Only 300 miles from Los Angeles, the resort community of Mammoth Lakes, California, is home to Mammoth Mountain Resort, the third-most-visited ski area (2.8 million people annually) in the United States and the gateway to the eastern Sierra Nevada mountain range.
In 2006, an investment group filed suit against the town of Mammoth Lakes for breach of contract under a development agreement. In 2008, a jury trial awarded the group $30 million plus legal fees, exhausting the appeal process. The interest clock continued running and the judgment swelled to $42 million. After numerous attempts to settle with the plaintiff, the community of only 8,200 people, 2,200 buildable acres, and a general fund of $16.5 million filed for Chapter 9 bankruptcy on July 3, 2012. Then add the drought of the 2011-2012 ski season—one of the worst in the mountain’s history—the closing of Mammoth’s sister peak known as June Mountain, and a depressed real estate market and you have a snowballing of events that became a catastrophic avalanche.
On September 22, 2012, the developer agreed to a settlement of $23 million. Community leaders and stakeholders convened and created a plan to increase year-round visitation, accelerate investment, and rebuild the developer confidence necessary to revitalize this Los Angeles–area playground—a plan intended to bring the town back from the brink.