Crested Butte South supports Snodgrass going into NEPA

Over 50 percent response rate

Three weeks ago, the Crested Butte South Property Owners Association sent out 586 survey invitations via email. The survey question was “Do you support the proposed Snodgrass Expansion Project being accepted into the NEPA process?”

Of the 586 people surveyed, 317 responded, according to Association Manager Chris Behan, for a 54 percent response rate. “My training tells me that the results are statistically representative of all residents living in Crested Butte South,” said Behan. Behan pointed out that the first intention of gathering email addresses was to facilitate communication amongst the owners and residents in Crested Butte South. He said using the addresses to facilitate the survey was secondary.
Of the responses, 237 people, or 74.7 percent, said they supported the proposed Snodgrass expansion moving into the NEPA process. Sixty-six residents, or 20.8 percent responded, “no” and another 12 respondents were neutral.
The Forest Service denied Crested Butte Mountain Resort’s application to put lifts on Snodgrass Mountain in November 2009, by not allowing it to enter into the NEPA process. Part of the Forest Service’s justification for that decision cited a split community, and since that time multiple surveys have been circulated to gauge public opinion of Snodgrass entering the NEPA process. CBMR is currently appealing the Forest Service decision.
“The survey was presented as a way to really see (in this three-week window) how the residents and owners in Crested Butte South felt regarding the Snodgrass proposal being allowed into the NEPA process,” said Behan. “So officially, we are planning on taking that data from the 317 respondents, and forwarding it unaltered to the Forest Service with the information that 587 surveys were sent out and 317 came back… and here’s what was asked, and here is how it shook out.”
Michael Kraatz, CBMR’s Vice President for Resort Planning and Development wasn’t surprised by the poll results. “This new poll once again reaffirms what we and others have been saying right along, that there is overwhelming support for allowing the Snodgrass proposal into the NEPA process. Survey after survey going all the way back to April 2008 continues to show that there is at least 75 percent and as much as 88 percent community support for allowing the NEPA process to occur, and there is also overwhelming support for the project itself.
“To hear the Forest Service maintain that the community is split is frustrating, especially when the Forest Service is apparently incapable of actually defining what split means,” added Kraatz. ”In the real world, any issue that receives 50 percent of the vote is considered a landslide; I’m not sure how the Forest Service can sit there with a straight face and say there is insufficient community support.”
Chuck Shaw, of Friends of Snodgrass Mountain, offered the organization’s take on the survey results.
“The USFS [United States Forest Service] found Snodgrass Mountain to be unsuitable for lift-served skiing due to twelve ‘inherent limitations and challenges’ including: unstable geology; avalanche danger; unacceptable levels of environmental damage and negative impacts on RMBL [Rocky Mountain Biological Laboratory], ranching, water, and backcountry recreation,” said Shaw. “In 1996, those same limitations led CBMR to withdraw their Snodgrass proposal and to prematurely terminate the NEPA EIS. In both 1996 and 2009, the Forest Service considered the community division about the expansion proposal, not the NEPA process. However, the CB South survey, as with other recent surveys, asked about support for NEPA. It is unclear how NEPA surveys address the ‘inherent limitations and challenges’ of Snodgrass Mountain.”  
To view the results of the survey, visit www.cbsouth.net.