Back in the 1980s, Pagosa Springs, Colo., resident
Betty Feazel helped lead a successful campaign to stop a proposed
ski area in the rugged, undeveloped San Juan River’s East Fork
Valley. But now, says the award-winning activist, who has lived in
the area for 77 years, the fight may be starting all over
again.
Back then, Chicago-based businessman Dan
McCarthy, who owned 2,780 acres surrounded by San Juan National
Forest, scrapped his plans for a ski area – in part because of the
opposition. Now, Curt Fleming, a California-based real estate
businessman, and Utah developer Gerald Sanders plan a members-only
resort on 200 acres of the parcel, known as Piano Creek Ranch.
Memberships in the gated resort will cost $385,000 to $535,000.
Neil Armstrong and candy heiress Jacqueline Mars have already
signed up.
Members of Friends of the East Fork
Valley and the San Juan Citizens’ Alliance say a high-end resort at
Piano Creek threatens wildlife.
“It’s a critical
corridor between two wilderness areas, and prior to the lynx being
reintroduced, (the valley) was the site of the most recent positive
lynx identification,” says Mark Pearson, member of the San Juan
Citizens’ Alliance and chair of the Sierra Club’s wilderness
committee in Colorado. “To put a fancy resort and all the
contingent activity in that part of the state is completely
inappropriate.”
The Piano Creek land has already
been zoned for resort construction by Mineral County, but the
developers still need approval from the Forest Service to improve a
federally owned, gravel access road. Jo Bridges, district ranger
for the San Juan National Forest, says the Forest Service will
accept comments on the proposal during a public scoping period
slated for later this month.
Developer Fleming
declined comment for this story, but he said in a July interview
with The Denver Post that he and resort members were attracted to
the East Fork because it is a pristine natural setting. He hopes to
break ground in June.
* Ali
Macalady
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline New resort in the San Juans?.
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