Sierra Conservationists Unite to Defend Donner Summit

Sierra Conservationists Unite to Defend Donner Summit
Regional Effort Calls For Principled Planning
Published on Apr 9, 2008 - 10:44:10 AM

Nevada City, CA April 9, 2008 - In a letter signed by nine Sierra organizations, leading conservationists today presented Placer and Nevada County officials with a set of principles to guide future development decisions on Donner Summit. The region is currently facing a major proposal to convert one of the most popular scenic landscapes in the Sierra Nevada into a series of high-end resorts.

"Donner Summit is one of the great iconic treasures of the Sierra Nevada," says Tom Mooers, Executive Director of Sierra Watch. "The planning principles are designed to ensure a better blueprint for Donner Summit, one that puts responsible development where it belongs and permanently protects the region's landscape for generations to come."

Representatives of the region's important conservation organizations (Sierra Watch; South Yuba River Citizens League; Tahoe Group, Sierra Club; North Fork American River Alliance; Snowlands Network; Sierra Foothills Audubon Society; California Native Plant Society; Sierra Nevada Alliance; and Forest Issues Group) signed the letter, demonstrating widespread support for conservation on Donner Summit.

The range of issues at play, from back country ski trails to downstream water supplies, demonstrates the importance of the Donner Summit Region to the Sierra Nevada and beyond. The future of the area and its resources, however, is less clear.

In 2006, after seeing an ad in the Wall Street Journal, developers Foster/Syme bought nearly 3,000 acres of Donner Summit land, including the existing Royal Gorge cross country ski resort, and immediately began to shape an ambitious development proposal.

That proposal, as outlined in initial planning documents, would remake the forested Donner Summit landscape into a series of high-end development projects, including 950 housing units, a new ski resort, and hotels. In order to service the new subdivisions, developers propose a string of new roads through local forests, new dams in Sierra headwaters, and 200 acres of sewage 'spray fields'.

The future of Donner Summit is fast becoming the most controversial development issue in the Sierra. Local homeowners have organized meetings and printed banners in an effort to "Save Donner Summit." Initial attempts at collaborative discussions stalled, and Foster/Syme is poised to file its formal application for development.

The nine Sierra conservation organizations say their planning principles are designed to elevate the current debate. Sierra Watch Field Director Peter Van Zant, who circulated the letter throughout the Central Sierra, says allies were eager to sign. "With this letter, we offer a coordinated commitment to conservation on Donner Summit."

The planning principles provide context for reviewing individual development proposals and, also, benchmarks for creating a blueprint for the region.

"The good news about the Foster/Syme development proposal is that it is raising important questions about the future of Donner Summit," says Mooers. "Our letter to Placer and Nevada County officials reminds us all what's at stake: one of the great and historic regions of the American West."

In the months ahead, Foster/Syme will likely work with Placer County planners and consultants to finalize a development proposal and create a Draft Environmental Impact Report, a key document in the environmental assessment process. Required by state law, it will provide more details about what the proposed project would mean to Donner Summit and the Sierra Nevada.

In the meantime, Sierra Watch and its allies will continue to generate support for an alternative conservation vision for Donner Summit. "Our ongoing success in nearby Martis Valley proves an important point," says Mooers. "We can work together to protect the places we love."

To see a copy of the letter and more background on the Sierra Watch Donner Summit Campaign, visit www.sierrawatch.org.

Sierra Watch is a non-profit organization working to protect the incomparable natural resources and unparalleled quality of life in the Sierra Nevada mountain range. For more information, call (530) 265-2849 or visit www.sierrawatch.org.

In the interest of fostering civil and issue-oriented discourse, YubaNet does not publish reader comments identified by anonymous Internet "handles" (fake user ID names like "farfromthinkin"). Your full and real name will be published with your comment. Your email address will not be shown, unless you specifically "uncheck" the box 'Hide my email.' By submitting a comment you consent to our rules.

Comments

Bernard Pech
15 Apr 2008, 08:51

As a home owner on Serene Lakes and member of the owner's association (SLOPA), I support the position of the conservation organizations.

As officially stated by our President, Bill Oudegeest (many times), the SLOPA community is not opposed to development. We are strongly opposed to:

1- The current RG plan sprawling size (every single area buildable is proposed to be built),

2- The downhill resort with all the assorted noise (grooming and snow making equipment) and destruction of the environment (please take a walk around local ski slopes in the summer and notice the mess of pipes above ground for snow making, abandoned pylons and cables, the explosives stored in shacks, dirt tracts everywhere for maintenance, electrical wires spread on the ground), as well as the deforestation and the bare look.

3- The commercial development with a hotel that will go broke with the downhill resort after RG has bailed out.

4- The transformation of Serene Lakes into a water reservoir or a Fall mud field to support 1,000 new homes and condominiums. Being on a crest and seated on surface granite, water is a very scarce resource at the Summit, and a development of the size proposed cannot be supported any other way.

RG pretends to have consulted our community (they have not), and pretends to be green.

I hope that with the current setbacks that RG has suffered, they will change their strategy, and stop pretending. Conserving and expanding the cross country resort, building up the Nordic environment will, with good marketing (unlike the previous owner):
1- attract many customers and buyers;
2- be supported by the community;
3- enable their investors a fair return on their investment;
4- get supervisors re-elected;
4- and provide additional revenues to the County.

Bernard Pech
Serene Lakes