Wednesday, October 10, 2007

Mountain Town News


By ALLEN BEST - MTN TOWN NEWS SERVICE
Express Staff Writer

Building slowdown gives developers time to object

MAMMOTH, Calif. -- Construction is down sharply this year in California's Mono County, where the Mammoth ski area is located.

The Sheet newspaper doesn't offer speculation as to the reasons, but does report that the slower market has caused developers to voice objections about new affordable housing mitigation requirements. When the regulations were being adopted, the market was strong, and they were silent. They claim they were blindsided by the mitigation fees, which have rendered projects unprofitable.

In some cases, county authorities agree. The fees assumed a specified square-footage of commercial space will yield X number of employees. But that one-size-fits-all approach was indeed too punishing to self-storage businesses, where there are very few employees and lots of space.

B.C.'s carbon-neutral goal plan at least has teeth in it

WHISTLER, B.C. -- Whistler is among the 62 local governments in British Columbia that have signed a charter to make local government operations carbon neutral by 2012. Included in that commitment are municipal fleets, buildings, and public transit.

Part of the mechanism for this is a regional cap-and-trade system that allows those who have exceeded their reductions in carbon emissions to sell these excesses to those failing to meet the goals. Giving this teeth, explains Pique, is a plan by the provincial government next spring to begin imposing financial penalties on both governments and businesses that don't meet their targets.

Environmentalists have criticized the charter as not being ambitious enough, but do believe that these teeth are important. "Is it everything we would have liked to see? No. Does it go further than we expected by creating real penalties? Absolutely," said Ian Bruce, a climate change analyst for the David Suzuki Foundation.

Upgrade of electrical link to Telluride not welcomed

OPHIR, Colo. -- Change is coming to Ophir, a mountain-side town about 10 miles from Telluride, and the locals don't much care for it.

The old electrical transmission lines that run through Ophir, on their way to Telluride, are being upgraded. The wooden poles, which some residents had come to think of as being like dead trees, are being upgraded with steel plating and crossboards. "It's an eyesore," said Ophir Mayor Jon Gerona.

For the moment, the power line is also Telluride's Achilles heel. An avalanche near Ophir took down the power lines a couple of years ago, demonstrating just how vulnerable Telluride's economy is to its electrical supply in the outside world. Tri-State Generation and Transmission wants to upgrade a more direct line into Telluride, but has been opposed by landowners on the mesas that the line would traverse. Those landowners want to see the power line underground as it crosses their property. Tri-State says that would be prohibitively expensive.

Durango ski area aims to get bigger

DURANGO, Colo. -- Durango Mountain Resort, the former Purgatory ski area, has plans for bigger and better during the next 20 years.

During that time, reports the Durango Telegraph, the ski area would like to expand its capacity by roughly a third, to 9,600 skiers a day. It also wants to expand its terrain by 22 percent, add 10 lifts, and substantially boost its snowmaking capacity.

The public doesn't seem to have much to say about the ski area expansion, but there is a lot of comment about the impacts of the ski area's development on private lands, says Richard Speegle, the recreation project manager for the federal land agencies. The ski area is on U.S. Forest Service property, but a great deal of real-estate development is occurring.

One party skeptical of the expansion is Colorado Wild. "Our general concern is that ski areas should not expand unless there is a specific demand," said Ryan Demmy Bidwell, the group's executive director.

Gondola would link real estate to base area

STEAMBOAT SPRINGS, Colo. -- Plans have been formalized in Steamboat Springs for a gondola that will link a real estate and commercial development about a mile from the ski area to the base area.

The project, called Wildhorse Meadows, already has a commercial complex, and a large residential component is planned, with an abandon-the-car-and-walk emphasis. Construction is expected to be complete in time for the 2009-2010 ski season.

While more extensive use of gondolas has been discussed in ski towns for decades, their enormous cost has precluded them -- until now. Breckenridge now has a gondola from its parking area near the town core, a considerable distance from the ski slopes. A new gondola is going into place that will connect Avon with Beaver Creek. A gondola is also planned at Vail, to link a new real-estate project called Ever Vail to the slopes.

In Steamboat, the gondola will be a fixed-grip pulse gondola, with cabins accommodating six people. It will take the gondola cars 4 minutes, 30 seconds to get to the ski area's base. The gondola will be manufactured by Leitner-Poma, which has a manufacturing plant in Grand Junction.

Outlying spec houses get only half of asking prices

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- The real-estate market in ski towns of the West has been humming along, despite the shudders nationally. The high-end market seems unaffected.

But the first evidence is coming in that the national woes are affecting the outlying areas. The Jackson Hole News&Guide reports that two speculatively built homes in Victor, Idaho, which is located across Teton Pass from Jackson Hole, have been sold for less than half.

Latino population now more likely to be families

JACKSON HOLE, Wyo. -- Some 33 percent of kindergarten students in Jackson Hole schools are Latino, but only 11 percent of senior high students are Latinos. Are they dropping out?

Not so, say Teton County School District officials. The story, says Gary Elliot, principal of Jackson Hole High School, is that the number of Latino students in lower grades is increasing more rapidly.

That said, the newspaper cites evidence that the Latino population, after growing rapidly during the late 1990s, is now leveling off. However, the demographics within the Latino population are changing, with more young women now arriving, in addition to the young men.

Idea of new ski area in Utah still pursued

SALT LAKE CITY, Utah -- The idea of another ski resort in the Oquirrh Mountains, southwest of Salt Lake City, continues to be pursued. The proposed resort is on land owned by Kennecott Land, an arm of the same company that owns the world's largest open-pit copper mine, which is located nearby. The base area would be 6,200 feet, reports the Salt Lake Tribune, rising up to 9,350.

Aspen Skiing expanding advertising green theme

ASPEN, Colo. -- In its winter marketing program, the Aspen Skiing Co. is tooting the horn even more loudly this year about the dangers of global warming. Advertisements warning of the dangers were placed last winter in two magazines, Ski and Outside. This year, similar "save snow" ads are planned in six ski and outdoor magazines, plus newspapers. In addition, the company is sending compact fluorescent bulbs to 40,000 of its most loyal customers.

The Aspen Times that while the ski company may have the zeal of a reformist on this issue, it also makes good business sense. An annual survey of the company's customers two winters ago showed that 36 percent were more likely to return because of the company's environmental practices, and last winter that number rose to 39 percent.

The implication is simple, says The Times: If the company is recognized for its green stance, it could lure prospective customers as well as satisfy many of the existing ones.

In Vail, there was a bit of skepticism about Aspen Skiing's marketing initiative. The resort experience is nothing if not carbon intensive, noted the Vail Daily in an editorial, so if Aspen's advertisements succeed in drawing more customers, they will be counter-productive to the stated mission of saving snow.




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