Most of Colorado’s large ski areas are revising their master plans for future development under a new Forest Service policy that eliminates intensive environmental reviews during the early stages of planning.
All four Aspen ski areas, as well as all resorts in Summit and Eagle counties, are working on their plans, said Ed Ryberg, the Forest Service’s regional winter sports administrator. Steamboat just completed an update, while Crested Butte and Durango Mountain Resort also are laying out changes, Ryberg said.
The aim is to cut through regulatory gridlock, Ryberg said, describing a process that can end up being a “massive waste of time and money.”
But cutting upfront environmental studies could be controversial, as watchdog groups have criticized resort expansions for chipping away at important wildlife habitat.
The push toward streamlining environmental reviews for ski-area development is of general concern to Rocky Smith of Colorado Wild, a group working to preserve wildlife habitats. Smith said it raises the question of just how much ski areas will continue to grow and whether that growth is warranted in the context of skier visitation, which has remained largely unchanged over the past 10 years.
Ski-area master plans attempt to outline long-term expansion and construction projects.
But instead of requiring in-depth environmental studies and public participation upfront, the Forest Service will now adopt resorts’ more conceptual long-term plans, and then require intensive site-specific reviews only for “reasonably foreseeable actions” that could be implemented within the next three to five years, Ryberg said.
The 2002 White River National Forest plan added 6,000 acres of new terrain to ski areas mainly in Summit and Eagle counties – another reason for the agency to look at resorts’ master plan updates, Ryberg said, adding that some of the areas are operating under 20-year-old plans.
“I think Breckenridge’s plan goes back to 1985 or ’86,” Ryberg said. “They’ve really been piecemealing onto that for quite a while.”
Steamboat was one of the first areas to complete a master plan update under the new process.
“I think it puts us on firm moral ground as far as getting projects approved,” said Chris Diamond, president of the Steamboat Ski & Resort Corp. “It makes it harder for someone to come in at a late stage and be difficult just for the sake of being difficult.”
Diamond said that even without the public scrutiny required by federal environmental laws, the ski area worked to garner extensive input from the community.
“We paraded that draft plan out there to everyone. Season-pass holders, local governments, employees; we did the Rotary Club thing,” Diamond said.
Ryberg said Steamboat’s public outreach effort was exemplary and a critical element of the master plan process.
“The guys in Summit County are not as open about getting things out on the table,” Ryberg said.
