Wolf Creek Massive Village - not so fast my young friend!

Court Throws Out Mineral County Approval of Massive Village at Wolf Creek Development

State District Court Judge John Kuenhold threw out Mineral County’s approval of the controversial Village at Wolf Creek development. Kuenhold ruled that Mineral County’s “decision to abandon a requirement for meaningful year-round access was arbitrary and capricious”, and that they “misconstrued the state statute and the Mineral County Subdivision Regulations”. The developer will now need to first gain genuine approval from the Forest Service and Colorado Department of Transportation before returning to the Mineral County Commission for another round of review. According to Jeff Berman, former Executive Director of Colorado Wild now directing the Friends of Wolf Creek campaign: “It will be a long, arduous, and very uncertain process for the developer to gain access approvals for this massive development. Even with numerous likely impacts on local communities, traffic, wildlife, air quality, water quality, water supply, valley agriculture, and recreation, the developer wants the public to pay for highway upgrades needed to accommodate huge projected increases in traffic.” “We’re pleased that the Court played its badly needed check and balance role here, especially given the recent revelation that the developer ghost-wrote the Forest Service policy that was used to attempt to demonstrate the requisite access”, noted Colorado Wild attorney Jeff Parsons. Documents released under court order reveal that Texas billionaire developer Red McCombs’ Washington, D.C. lobbyist Steve Quarles authored that federal policy – codified in a March 11, 2004 letter signed by the Forest Service – providing just seasonal access across National Forest lands for the proposed Village. Following a Colorado Wild Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit filed June 23, the Forest Service was required under court order to release those internal documents regarding the proposed Village by October 7, 2005. With the Forest Service in potential contempt of court, Colorado Wild on Oct. 6 agreed to an extension through Nov. 11, but with the condition that the Forest Service’s Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) for access to the proposed development not be published until Nov. 28. On June 23, 2005, Colorado Wild also sued the Forest Service for granting temporary access to the inholding for the summer of 2005 without any public notification or process. This litigation is ongoing, but will likely also be affected by the release of additional documents. Eyes now turn to the Forest Service’s forthcoming decision and Final EIS on if, and under what conditions, they should grant the needed access to McCombs and development front-man Bob Honts. McCombs needs access to gain approval from Mineral County to construct their proposed city of 10,000 on a 287.5-acre inholding – exchanged in 1986 out of public hands under highly questionable circumstances. That land exchange included a contract between the developer, Forest Service, and ski area that banned hazardous products storage, industrial facilities, airports, and other facilities, yet the current development proposal includes many of those components