Posted: Friday, Oct 24th, 2008
SOUTH FORK— The U.S. Forest Service has decided to extend the public comment period on a draft analysis of the Village at Wolf Creek from Oct. 31 to Dec. 31.
Colorado Wild cited the big changes to the development in a letter asking for more time for public comment on the project.
Mike Blakeman, public information officer for the San Luis Valley Public Lands Center and Rio Grande National Forest said some of the changes just recently came to the attention of the agencies and extension of the comment period was warranted.
Blakeman said acceptance of the developer’s application for road construction and property access serves as the basis for an environmental analysis that will include the preparation of a new Environmental Impact Statement (EIS).
According to Blakeman, the application is the first step in a 16 to 18 month process and public scoping is part of that process.
The application being considered by the Forest Service is for access to the 287.5-acre tract owned by developer Leavell-McCombs Joint Ventures (LMJV) and site of the proposed development.
Development approval must come from Mineral County government, since the proposed village is in that county.
The proposed action at this point is to authorize the construction and use of a “safe and efficient road, approximately 1,650 feet in length, across NFS land to provide ‘year-round wheeled vehicle access’ to LMJV for their reasonable use and enjoyment of the property.”
Other preliminary alternatives include taking no action, an alternative under which the access road would not be built, and combining Village access with Wolf Creek Ski Area access into one integrated access road.
RGNF Supervisor Dan Dallas has pointed out that access must be granted to any private land that is surrounded by federal lands, but the environmental analysis and EIS currently being prepared will determine the type of access.
Attendees at a scoping session in Del Norte last week generally favored the joint access, while others asked for more information and documentation.
Public opinion on the alternatives will be compiled after the scoping meetings and after the end of the public comment period, Blakeman said.
Hal Jones of Hal Jones Development LLC, the new spokesman for the Village at Wolf Creek, said submittal of the access and road construction application is where the similarities to the earlier project end.
This time, he said both Leavell-McCombs Joint Ventures, proponent of the Village and the Forest Service will do things differently. Jones has reportedly said he is not an advocate of high-density development and that a 10,000-person village “isn’t going to happen.”
“We’re excited about this project. Our goal is to make things more harmonious with what’s up there at the site. We’re taking a completely new approach to that taken by Mr. Honts (Bob Honts, former spokesperson for the Village project),” Jones said.
The Forest Service’s acceptance of the application initiates a nearly identical process begun years ago which yielded an EIS that was widely challenged and ultimately led to litigation and allegations of improprieties and collusion between developer B.J. “Red” McCombs, federal and local government officials.
Blakeman pointed out that one of the main differences between that EIS and the new one is that all work is being done in-house, using Forest service staff.