The Lodestar neighborhood is in the heart of Mammoth Lakes. Today it is the area that encompasses the Sierra Star golf course.
It too has gone through evolving iterations. The original plan in the early 1980’s envisioned a mixed use residential neighborhood that would be serviced by a Disneyland style small-scale railroad and train. By the early 1990’s the property remained almost entirely undeveloped but Minaret Road was now completed and linking Snowcreek to the Village area.
This created what planners called the “resort corridor.” In anticipation of Intrawest-type developers coming to Mammoth, the Lodestar Master Plan was re-created in the early 1990’s to include a Cal Olson designed 18-hole golf course, a core hotel zone that would include club house facilities, a luxury high-end residential subdivision, and condominium zoning along the fairways. And no train.
The Starwood subdivision (no relation to the Ski Area’s subsequent owner Starwood Capital Group) was first to be built and many luxury homes have been built in the last 20 years. Upon Intrawest’s arrival in 1996, the Lodestar development property was part of the purchase. They proceeded to build the condominium projects of Mammoth Green, The Timbers, The Cabins, Woodwinds, and Solstice prior to their departure in 2006.
In 2013-15 the demand for quality single-family homes prompted the zoning changes of two previously condominium zoned (RMF-2) parcels to single-family (RSF), allowing contractor John Hooper to develop a series of new single family homes, Gray Bear at Mammoth.