Group Charges Wolf Creek Developer Also Colluded With County

By Ken Wright, 2-14-06

Letters between attorneys for the billionaire developer of the proposed Wolf Creek village and Mineral County officials who approved the project in the fall show the developers guided the approval process, project opponents charged yesterday. Colorado Wild acquired the documents after a Colorado Open Records Act request in September 2004. Key drafts of the letters, though, that the group claims clearly show the county and attorneys for B. J. “Red� McCombs working together had been withheld by the county from documents first turned over last year following the request.

Also on Monday, state Rep. Mark Larson, R-Cortez, who has been a growing critic of the project and the role of the Forest Service in the development’s approval process, announced he will introduce a bill in the Colorado House that will call for a independent federal investigation into the lobbying by the developers. Larson also said he is seeking a separate state probe into Mineral County’s controversial approval of the project and subsequent withholding of the key documents on the approval.

Documents obtained by the Denver Post last week also show the developers lobbied and collaborated behind the scenes with the Forest Service seeking approval for access across federal land to the project site.

Rep. Larson demanded on Monday that the Forest Service postpone approval of the Wolf Creek development until after the results of his proposed investigations.

“The county’s failure to include these damaging documents as part of the record of Colorado Wild’s case challenging the lack of meaningful public participation in Mineral County’s approval of the Village at Wolf Creek is highly suspect,� charged Colorado Wild attorney Jeff Parsons in a press release on Monday. “Further, these documents appear to have been concealed or withheld from Colorado Wild despite the fact that they were expressly requested under CORA in September of 2004.�

The Durango Herald reports that the 47 pages of letters dated between August and October of 2004 show officials consulting with McCombs' law staff as the county worked through the approval process. McCombs spokesman Bob Honts defended the consultation, saying that the small county – with 831 residents, it is the second smallest county in the state – needed the assistance because it had never dealt with a project of this scale. The proposed Village at Wolf Creek would dwarf the county as a whole, with a potential population of 10,000. In October, a 12th District Court judge overturned the county’s approval of the project, saying the decision was “arbitrary and capricious� and “misconstrued the state statute and the Mineral County Subdivision Regulations.� McCombs has since appealed that decision.

In a separate but related case, the group charges that the U.S. Forest Service has also been withholding documents pertaining to communications between McComb’s staffers and the federal agency that show unlawful collaboration between the groups in a bid for the project to gain essential access rights across federal land. On Jan. 17, a federal district court judge ordered the Forest Service to fulfill a long-standing FOIA request from Colorado Wild. The agency has not complied, and the group is threatening another lawsuit.
[End of article]