The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
“I can’t do anything until I get the records…”
The reviewing officer for the Snodgrass appeal likely will not make any decision on the petition until late spring. Jim Peña, Deputy Regional Forester from Region 5 in California, said Monday he had just received the assignment and hasn’t started on the review.
Peña granted a 45-day extension for Grand Mesa, Uncompahgre and Gunnison National Forest Supervisor Charlie Richmond to get him the entire record of the decision. “I can’t do anything until I get the record and then I will look at the appeal from the company [Crested Butte Mountain Resort] and evaluate the points made by the company against the record,” he said
The record isn’t due to Peña’s office until early March; then he will start his review. Being new to the process, Peña wasn’t yet sure of the timeline involved in responding to the ski area appeal. (See flowchart at www.crestedbuttenews.com)
Richmond made a decision last November to end the process for evaluating whether to put ski lifts on Snodgrass Mountain. He denied the CBMR proposal from going into the NEPA (National Environmental Policy Act) process. CBMR appealed the decision December 18. They had hoped Richmond’s boss, Rick Cables, would handle the appeal but he deferred. CBMR then claimed the appeal should have gone to Forest Chief Tom Tidwell, but Tidwell passed it laterally to Deputy Forester Peña in California.
Peña said he has not made any decision on which groups will be allowed to participate in the process as interveners. Three organizations have expressed an interest in participating in the process as interveners, which would give them a seat at the table during the appeals process. They include the Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory, the Friends of Snodgrass Mountain and Colorado Ski Country USA, which represents the 19 ski areas in Colorado located on Forest Service land.
“We are trying to be as objective as we can in evaluating the merits of the appeal,” explained Peña. “We will pursue it as quickly as we can but we want to make sure we get all the facts.”
Peña said he was just beginning to delve into the procedures involved in the review. “As I understand it I will be reviewing the record of Mr. Richmond’s decision against the points made in the appeal,” he said. “So I won’t be considering new e-mails and correspondence at this time. Any e-mails and comments made now may be retained as part of the record, but they won’t be part of the appeal review I conduct as I look at the record.”
Representatives of both CBMR and the Friends of Snodgrass Mountain have said they do not anticipate a decision on the appeal until April at the earliest.
To view a flowchart of the timeline, please click here .
