DENVER—No ground will be broken for a ski village in southwest Colorado until a lawsuit aiming to block the development is heard in court, a federal judge ruled Thursday.
The ruling by U.S. District Judge John Kane in Denver extends a preliminary injunction preventing work on the project at the base of the Wolf Creek ski area.
Environmental groups are challenging federal approval of two access roads across national forest land to nearly 300 acres of private property where Texas billionaire Billy Joe “Red” McCombs wants to build 222,100 square feet of commercial space and enough housing for up to 10,500 people.
Ryan Bidwell of Colorado Wild, one of the groups suing the U.S. Forest Service, said the ruling is good news for the 3,000 members of the public who raised concerns about the proposed ski village.
No groundbreaking can take place until Kane decides whether to permanently block the development, said attorney Geoff Hickcox of the Western Environmental Law Center, which is representing the groups.
The developer, the Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture, unsuccessfully sought to proceed with limited engineering and construction while the case was being resolved.
“It’s a terrific win for everybody who’s been opposed to this from the outset,” Hickcox said.
Bob Honts, president of the Village at Wolf Creek, the development company, didn’t return a call to The Associated Press.
It could be several months before Kane makes a final decision in the case because the two sides are still haggling over whether the federal government has submitted all relevant records.
This is the second legal setback in less than a month for developers of the Village at Wolf Creek. Last month, the Colorado Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that voided county approval of the building plans, saying officials didn’t follow a state law requiring year-round access for wheeled vehicles.
The lawsuit by Colorado Wild and the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council claims the Forest Service didn’t adequately analyze the potential impacts of the project when it approved construction of a new road for primary access to the site from U.S. 160 and an extension of a road from the ski area’s parking lots.
The Forest Service decided early on that denying the application for the road wouldn’t block the village because the developer could use a logging road to get to the private land. That decision effectively concentrated the resulting analysis on the road, with only a limited look at the consequences of the village.
The Forest Service has also said that it’s legally obligated to provide access to private land surrounded by forest land.
Environmental groups also allege the developer had undue influence on the process through lobbying of high-level federal officials and pressure from a consultant paid by the developer but directed to independently analyze the impacts of the roads. Environmentalists say e-mails and other documents show Honts and the consultant, Virginia-based Tetra Tech Inc., pressured Forest Service staffers to favor the developer.
Honts, Tetra Tech and the Forest Service have denied any favoritism.
But Kane wrote in his ruling that the e-mails “raise serious, substantial, difficult and doubtful questions that are ripe for litigation and are deserving of deliberative investigation.”
The judge also said he found “fair grounds for litigation” on the scope of the Forest Service’s environmental analysis.
The developer and area residents who support the ski village say it would generate badly needed jobs and revenue for a struggling part of the San Juan Mountains, about 230 miles southwest of Denver.
Opponents say it could degrade the environment and overtax schools and other services in Mineral County, home to fewer than 1,000 full-time residents.
Another legal hurdle for the project is a lawsuit by the Pitcher family, who run the Wolf Creek ski area on the Rio Grande National Forest and were once partners in the development. The Pitchers said they dropped out of the project after objecting to its size and are suing to clarify their obligation to McCombs.
McCombs has said the Pitchers owes him at least $20 million for expenses resulting from their reneging on an agreement to extend the ski area’s road to his property.
