USFS, Colorado Wild Near Settlement in Development Battle

By Bob Berwyn, 12-17-07

	Caption: Dylan Berwyn skis some tasty Wolf Creek powder in this 2006 file photo from the San Juan ski area.

There may be some good news on the horizon for all those core skiers and riders who like Wolf Creek just the way it is — remote, rustic and mostly undeveloped.

The Durango Herald recently reported that the U.S. Forest Service and Colorado Wild are close to reaching a settlement that could dramatically change the prospects for a massive and controversial real estate development scheme at the powder haven in Colorado’s San Juans.

Plans for the so-called village at Wolf Creek have been on the table since the early 1980s. Developers Bob Honts and Red McCombs want to build a complex of hotels, restaurants and residential units for up to 10,000 people on a 287-acre inholding in the remote mountains of southwest Colorado.

Though neither the Forest Service nor Colorado Wild commented on details of the settlement, the Herald reported that the latest briefs filed in a lawsuit centering on the development plan suggest that the parties have “reached agreement in principal on the merits of the Plaintiffs’ claims.”

Colorado Wild sued the Forest Service over its decision to approve access roads to the development area at the base of the ski area. The public lands watchdog group claimed that the Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for the access roads was biased.

At the very least, said Colorado Wild’s Rocky Smith, the Forest Service needs to go back and do another EIS that shows not only the impacts from the roads, but from the subsequent development they enable.

“That would be a good start,” Smith said, explaining that the roads and the development are connected actions. As such, the Forest Service needs to analyze the while picture and disclose all those impacts, Smith said.

According to Colorado Wild, the entire process was tainted by undue collaboration between the developers and Tetra Tech, the third-party contractor hired to prepare the EIS. In one email, Tetra Tech executive Mark Blauer asked for Washington Redskins football tickets for members of his staff who worked on the EIS.

Smith compared the Wolf Creek scenario to the storyline of The Milagro Beanfield War, the famed John Nichols novel that outlined development shenanigans in fictional New Mexico setting.

Nichols’ book describes clearly how money, influence and power can trump the public interest and steamroll the interests of local communities. Along those lines, Colorado Wild and the Friends of Wolf Creek analyzed a questionable skein of contacts and decision-making in the Wolf Creek process in a white paper that includes links to faxes and emails among various Forest Service officials.

For now, at least, plans for the development could be grinding to a halt, based on the impending settlement. But Smith said it’s only one round and the fight will likely continue on a different level.