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Save the Summit
Save Serene Lakes and Save
Donner Summit from Royal Gorge Future Development
Kirk Syme, Woodstock Development, and Todd Foster and Mark Foster,
Foster Enterprises, joined forces as Royal Gorge LLC and purchased Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort, apparently driven
by the notion that the land was, as stated on the Royal Gorge Future website, "slated for development."
Where others saw Royal Gorge Cross Country as offering the best cross country ski experience in the Lake Tahoe area, Kirk
Syme, and Todd and Mark Foster saw instead an opportunity to cover Royal Gorge Cross Country Resort with houses, hotels,
and condo time shares/fractionals, masquerading as a "conservation community."
Royal Gorge LLC, however,
has met with serious roadblocks in their development efforts up at Donner Summit.
Placer
County has firmly stated that Royal Gorge LLC must provide a second egress for their proposed development, as a community
surrounded by forest needs adequate roads for escape from fire, and access for fire fighting personnel. Royal Gorge LLC, however,
has failed to identify suitable egress.
Donner Summit is seriously impacted by difficulties disposing of sewage;
the current system is at its limits, and any attempts to increase the effluent currently discharged into the South Yuba River
will run up against stricter enforcement of NPDES standards, and increasing awareness that the South Yuba should not be regarded
as a scenic sewer.
Royal Gorge LLC has yet to identify adequate water sources to satisfy California's strict "Show
the Water" law, and developers all over the state are confronting the hard realities of low snow pack, drought, and scanty
water supplies. The small community of Serene Lakes is unwilling to have the two Serene Lakes dredged, drained, or turned
into muddy bathtubs to slake the huge water needs of the future "conservation community" proposed by the developers.
To complicate the water situation, Sierra Lakes County Water District is having serious problems with state water
rights permits;past practices of direct diversion are under questioning by the state. That, coupled with proposed ordinances,
has led some to be concerned that a moratorium on development might be imminent.
To find out more about issues
surrounding Royal Gorge LLC's proposed future development at Serene Lakes, and Donner Summit, and for frequent updates, and
links to other groups monitoring Royal Gorge LLC's plans, please visit these websites:
www.saveoursummit.org
www.saveserenelakes.org
www.savedonnersummit.org
Please get involved in the planning process, and work with Placer and Nevada Counties to protect the environment
of Donner Summit. Informed Citizens can work together to Save Serene Lakes and Save Donner Summit
ktg@savethesummit.com
© 2009 www.SaveTheSummit.com
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May 25
ROYAL GORGE CROSS COUNTRY SKI: GOOD WILL HINTING
Printable version...
Donner Summit's Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort trod a rocky road in terms of good will and community relations
in 2008. Royal Gorge greeted the new year with an article in the Sierra Sun bearing the sunny title: "Develop or Die?
Owners Say Project May Make Royal Gorge Profitable," and ended the year with Moonshine Ink's no more cheerful article:
"Royal Gorge: Can They Make Ends Meet?"
Betwixt and between, Royal Gorge LLC shuttered the historic and
well loved Rainbow Lodge for the summer, with yellow 'do not cross tape' encircling it, with this sad explanation in The Union
from their former general manager, "Rainbow is an expensive place to run. With the slowing economy it’s been decided
we’re going to keep it closed for the summer and re-open for winter."
A few months later, without much
ado, Royal Gorge LLC tore down Rainbow Lodge's dismal yellow tape, and reopened for reduced late week- weekend meal service,
and then, in late fall, staged an ersatz phoenix rising from the flames for Thanksgiving, announcing they were reopening after
extensive repairs. With a French trained chef, no less.
Rainbow Lodge offers a time trip back to the days when
Highway 40 was the only route over the Sierra. It's in an absolutely stunning South Yuba River location, and had a devoted
clientele base--skiers, folks on motorcycles, bike riders, nostalgia buffs, and, when the former owner was in charge, card-carrying
gourmets.
If one were doing a business school case study, the bumbling treatment of such a golden asset might
have set off alarm bells. The alarm bells would have taken on a shriller tone in fall, when Todd Foster and Kirk Syme sent
a letter to Royal Gorge season pass holders detailing plans to cut back both days and hours of operation, and grooming on
what was considered, while under the directorship of John Slouber, the best cross country ski resort in the United States.
WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?
You ask. In 2005, we were told that Todd Foster, and Mark Foster, of the bay area's
Foster Enterprises, and Kirk Syme, Woodstock Development purchased the resort from John Slouber. It's a little more complicated
than that, however. A large portion, if not the bulk of the property that made up Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort
(apart from Forest Service leases and other leases from private property owners) was owned by Rancho Monterey, not John Slouber,
and the purchase of the land from Rancho Monterey was never part of the narrative.
Moreover, until a few months
ago, Foster(s) and Syme were held out to be the sole owners, but it now appears they may be, if not figureheads on the good
ship Royal Gorge, somehow sharing captaincy with others. In winter, Royal Gorge Future's webpage reflected this change,
referring to Todd Foster and Kirk Syme, not as "new owners", but as "company representatives." The Royal
Gorge Cross Country Ski website, in its recently posted 'no trespass' page, cited, in reference to ownership, not the scions
of Foster Enterprises, and Kirk Syme, but, oddly, "the current ownership group."
Semantics? Maybe yes,
maybe no. If one looks at California's registry of LLC's, there's a real curiosity. There are currently 5 active Royal Gorge
entities listed. One is apparently the continuation of Royal Gorge Partners, a California Limited Partnership which was comprised
of John Slouber, and presumably, others. Agent for service of process for Royal Gorge Partners is Director of Development,
Mike Livak.
Four other LLCs were formed during the spring of 2005: Woodstock Royal Gorge LLC, (agent for service
of process : Kirk Syme) Foster Royal Gorge LLC (agent for service of process Todd Foster), Royal Gorge, LLC (agent for service
of process Mike Livak), and, the last to be filed, Royal Gorge Development, L.L.C. It appears Royal Gorge Development
L.L.C. was created just prior to Royal Gorge LLC taking out their construction loan of Seventeen Million Dollars from Bank
Midwest, a subsidiary of Dickinson Financial of Kansas City, Missouri. The agent for service of process of Royal Gorge
Development, L.L.C. is James Woods, an attorney in Irvine, California.
All of these LLC's in the mix produce a
real layer cake of confusion. There's the possibility that the Irvine/Southern California Royal Gorge Development LLC is completely
unrelated, but that seems, considering the timing, more than a little coincidental. It's at least plausible that Rancho Monterey
retained some ownership interest in Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort and/or surrounding lands, arguably through this LLC.
And this matters why? First off, the Donner Summit community was told a foundational story of two (or three) guys
riding up the mountain on their white horses (or white Porsches?) to rescue the floundering Royal Gorge Cross Country Resort--
this veers towards the mythological if the old landowner retained a significant interest, and has been involved in development
plans all along. Of course, the notion of rescuing a cross country ski resort by covering it with over 1000 units did always
seem to be a bit of a story-- one that flunked that first "suspension of disbelief" hurdle story writers have to
surmount.
Second, there's been a persistent, but not particularly rational argument that Donner Summit should hunker
down and deal with the developers we know, as the ones who might come later could be worse. But do we even know who
we're dealing with? And, what's worse than obliterating a few mountains and meadows with sprawl, doubling the treated effluent
dump into the South Yuba River, and siphoning water away from two small Alpine lakes?
Third, the local homeowner's
group president has been negotiating with Todd Foster since before Christmas. Is Todd Foster even an appropriate person
to negotiate with, if no one really knows who actually comprises the Royal Gorge entity? We won't even get to the question
as to the proprieties of Todd Foster negotiating with the homeowners group president, who is also a water board member deciding
whether to condemn Royal Gorge's lake bottom in eminent domain-- not today, anyways..
START WITH A CLEAN SLATE
On Royal Gorge Future, the developers PR page, we're told, "By helping to shape an ecologically oriented community
located on land that is slated for development, the public can help create a plan that will have lasting benefits for generations
to come." Who "slated" that land for development? John Muir?
One of the most important assets
a business can have is good will. Good will encompasses a pretty broad range of things, but I'd say reputation and trust figure
pretty heavily into the equation. For Royal Gorge Cross Country Skiing, there's an overlap of community, and customer good
will, as locals cross country ski, and visit Rainbow Lodge and Ice Lakes Lodge for meals--when they're open, that is.
I'm feeling, that in focusing on "slating" land for development, the importance of genuine good will has gotten
lost in the shuffle. I'm thinking it's time for old 'Aunty Development' to give a few "Good Will Hints" to Royal
Gorge as to how to work on developing good will on Donner Summit:
1) Maybe you should tell the Donner Summit Community
who you all are. All of you.
2) Instead of having 'closed door' meetings with homeowner's association presidents
and water board members or other exclusive groups, book a big room such as Judah Lodge, and have a question and answer period
with anyone who wants to come.
3)Answer the questions.
4) If you do have closed door meetings with any
groups, and get some of them to join you in a "greenwash", or "snowjob", don't expect it to have any effect
on most of us on Donner Summit. We know how to use shovels.
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU
Oh, and about those
trails. When even the former owner of record, John Slober, allowed hikers on Royal Gorge's trails, and only reserved
his ire for poaching mountain bikers and quads, it's a bit thick to slam the door shut on Royal Gorge's trails to responsible
hikers. Petty and punitive too, maybe? Royal Gorge definitely isn't scoring any good will points there.
Also, there
is the small issue that there may be established rights of way to forest service lands consequent to your lease agreements
with the forest service, not to mention easements and other rights.
I'm thinking though, that the 'Happy Trails'
song we just might be singing soon won't have anything to do with those trails you're keeping people off of.....just saying.
April 29
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME ON DONNER
SUMMIT?
Printable
version...
The infamous December 7 emails of Chris Rust, Silicon Valley
venture capitalist and apparent compadre of one of the Royal Gorge LLC partners, certainly enlivened discourse on Donner Summit
for a few weeks. The chain of emails he initiated, which were forwarded extensively, and I do mean EXTENSIVELY, supposedly
were even pasted up on the Soda Springs Post Office wall.
One of the teasers in his emails dealt with the thwarted
sale of the entire Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort. His email offered this eyecatcher, "he had someone (another
developer worse than [principal's name deleted by me] imo) at signature to buy it for $72m, but their financing fell apart."
Read
more...
April 28
LAST TANGO ON
DONNER SUMMIT?
Printable
version...
In my April 27 Save the Summit posting, I referred to Serene
Lakes' Property Owner's Association's (SLCWD) "tawdry tango with Royal Gorge LLC." This refers to the actions of
the SLPOA president (and SLCWD water board member!), who contacted Todd Foster and initiated negotiations on the heels of
Chris Rust's December email. That email, which was widely circulated, threatened that Royal Gorge Cross Country would be fenced
off and shut down at the end of the season, in essence to punish those who at least one of Royal Gorge LLC's owners felt had
blocked their proposed development on Donner Summit.*
Read
more...
April 27
SOUTH YUBA RIVER,
DONNER SUMMIT, AND THE NEW NPDES PERMIT
Printable
version...
It's easy to wear the cynical hat over issues up here at
Donner Summit. Between Royal Gorge LLC generated spin, SLPOA hoarding information from their members and the Serene Lakes
community as if they were employed by Gringott's Wizarding Bank in the Harry Potter stories, compounded by blocking
nonmembers from their forum (it's lonely without you), and, now, the Royal Gorge LLC "current ownership group*"
busily hammering up NO TRESPASS signs as fast as possible... well, you get the picture.....
Read more...
April 1
SCORCHED EARTH AND GRASS
ROOTS ON DONNER SUMMIT
(also
on YubaNet.com)
Printable
version...
Scorched Earth
Early last December,
a Sand Hill Road-Menlo Park Venture Capitalist fired off an email concerning the Royal Gorge LLC proposed development which
absolutely galvanized the Donner Summit community. This email was forwarded extensively, and, apparently, ultimately even
posted in the lobby of the Soda Springs Post office.
Here's a portion of the email's opening paragraph, with many
of the juicy bits redacted, and names left out (sorry):
"I talked with {principal} tonight for quite
a while. He’s the guy that bought Royal Gorge. He is a defeated man, as all of the efforts to block his
development on the summit have prevailed. Royal Gorge loses $1m per year operating as a ski area. He just
isn’t going to keep it open. This will be the last season Royal Gorge exists as we know it. He told me to
tell anyone that I know up on the summit 'congratulations, you have won.' Now you have to be prepared to live what what
that will mean => no Royal Gorge ski area.”
Read
more...
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