TO: June Lake Citizens Advisory Committee
RE: Objectives of the June Lake Advocates

Having read the packet distributed to you last week, which included our membership application letter, the Survey of property owners, the Survey results and comments, and the JLA's letter to the Board of Supervisors regarding the Intrawest Specific Plan, it should now be clear to you that our immediate objective is not to scuttle Intrawest's development, but to ensure that Intrawest abides by the building and population size parameters written into the June Lake Area Plan, and to encourage this committee to hold Intrawest to these parameters.  You will recall from our membership application letter, that our motto is: "We're not saying no: we're only saying how".

Another of our objectives is to provide property owners and residents with a means to make their voices heard.  The document "Purpose and Procedures of Mono County Regional Planning Advisory Committees", or RPACs, states that "To the greatest extent possible RPACs should be composed of a representative cross-section of community interests."  This wording is absent, unfortunately, from your committee's "Operating Procedures." It is therefore up to you, as individuals, whether this is to be an exercise in representative democracy, or dictatorship.  If our country is to survive as a democracy, then we must adhere to democratic ideals at the local level.  We at the local level are the soul of democracy, and we must not let it fade away.

We respectfully ask you, therefore, to accept the Survey results as the voice of property owners who have not been heard on this matter, and who wish to exercise their democratic right to be heard.  If you are not satisfied with the Survey, then please conduct a survey of your own.  And whatever opinion you have of the Survey, it certainly shows that the overwhelming majority of property owners want Intrawest to stay within the parameters of the Area Plan bearing this committee's name.

We are not the enemy.  We are local citizens who want to be heard.  We prefer cooperation over confrontation.  Our goal is to find a solution that everyone can live with.  The way it stands now, if the development were to proceed according to the Specific Plan, then Intrawest will be extremely happy, certain private interests in the June Lake Loop will be extremely happy, but the overwhelming majority of property owners and residents will be extremely unhappy.  Why can't we find a solution whereby everybody will be moderately happy?

The people do not want Intrawest to put up mock-Swiss high-rises of the kind in the Mammoth Lakes Village, and cause the June Lake Loop to lose the rustic character that attracted today's property owners in the first place.  Why can't it repeat what was done at Sundance, or perhaps take an example from the Double Eagle Resort & Spa, where tasteful architecture blends with the local environment?  Without the high density, Intrawest might not make as much money, but it will preserve the June Lake Loop's rustic character, do less damage to the environment, and create less of a burden for county services.  And in this way, it will gain the respect of the local community, show itself to be a responsible corporate citizen that is responsive to the wishes of the local majority, and in the long run, profit in ways that money can't buy.

And finally, if you want the June Lake Loop to become a sustainable economy, then you have to attract a permanent population.  To do so, we have to focus more on building affordable housing and less on second-home owners.  Why not encourage Intrawest to adopt a less ambitious project, and to increase the proportion of affordable housing?

Let's not throw democracy out the window.  Let's work together.  Let's preserve this Jewel of the Sierra for generations to come.  We will be happy to assist you in this effort in any way we can.

Thank you,

June Lake Advocates