Some major environmental groups are taking the Forest
Service to task for not thinking bigger and greener when it comes
to planning a new town just outside Grand Canyon. In July, the
Kaibab National Forest in Arizona released a supplement to its 1997
draft Tusayan Growth Environmental Impact Statement with a
preferred alternative: 900 lodging units and scaled-back retail
space. But groups such as the Grand Canyon Trust, American Rivers
and Environmental Defense Fund support developers’ plans for 1,270
hotel rooms and mall-sized retail areas. Bigger is better in this
case, they say, because it allows for recycling building materials,
using solar energy and saving scarce water resources. As Tom
Robinson of Grand Canyon Trust puts it, “The Forest Service
alternative creates no environmental model.” Some environmental
groups, however, aren’t so sure tourists need a large new
town.
The Supplemental EIS is available by
calling 520/635-8225; written comments must be postmarked by Sept.
2 to Tusayan Growth EIS, Kaibab National forest, 800 S. 6th St.,
Williams, AZ 86046 or via Internet to
mailroom/r3_kaibab@fs.fed.us.
* Jennifer
Chergo
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Grand planning at the canyon.
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