"MEMBERS ONLY" AT DONNER SUMMIT

In "Introducing the Vision- Royal Gorge- A Wilderness Edge Community", which Kirk Syme's Woodstock Development published for a brief time on the internet, Royal Gorge LLC paints a picture of their planned resort that is permeated with exclusivity.  Kirk Syme and Mark and Todd Foster, in their public presentations last March earnestly promised locals that their "conservation community" would not be a gated development.  What they didn't tell the public is that there is more than one way to "gate" a community.  At the same time as they were reassuring listeners of continued access to Royal Gorge lands, they were providing investors with an entirely different vision, that of a preferential and privileged enclave. Their planned "members only" development will be as effective as a guarded gate in limiting public access to recreational resources.

At the fabled Royal Gorge, yet still a world-class cross country ski resort, hundreds of private houses and timeshares are planned. Cross country skiers will be thwarted by private property encroaching onto the former trails, and private lakes drowning meadows and hillsides.  Pity the poor skier, looking for a place to warm up, when he arrives at what appears to be a public lodge, only to find out, as described in Royal Gorge LLC's "Introducing the Vision", that, "in the winter the Lake House will serve as the private cross-country ski lodge for club members."  The non-member skier had better have the foresight to pack a thermos of hot cocoa, and perhaps a nourishing cheese sandwich.

Down hill skiers braving the vertically challenged (a pitiful maximum 500 foot vertical) Ski Camp slopes may turn their gaze to the restaurant perched at the top of Razorback Ridge. The smell of charbroiled burgers might entice, but, alas, the poor skier will be turned away at the door.  According to Royal Gorge LLC's "Introducing the Vision", the "mountain-top restaurant is planned, open to Club members at lunch, and to the public at dinner."  Perhaps, when they let the lucky public in for dinner (but of course only if wearing appropriate apres-ski garb), they'll charge them to park in the private parking lots accompanying the restaurant Royal Gorge LLC will have marred the hillside, and viewshed to build.  

In 43 pages of assiduously courting the wealthy (the book even had hand-built covers ), not once was the Community of Serene Lakes, about to be engulfed by what is essentially a private club for the well-heeled, mentioned.  The only glimpse of the actual lakes is provided by, "Ice Lakes Lodge- located at the southern end of the Serene Lakes includes a private beach... the intent is to incorporate Ice Lakes Lodge into the community amenity package."  What was once a restaurant and bar open to the Serene Lakes Community (non-designer flannel shirts, and all), whose money even helped build it, will be yet one more private "members only" clubhouse.  

Welcome to Royal Gorge LLC's repellant vision for the future of Donner Summit, where there will be two classes of wilderness access- access for those who have the money to purchase their housing, and stay at their luxury hotels, and thus buy membership in their private clubs, and access for all the rest of us.  As a good portion of the cross country resort is on land leased from the Forest Service, and other rented lands with Placer County roads running through them,  Royal Gorge LLC's  planned exclusionary domain will prevent the public from hiking on and enjoying lands that are rightfully public property.  

It is morally repugnant to take something that is rare and valuable, the granite fastness that is the Sierra Nevada, the backbone of our state, and attempt to turn it into a club for the haves. It is inexcusable to seek to lull concerned locals, who wish to protect a treasured environment, with a story of a development designed to enhance wilderness access, while at the same time selling it to investors as the montane cousin to a yacht club whose memberships are handed down in the family.  Royal Gorge LLC, please don't cheapen the heritage of Donner Summit by denying real public access to all who cherish its transcendent  beauty with your "members only"  private clubs, hotels, and timeshares. 

Kathryn Gray would like to point readers to something Abraham Lincoln told us, "Moral principle is a looser bond than pecuniary interest."  The preservation of our Sierra heritage should be a strong moral principle, and pecuniary interests should be subservient to protecting the heritage of John Muir's "Range of Light"