Village at Wolf Creek lawsuit settled

"This lawsuit and the resulting settlement agreement make clear to the Forest Service and the developers that whatever is proposed for this site in the future will have to be done with full public disclosure and adherence to the highest environmental protection standards." said Geoff Hickcox with the Western Environmental Law Center.

A lawsuit by environmentalists against the U.S. Forest Service over the Village at Wolf Creek has been settled.

Durango Magistrate Judge David West said details will be announced today when lawyers in the case formally file the settlement.

The lawsuit pitted Durango-based environmental group Colorado Wild and the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council against the Forest Service and the developers of the Village, a proposed resort for as many as 10,000 people at the base of Wolf Creek Ski Area.

"This agreement gives us everything we asked for in our lawsuit," said Geoff Hickcox with the Western Environmental Law Center, which filed the lawsuit. "This lawsuit and the resulting settlement agreement make clear to the Forest Service and the developers that whatever is proposed for this site in the future will have to be done with full public disclosure and adherence to the highest environmental-protection standards."

In the lawsuit, Colorado Wild claimed that the developer, Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture, improperly influenced an environmental impact statement that granted them two roads into their private property across Forest Service land. The EIS failed to fully consider the full effects of the development, according to Colorado Wild.

In the settlement, the developers and the Forest Service agreed to start again with a new EIS, a process that could take two years or more, according to the venture's attorneys. It is just the latest stage in a project that began in the mid-1980s, when Texas billionaire B.J. "Red" McCombs and the late Charles Leavell acquired the 290 acres next to the ski area in a land swap with the Forest Service.

McCombs and his venture partner, Bob Honts, have also been in litigation against Wolf Creek Ski Corp. since 2004 about a variety of allegations including breach of contract when the ski area's owners said that the developers were ignoring their wishes for a development compatible with the small local resort. The developers said in their countersuit that the ski area failed to advocate for them in obtaining permits to build the access roads, one which was to be an extension from the ski area's parking lots and the second directly from U.S. Highway 160.

They cannot build the planned $100-million resort without the access roads.

Developers revealed that a new EIS might be prepared last month in a legal motion in the Wolf Creek Ski Corp. lawsuit.

"The settlement is bound to have some implications in our lawsuit," Wolf Creek Ski Area owner Randall "Davey" Pitcher said. "It'll be interesting to see what the nuts and bolts are."

The litigation over the first EIS for the two access roads lasted 16 months, after the first EIS was issued in March 2006 and the lawsuit was filed in October that year.

Ryan Demmy Bidwell, the executive director of Colorado Wild, said that the Forest Service is planning to do the impact study in-house rather than hiring a third party as it did for the first EIS. He also said the new EIS will also consider the potential impacts of the Village when reviewing the construction of the roads.

Bidwell said he hopes McCombs decides to sell his nearly 300 acres at Wolf Creek or trade it out.

Honts, president of the Village at Wolf Creek, the development company, said the plan is to "keep chugging ahead."

"If we have enough persistence and money and endurance, then we shall prevail," Honts said.

The developers believe the Forest Service will follow the law that requires the federal government to provide access to private property surrounded by federal land, he said.

Rio Grande National Forest Supervisor Dan Dallas was traveling Tuesday evening when the settlement was announced and will not be available for comment until today.

THE DEVELOPMENT:

The Village at Wolf Creek has been proposed by Texas billionaire Red McCombs and his venture partner Bob Honts, an Austin, Texas-based developer. In order to build the project, McCombs needs Forest Service approval to build a 250- foot road across federal land so visitors can reach his property from nearby U.S. Highway 160. That approval was granted in April 2006, but the approval has been the focus of three lawsuits. A settlement for one of the lawsuits was announced Tuesday.

The property: Village at Wolf Creek would be built on 288 acres obtained in a Forest Service land exchange in 1985. The parcel lies adjacent to the Wolf Creek Ski Area.

The development: It would include about 2,100 housing units, 4,500 covered parking spaces and 222,000 square feet of commercial space.

The existing ski area: The family-owned Wolf Creek Ski Area has been run by the Pitcher family since 1976.