After spending two and a half years and some
$400,000, the Crested Butte ski resort in Colorado suddenly dropped
plans to build new ski runs on a mountain adjacent to the existing
resort.
“It appears their attitude has changed
and we look forward to working with them,” said a relieved Vicki
Shaw of the local High Country Citizens Alliance, which led the
opposition to the Snodgrass expansion.
Company
officials had thought expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain would be a
cinch since they won Forest Service approval for the project 10
years earlier. But the Forest Service asked the resort to complete
a new environmental study. It determined that while out-of-town
skiers wanted new terrain, local residents were dead set against
it.
Letters of protest poured into the Gunnison
Forest Office while local skiers took to the slopes bearing signs
such as “Snodgrass is for the bears.” Then Gunnison County
officials invoked a little-used state law that required the resort
to study off-site impacts, such as affordable housing and
transportation.
Tired of fighting the community,
the resort announced in mid-August it would take the town’s advice
and first spend some $8 million upgrading lifts and facilities on
the main mountain before moving over to
Snodgrass.
Local opponents are pleased but wary:
“Every environmental victory is temporary, but every environmental
defeat is permanent,” says Crested Butte Councilman Gary
Sprung.
* Elizabeth
Manning
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Colorado resort shelves ski expansion.
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