Page: 1A
By Lisa Marshall Camera Staff Writer
Colorado ski resorts have pumped a record $157 million into capital improvements for the 1998-99 season, for everything from new terrain and high-speed chairlifts to posh base lodges and condos.
As Vail Resorts Inc. pushes to expand its skiable terrain into 885 new acres of national forest land by next season, Breckenridge hopes to soon add 165 acres to its offerings, and Winter Park is preparing to open 252 new acres on top of the 435 it added last season.
Judging by the money being pumped into Colorado resort expansions, one might assume that interest in skiing and snowboarding is booming. Not so, say industry experts who are watching with interest as ski corporations throw millions of dollars at an industry that has been flat for two decades.
Why are they doing it?
"That is the million-dollar question," said Joy Spring of Boulder-based market research firm Leisure Trends.
Some observers say the sudden surge of money into Colorado resorts reflects ski corporations` expansion from the recreation business to the real estate business, an evolution that critics say will mean more million-dollar condos, empty chairlifts and less national forest land for wildlife.
Others say companies are counting on the baby boomers` 76 million children to recharge the stagnant industry and make the improvements pay off. Still others are skeptically watching the money fly, wondering which of the giant ski corporations will tumble if they "build it and no one comes."
"They are all sticking their neck out, and if there is no increase in business, there are going to be some serious problems," said Farwell and Associates` Ted Farwell, a ski-area planner and appraiser who has watched the industry for decades.
According to the National Ski Areas Association, skier visits in the United States reached a peak in the mid-1970s as baby boomers took up the sport in record numbers. Since then, however, the sport has remained stagnant, with visits nationwide hovering at about 50 million for the past 20 seasons. In Colorado, the industry has made moderate gains, growing slowly from 7.2 million annual skier visits in 1978-79 to roughly 12 million last season.
Nonetheless, Colorado resorts are expanding and improving with a fury.
This season alone: Arapahoe Basin is awaiting U.S. Forest Service approval to make artificial snow; Aspen Highlands is opening 24 new acres supporting 19 new trails; Copper Mountain is spending $66 million on the nation`s first six-passenger chair lift, more snowmaking, a new lodge, and a 108-unit mountain home project; and Breckenridge is spending $14 million for on-mountain improvements.
Vail, which has added hundreds of acres of new terrain at Golden Peak, Lionshead, Game Creek Bowl and China Bowl since it opened in 1962, will spend $10 million on capital improvements to its mountain, lodging and restaurant facilities this season alone.
Jeff Berman, a vocal critic of Vail Resorts` proposed 885-acre Category III expansion in Vail and Peak 7 expansion at Breckenridge, says it`s all about real estate.
"They are proposing ski area expansions that are geared toward upping the value of nearby real estate," Berman said.
"Forest lands are being chewed up for expansions that are not even geared for skiing," he said.
Vail spokesman Paul Witt disagrees, arguing that returns from real estate investments allow the company to pay for improvements that skiers ask for - things like more and less-crowded terrain, better restaurants and non-skiing attractions such as ice skating rinks and tubing hills.
"At the core of it, it is absolutely still about skiing and snowboarding," Witt said.
Leisure Trends` Jim Spring agrees that much of the renewed spending on resort improvements has been sparked by a goal to up the value of newly built resort-owned real estate. He said he is confident, however, that the new chairlifts and fancy lodges will not sit empty. As baby boomers buy up the condos, their children will hit the slopes.
"There is a big push to capture the youth market right now," said Colorado
Ski Country USA spokeswoman Barb Jennings. "I think a lot of people are
counting on the numbers going up."
Friday, November 6, 1998
Section: MAIN
Page: 1A
By Katy Human Camera Staff Writer
A rare and elegant wild cat called the Canada lynx has vexed the construction of new ski slopes at Vail. At Breckenridge, the current creature of concern is arguably a less charming one - the pudgy Boreal toad.
Protected, like the lynx, by the state and also a candidate for federal protection, the rare toads have been spotted in a mosaic of unusual wetlands just below a proposed ski slope at Breckenridge.
Although the creatures are less charismatic than lynx, Boreal toads are complicating Breckenridge`s proposed expansion project. Their presence - and the wetlands - mean Breckenridge officials must navigate a bewildering array of federal regulations and agencies before building.
The project already has pitted some of those agencies against one another, and environmentalists are threatening to sue the Forest Service should the agency let Breckenridge proceed.
Claiming the need to reduce skier density on its slopes, Breckenridge officials requested permission from the U.S. Forest Service to build a new slope called Peak 7 on federal forest land. Last summer, the Forest Service preliminarily approved the new slope.
In early October, Jeff Berman, an environmental activist in Boulder, appealed the decision, as did the Environmental Protection Agency.
Berman said he suspects the ski slope proposal is a veiled attempt by Breckenridge officials to increase the real estate value of downslope private property owned by the ski company. "And the Forest Service can`t approve something to do only with increasing company profits," he said.
Sarah Fowler, a biologist with the EPA, said she is concerned that the Forest Service is not complying with federal laws by failing to consider in its decision the environmental impacts of a related housing development planned on private lands owned by Breckenridge.
The ski company wants not only a new slope, but apparently has plans to build condominiums, retail areas, tennis courts and private homes on the private land at the slope`s base, Fowler said. And such development likely would damage the rare fen-type wetlands - home to Boreal toads - downslope, said Fowler.
But Bill Jensen, senior vice president and chief operating officer of Breckenridge argues that permitting the new ski slope should not depend on obtaining permits for the future housing development. "We don`t even have a plan yet" for downslope real estate, he said.
Today, officials from Breckenridge, environmental groups and the EPA plan to meet at the U.S. Forest Services` Dillon ranger office to discuss Breckenridge`s expansion plans.
"I don`t imagine much will come out of it," admitted Berman, who is now with a new Boulder environmental group called Colorado Wild. "We`re looking for them to drop Peak 7 off of the expansion plans or, at the very least, perform an Environmental Impact Statement that truly evaluates the project`s impacts. I don`t honestly believe they will agree to that."
Berman said he will sue the Forest Service if it does not acquiesce.
VETO POWER
Meanwhile, the EPA has threatened to wield veto power against another federal agency - the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers - over Breckenridge`s plans.
The corps regulates development in any wetlands, and there are wetlands on both the federal land Breckenridge has targeted for ski slope development and the private land at the base of the slope.
To build the ski slope and a road to the top of the lift, workers would need to fill in about 0.06 acre of wetland. Because Breckenridge has promised to restore twice as much wetland on an adjacent slope, the corps seemed amenable to the proposal, Jensen said.
But real-estate development at the base of the ski slope could have far more significant impacts. About 40 percent of the 285 acres of land Breckenridge owns there is wetland, estimated Mike Claffey, project manager for the corps, who works in the agency`s Grand Junction office.
Earlier this year, Jensen and his colleagues gave the Corps of Engineers a "preliminary draft development plan" that they say would limit damages to the wetland.
Wednesday, Jensen described an initial agreement with the corps that such development might be approved, "if we impacted less than 1.75 acres in that property."
Last week, however, the Corps of Engineers essentially revoked that agreement.
"After spending more time on the private land, we`ve come up with another alternative," Claffey said, adding that his alternative would be less lucrative to Breckenridge.
Claffey is particularly concerned about 17 single-family homes that would be sprinkled through the wetlands complex. None of the homes would displace wetlands, Claffey said, but road construction would require slightly more than 1 acre of them.
In an Oct. 28 letter to Breckenridge, Claffey suggested that the ski company should consider eliminating all 17 homes and several other features of its draft development plan.
Most importantly to the EPA, the corps asked Breckenridge to provide extensive documentation of base development plans before the federal agency will consider applications for any wetland filling permits, even on the ski slope.
That`s precisely what the EPA asked for several weeks ago, in a Sept. 25 letter to the corps.
Breckenridge`s Jensen said he was willing to consider any alternatives
that
any group proposes, but his company will have to analyze the proposal
carefully.
"While we, too, want to protect the wetlands and the wildlife in that corridor, we want to make sure we don`t limit any of our opportunities in any of our development pods," he said.
TOAD DENSITY
Jensen said the earliest Breckenridge could begin construction of the new Peak 7 ski slope is next spring.
Berman said he hopes it never happens, for the sake of wetlands and Boreal toads.
Colorado Division of Wildlife biologist Chuck Loeffler estimated that the toads occupy less than 50 percent of their historic range, and that toad density has dropped significantly.
The state agency also has expressed concern that ski slope development will harm high alpine ecosystems used by bighorn sheep, mountain goats, elk and white-tailed ptarmigans.
Berman said the top of the ski area is an important potential corridor for lynx, if the cats are reintroduced to the state.
Outdoor Recreation Editor
Daily Camera Newspaper
P.O. Box 591
Boulder, Colo. 80306-0591
Scott Silver, Executive Director,
Wild Wilderness
248 NW Wilmington Avenue, Bend OR 97701
Phone (541) 385-5261 E-mail: ssilver@wildwilderness.org