WILL ROYAL GORGE CROSS COUNTRY SKI RESORT BE CARVED UP INTO RANCHETTES?
As a Serene Lakes/Donner Summit homeowner, I try to keep my ear to the ground concerning Kirk Syme's, Woodstock Development, of Burlingame/San Mateo, and Todd and Mark Foster's, Foster Enterprises of Redwood City's plans for development up here at Donner Summit.* For almost two years, we've been hearing of their plans for an extremely large development, that would not only obliterate the best part of Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort, but which would also be environmentally destructive, taking us well beyond water and sewage capacities.
This week, communications from someone purporting to be a friend of one of the three developers who purchased Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort have been blazing a path around the ether. Blaze is the right word, or, maybe, scorched earth is more apt. Here's how it's put:
Royal Gorge loses $1 million per year operating as a ski area..... This will be the last season Royal Gorge exists as we know it. He told me to tell anyone I know up on the Summit, "Congratulations, you have won. Now you have to be prepared to live with what that will mean - no Royal Gorge Ski area."
And a Merry Christmas to you too.
Now, Mike Livak, of Royal Gorge LLC has already been quoted in several newspaper articles bemoaning the fact Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort has always been a money loser-- in an article last year in The Union he attributed that to the fact Wilderness Lodge had burnt down. This latest communication from someone affiliated with the developers only puts a dollar figure on it.
Royal Gorge LLC knew, or should have known, the financials on the ski resort when they purchased it from doing their due diligence. Placer County Tax records indicate that the purchase of all the various lands, many from Rancho Monterey (not Slouber)**, and of the ongoing cross country ski business were structured in a way that some of the land values weren't particularly high, but around $21 million of an estimated $34-$40 million was spent for the business value (including Rainbow Lodge and Summit Station). This has the possible advantage of lowering property taxes, and increasing depreciation opportunities.
Add in the burn-through rate of money for the legions of consultants, and squads of lawyers Royal Gorge employs, and it's easy to see that it costs big money to try to do any development in the Sierra***. What's significant here, though, is that, at least to my knowledge, Royal Gorge LLC has not actually filed plans for development with Placer County to date. They submitted preliminary plans, and were sent back to do more work, and then, last year they submitted a whole lot of plans that they and Placer County (against state law on the part of the county) sought to shield from the public, and since then--- nada.
Royal Gorge LLC has had a stiff uphill to climb. Water (surprise!) is scarce at Donner Summit, the current sewage plant will not accommodate large scale development, and an additional exit road for fire safety is required by the county. Sugar Bowl's pulling their letter of intent to cooperate with lifts and links between Sugar Bowl and Royal Gorge LLC's proposed Ski Camp must have been a devastating blow.
So, what does any developer do? Blame the locals, of course:
"This whole process seems to have been somewhat hijacked by folks from the Bay Area that have vacation homes on the summit and don’t want to see anything change."
First off, isn't it a bit of chutzpah for developers from the Bay Area to complain about other folks from the Bay Area? Second, opposition to the plans put forward by Royal Gorge LLC is spread pretty evenly across Donner Summit; in fact, many full-time owners have been extremely involved monitoring the situation, and helping get the word out, even so far as standing out in snow storms with brochures and signs to alert cross country skiers to the perils faced by the resort.Third, as mentioned above, Royal Gorge LLC hasn't even begun the actual, formal development process with the county, so how do they get off blaming folks for "hijacking" a process that, to date, remains little more than a glimmer in Royal Gorge LLC's eyes?
It's threat-down time
"After this ski season is over, they are going to put a massive fence around the entire property and shut everyone out." ... "He is so upset he wants to cut up the property into these 160 acre ranches just to deprive those that blocked him from any development from having their ski area."
Yes, we should all be singing, "Don't fence me in", because of a ludicrous threat to spend an enormous amount of money fencing the whole resort. Apparently Bay Area developers don't know what fences cost, and how poorly they fare with a whole lot of snow piled on them.
Speaking of snow, doesn't it seem like the developers are trying to pile a lot of dirty snow on us? No one made them buy Royal Gorge Cross Country and all those Rancho Monterey lands, which include land over in Negro Canyon. No one said Placer County taxpayers had to guarantee their success. Instead of engaging in this game of spite and malice with Donner Summit, they should remember that old adage, "Don't cut off your nose to spite your face." Taking realistic plans to Placer County that resolve the permanent difficulties with water, sewage, and egress, and talking with land trusts to explore public-private partnerships would be a good way to move forward.
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*Sometimes keeping an ear to the ground involves reading.
**I never could figure out all Slouber's and Ranch Monterey's interrelationships-- that's the beauty of LLC's
***Add in more than $30,000 dollars sent to various PACs and politicians, including the defeated Bruce Kranz to-- what could one say about this that's safe?