth Lakes or Mono County. Therefore, no major adverse cumulative impacts would be expected to result” (EIA Report p.564).
Mitigation
None mentioned.
Residual Impacts
None mentioned.
This section thoroughly examines the socioeconomic impact of the project in the community and carefully investigates the effects of increasing economic activity. However, the accommodations predicted for the workers are unrealistic.
The report mentions that there are “thousands of vacant units available,” but this amount includes hotel rooms, camp sites, and trailer parks. The duration of the construction is estimated to last for at least 16 months. It is unlikely that workers would stay in hotel rooms or at camp sites for such a long period of time.