Snodgrass: Reactions in the Valley…

Shock and awe

Shock was admittedly the first reaction of just about everyone as they heard the news that the Forest Service rejected Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s plan to expand lifts onto Snodgrass Mountain. Reaction in Crested Butte, Mt. Crested Butte and the County was one of universal surprise.

Mt. Crested Butte officials and business owners were caught off guard by the Forest Service decision not to pursue the NEPA process. Reactions ranged from “Wow” to “Whoa.” Several business owners were hesitant to comment, because of the perceived potential negative impacts on their businesses. Mt. Crested Butte officials were surprised to say the least.
“I am shocked by this decision and feel blindsided,” said Mt. Crested Butte Mayor William Buck. “Part of the shock is due to the unprecedented nature of this. There were clear indications the process was moving forward. In my opinion, the process should take place.” Several others who have a stake in Mt. Crested Butte’s future echoed Buck’s opinion.
“It’s a setback for the town, business owners, and people who want to raise families and thrive here,” said Dan Fitchett of Eagle Resort Development. ERD developed both WestWall Lodge and Wildhorse at Prospect in Mt. Crested Butte. “It seems like the Forest Service’s evaluation process hasn’t been fair to Crested Butte; the standard doesn’t seem to be the same as applied to other ski areas in Colorado.”
Representatives of the Friends of Snodgrass Mountain (FOSM), the organization that opposed the expansion onto Snodgrass, said they were as stunned as anyone by the Forest Service announcement. “We were absolutely surprised,” admitted Chuck Shaw of FOSM. “We think he made the right decision, and the decision helps to protect the recreational and environmental benefits that Snodgrass provides to the community.”
Current Crested Butte Mayor Alan Bernholtz said he was surprised when he heard the news that the proposal had been turned down. “The issue had gotten too personal between members of the community,” he observed. “I’m just glad a decision has been made. Hopefully the community can move on together and we can work together on other issues like the mine.”
The incoming mayor was less sanguine. “I was shocked. I really was,” commented Leah Williams, who will be sworn in as the Crested Butte mayor on November 16. “Charlie Richmond called when I wasn’t here, which was very nice, but I have a lot of questions for him. I just figured it would go into NEPA and I wanted the town to be part of the negotiating process. We sent a letter to that effect to the Forest Service.
“I don’t want the county or town set up to be used by either CBMR or the Forest Service,” Williams continued. “I want it to be a clean process. The town shouldn’t be the scapegoat on this. I understand why CBMR is upset and to not even get to NEPA is strange.”
Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory director Ian Billick expressed his support for the ski area, and said that RMBL has not taken and will not be taking an official position for or against lifts on Snodgrass. Billick did note that the Forest Service’s decision would ease some of the divisiveness Snodgrass has caused in the community, and, he said, “It certainly makes things simpler, because the NEPA process is a multi-year process.”
Chris Ladoulis, owner of Mt. Crested Butte’s Django’s Restaurant, provided a local business owner’s perspective. “Everyone assumed it would enter the NEPA process, and we’d have a few years to figure it out,” Ladoulis said. “In the near term, it does take a puff of air out of our hopes for weathering this recession.”
Ladoulis says a community vote should have been held. “It’s been a process driven by letters to the editor,” Ladoulis added. “No one wants to write a letter to the editor and get snubbed by Friends of Snodgrass at the post office. We just had an election—there should have been a referendum on Snodgrass, and people could have voted anonymously.”
The news came as quite a shock to County Commission Chairperson Paula Swenson.
Even more surprising to Swenson was the fact that Gunnison County’s inability to make a comment on the proposal was one of the factors in the decision issued by GMUG Superintendent Charlie Richmond.
In his rationale for the decision, Richmond said, “Gunnison County also recently adopted Special Development Project Regulations [sic] that limit the County’s ability to be involved in and comment on the conceptual ideas presented in the [master development plan].”
He went on to say that such a refusal to participate in the comment period “or in NEPA scoping is unprecedented on the GMUG National Forest and will not contribute toward joint resolution of complex and controversial off-site impacts.”
Richmond also said that the county’s development of the SDPR, “asserting procedural and substantive authorities,” is “at odds with cooperative planning of large projects on National Forest lands.”
Those comments did not sit well with Swenson, who has spoken with Richmond about the reasons the county cannot comment, and never saw the superintendent meet with the county planners to discuss ways the two processes could work together.
“I told him that making a comment on Snodgrass would be throwing our process out the window,” Swenson said. “Any entity that has any kind of decision to make cannot make a comment on it ahead of time. Just because Charlie tried to back us into a corner to make a decision doesn’t mean he would get his way.”
Looking at the Forest Service response as a whole, Swenson said, “I’m not seeing a concrete rationale as to why he denied it. I always thought the reason we have public processes like NEPA is to flesh out the public perspective on things, so I’m disappointed that we’ve stopped the process before it ever started.”
Gunnison City Manager Ken Coleman wasn’t nearly as upset about the decision, although the proposed Snodgrass expansion was something he looked at when considering the projects that might affect his community.
“The decision has relatively little impact on the city of Gunnison,” Coleman said. “So right now we’re seeing this as a ‘no action type scenario,’ not pro or con. We understand the value of CBMR to the local economy and had provided input based on that request.”
Although the city of Gunnison had provided a letter in support of the Snodgrass expansion moving to NEPA, Coleman didn’t feel that it would have any impact on the city until the proposal turned into a project.
He also didn’t think the proposal’s rejection would lead to any great exodus of people or businesses from the Gunnison Valley, unless CBMR feels that not having Snodgrass to look forward to will change their business plan greatly.
“I don’t know if there would have been an immediate change in their business operations if Snodgrass had been approved,” he said.
The Crested Butte/Mt. Crested Butte Chamber of Commerce expressed general displeasure about the decision. “The Forest Service has done an injustice to the chamber members who support CBMR’s Snodgrass proposal, by not allowing them to participate in the NEPA process,” Chamber Executive Director Richard Bond said. “When we polled our members, 60 percent indicated they were in favor of Snodgrass. And a good many also said they were afraid to voice their opinion, because of the potential impacts on their businesses.”
Over at the High Country Citizens’ Alliance, Executive Director Dan Morse said the organization had some environmental issues with the Snodgrass proposal, but the group definitely wants to see a ski area succeed at the north end of the valley. “We appreciate the efforts of the local Forest Service staff to be thorough and work to understand all aspects of this issue, and we agree that there would have been significant geological and environmental risks from a Snodgrass proposal,” he said. “We are willing to work with CBMR and the Forest Service to support the ski area’s success.
“And we have the perfect combination for that success,” Morse continued. “The incredible environment of the Upper Gunnison Valley and exceptional ski terrain paired with the planned improvements on Crested Butte Mountain will make a ski destination that will be hard to beat.”
CBMR executives have stated that the ski company will be looking at all of its options as a result of the decision.