Durango – Opponents of a plan to build a 2,100-unit ski village atop Wolf Creek Pass on Monday accused Texas billionaire B.J. “Red” McCombs’ development team of secretly influencing Mineral County officials to obtain needed approvals.
“A series of communications between McCombs’ attorneys and Mineral County staff shows extensive behind-the-scenes participation in the entire land-use approval process before the county,” project opponent Colorado Wild said in a statement released late Monday.
The communications, obtained from court filings, appear to have been deliberately and unethically excluded from documents requested from the county under the Colorado Open Records Act, Colorado Wild attorney Jeff Parsons said.
The attorney for Mineral County, John S. Wilder, said Monday that he was “tired of all the conspiracy theories,” but did not comment further.
Colorado Wild also has accused the developers and the U.S. Forest Service of collusion. The Durango-based group has said that McCombs’ staff “ghost authored” Forest Service comments and that McCombs’ has used his ties to top agency officials to pressure local foresters working on the environmental study. Colorado Wild is still wrangling in court to obtain documents it requested from the Forest Service detailing communications between the agency and developers.
Colorado state Rep. Mark Larson, R-Cortez, said a congressional investigation should occur before the Forest Service issues its Final Environmental Impact Statement. And, Larson said, the Colorado attorney general should investigate the evidence of undue influence before the Colorado Department of Transportation issues any permit to the developer for access from U.S. Highway 160.
Staff writer Electa Draper can be reached at 970-385-0917 or at edraper@denverpost.com.
