The Village at Wolf Creek is a development planned for a private in-holding located within the Rio Grande National Forest, at the base of the Wolf Creek Ski Area on Wolf Creek Pass.  Submitted in 1999, the proposal included a gated community of over 2,200 condo units, four hotels, and 225,000 square feet of commercial space.  This development would create a city of 10,000 people at the base of the ski area, on Colorado’s snowiest mountain pass. 

San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, along with Colorado Wild and numerous concerned citizens (see Friends of Wolf Creek) recognized several problems with this proposal.  The proposed development is located between the South San Juan and Weminuche Wilderness Areas, and has several important attributes:

o It serves as an important wildlife corridor for a number of endangered species, including the recently re-introduced Canada lynx.
o The in-holding contains documented fen wetlands which exist only in high altitude areas.
o It is located at the south fork of the Rio Grande headwaters, and could easily affect this major river system and the agriculture that depends on it.
o Numerous issues, including increased traffic, access to the Village, water consumption and supply, and wastewater were not adequately addressed by the developer.  (See Wolf Creek Newsletter for more information).

Colorado Wild and the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council filed a lawsuit in the fall of 2004, challenging the Mineral County Commissioners on their decision to approve the plat submitted by Wolf Creek developers, without first securing proper access.  Judge O. John Kuenhold, at the District Court level, ruled that these access issues did need to be addressed prior to granting approval of the plat.  His decision was upheld on appeal.

A second lawsuit was filed by Colorado Wild, the San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council, and Western Environmental Law Center in October of 2006.  This lawsuit challenged the decision by the Forest Service, in April of 2006, to authorize construction of two access roads across public lands for the purpose of building the proposed 10,000 person Village without first analyzing the connective environmental impact actions of the proposed Development.  (See Press Release 2/15/2008).  Several problems were uncovered in the initial EIS (Environmental Impact Statement), which narrowed the scope of analysis and ignored the environmental impacts of the entire development.  On October 4, 2007, US District Judge John Kane issued a Preliminary Injunction, stopping the project from moving forward.

Rather than waiting for a final ruling from Judge Kane, the FS and the developers agreed to complete an entirely new EIS as required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).  A new EIS process was begun.  At an initial round of public meetings, held October 7, 8, and 9 of 2008, it was unclear which version of the Mineral County plat required comments.  No corrected plat had been submitted to the Forest Service prior to the deadline for comments, and Analysis of the Village at Wolf Creek was stopped by FS officials.  Unfortunately, that was not the end of the story.

In the fall of 2009, the Developer was back with a new, scaled down version of the Village.  This new proposal includes 1,711 units, constructed in 8 phases, beginning with 492 units.  They are requesting another 207 acre land exchange next to the current inholding, exchanging their current wetlands property for 207 acres of trees.  This new piece of property is directly adjacent to Highway 160, thereby removing the obstacle of highway access.

The developer is seeking to mandate the land exchange through Congress, and is seeking help from our local Congressman, John Salazar.  (See Pueblo Chieftain, December 19, 2009).  

SLVEC, Colorado Wild, and many others see several problems with this approach.  We see this as an attempt to forego the Administrative safeguards established in the NEPA process, which is highly regulated, clearly defined in terms of public process, and allows the public to comment on and appeal in Court if concerns are not addressed.  None of these safeguards would be present if the land trade is pushed through Congress.  

SLVEC continues to believe that all aspects of the proposed development, scaled down or not, need to be analyzed in an open, public process format.  These issues include water and utility availability, highway safety, wetland protection, wildlife corridor protection, and protection of the Rio Grande watershed.  We want to prevent storage of hazardous materials on the property.  Additionally, we want to see a full evaluation of impacts, and we do not believe that this can be achieved through a legislative land exchange.

For more information, see Friends of Wolf Creek.

Want to do more?
Congressman Salazar has yet to take a position on whether he would consider performing the land exchange through a bill in Congress. He and his staff are currently gathering information from local elected officials and the public about this proposal. We need your help to get the word to Salazar to say NO to any legislative land exchange. After more than 20 years of waiting, the public deserves a thorough and transparent analysis of the Village's impacts before any decisions are made about a land exchange or other strategy to facilitate development of this land. Rather than a legislative run around, McCombs should go through the traditional Forest Service review process including a robust public involvement process. You can contact Congressman Salazar's offices locally at:

Contact:
You can contact Congressman Salazar’s offices locally at:
813 Main Ave, Ste 300, Durango, CO 81301, 970-259-1012
609 Main Street, #6, Alamosa, CO 81101, 719-587-5105
OR
Contact Links: US Congress
Representative Salazar: DC 202-225-4761
Durango office John Whitney 259-1012
http://www.house.gov/salazar
326 Cannon House Office Building
District of Columbia 20515-0603

Documents

Analysis of Access to Village at Wolf Creek Stopped
Forest official updates status of Wolf Creek Access EIS
Judge Protects Rio Grande National Forest Halts road construction to proposed “Village at Wolf Creek”
Colorado Court of Appeals rejects appeal by Wolf Creek developers
March 22, 2007 - Village at Wolf Creek (VWC) Update