Judge issues ski-village injunction

No groundbreaking can take place until Judge Kane decides whether to permanently block the development, said attorney Geoff Hickcox of the Western Environmental Law Center, which is representing the groups.

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.