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Posted Feb 7, 2016, 5:55 AM
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Registered User
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Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Above Metro Vancouver clouds
Posts: 10,220
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More on the Brohm Ridge project in Squamish. Didn't know that there was already work going on to build ski lifts some 50 years ago. Also surprised to learn that Whistler-Blackcomb is currently running only at 50-60% capacity, as it always feels so packed (during weekends). I doubt other resorts of the world are neither that busy during the week?
Quote:
Vancouver Sun: Concerns mount over Brohm Ridge ski hill proposal near Squamish
The first attempt for a ski hill on Brohm Ridge near Squamish took place nearly 50 years ago but the scars are still visible, with chunks of foundations slated for gondolas and chairlifts littered along the landscape.
Only the chalet, a homey three-storey lodge with tall windows overlooking the snow-capped Tantalus Range, and a nearby cabin, are in use today, thanks to the volunteer efforts of the Black Tusk Snowmobile Club, the stewards of the property.
But if a proposed $3.5-billion resort goes ahead for Brohm, the snowmobilers fear they will be left out in the cold, while other recreation users won’t have the same access to the rugged ridge just 15 minutes from Squamish.
“We’re just tenants so the province can kick us out whenever they want,” said Tony Cailes, president of the snowmobiling club. “There’s an awful lot of people not happy about this. The public is losing a place to go. This is Squamish’s backyard.”
On Tuesday morning, close to 20 trucks with individual snowmobilers headed up to Brohm Ridge, the rim of an ancient volcano and the site of Garibaldi at Squamish Inc.’s proposed four-season resort. As they wound their way up the road, they witnessed stunning views of Howe Sound and the Tantalus Mountains before reaching the chalet, where the snowmobiling club teaches avalanche training and awareness.
By mid-day, the top of Brohm Ridge, where the developers want to run a quad chair to a ski lift, was socked in by fog.
“This is typical of Brohm,” Cailes said. “Would people pay to come here? I don’t think so.”
The snowmobilers aren’t the only ones worried about the future of Brohm Ridge, after a resort proposal by the Aquilini Investment Group and Northland Properties, which developed Revelstoke Mountain Resort’s plan, cleared the first hurdle Friday by receiving an environmental assessment permit.
If the project goes ahead, the proponents expect the resort would include 124 ski runs, three gondolas, 18 chairlifts and three mountain lodges. There would also be three interconnected village areas, with 5,723 housing and hotel units.The massive project has the corporation of Whistler worried about its own economic future and the sustainability of the Sea to Sky corridor.
Whistler Mayor Nancy Wilhelm-Morden said the resort will suck skiers and snowboarders from Whistler Blackcomb, which is only operating at between 50- and 60-per-cent occupancy.
“Whistler is an important economic engine for the province,” she said, noting it reaps $1 million in tax dollars per day and $1.4 billion annually in GDP. “Why the province would consider jeopardizing any of that by approving a competing ski resort nearby makes little sense.”
Critics argue the proposal is the developers’ way to grab Crown land at a cheap rate for residential development, noting the provincial government allows ski hill developers to purchase Crown land for $5,000 per acre or at its assessed value.
The B.C. government said in an email to The Sun the policy has been in place since the 1980s, and recognizes the capital investment that developers are putting into Crown land when they develop a resort. All the key components of a ski resort remain on Crown land and are authorized by Crown land tenures, the email stated, and if the resort fails in any phase, the province can appoint a receiver to operate the resort and/or market it to other investors so the resort can get back in operation as quickly as possible.
The province has also told both Squamish and Whistler that it will not accept a master plan for review from the developers unless there is agreement in principle on the size of the project from whichever jurisdiction incorporates the project into its boundaries.
However, this isn’t good enough for Wilhelm-Morden, who maintains “all of the communities in the corridor have spent a lot of time and taxpayers’ money putting forward our case; that’s why this doesn’t make sense. If it fails, it will affect the reputation of ski areas around the province.”
Jack Crompton, a Whistler councillor and chairman of the Squamish-Lillooet Regional District, agreed. The regional district, which includes Whistler and Pemberton, voted unanimously to oppose the project, saying it does not fit within the goals of the regional growth strategy, which is to confine development to existing communities.
“We don’t believe this project is good for our region,” Crompton said. “If it proceeds, this project would hand over some of the most pristine land in Canada to a developer for $5,000 an acre. All the planning that’s been done has shown this is not the right place for a large-scale development.”
Compton argues that a four-season resort would promote one tourism project at the expense of others across the region, including the Sea to Sky gondola and Squamish waterfront development and South Chilcotin regional park. The proposal would also put more cars on the highway.
“We have gems for tourists in our region and we want to promote those and not one single real estate development,” he said. “These are places with real people, real businesses and real opportunities for communities that currently exist.”
Wilhelm-Morden agrees, saying Whistler supports tourism in other communities but not one that competes directly with the corporation’s ski hill. She maintains Brohm Ridge is at a lower elevation than Whistler Blackcomb and yet there has been no studies done on the snow in the Brohm Ridge area or the weather patterns, while an application decades ago was turned down by the province after finding it was not suitable for a ski resort.
She noted there isn’t room to cluster ski hills in the Sea to Sky corridor because, unlike Colorado or Utah, it doesn’t have the population or transporting hubs to make it viable.
“We’re faced with warmer and wetter winters,” she said. “That doesn’t bode well for Brohm Ridge. You can’t make snow if you’re pumping out water.”
Peter Auld, a member of the Black Tusk club and a dirt biker has put up SaveBrohm.org signs around the chalet, said he’s not only worried about who will carry the burden if the project goes belly up, but what will happen to the steelhead in Brohm Creek.
“The heart of the development is right in this habitat,” he said.
Auld maintains the project isn’t about a ski hill but about residential development that will end up pitting the public against profit.
As a snowmobiler, he heads up to Brohm at least once a week, while in the summer, he hits the trails on his dirt bike, sharing the space with hikers and mountain bikers. Although the mountain bikers may still have a place on Brohm Ridge, he said that’s likely not true for dirt bikers or snowmobilers.
“This is kicking people off their own land for the purpose of profit.”
Cailes agrees, noting the Black Tusk Club is in discussions with Aquilini of a possible relocation plan if the project proceeds.
He questions why Brohm is being considered for a ski hill, arguing right now on Brohm Ridge, there’s 20 centimetres of snow on hard-packed ice. He suggests Callaghan Valley would be a better bet for a ski hill as it has already been taken out of the public’s hands.
On Tuesday, snowmobilers were constantly helping each, picking up dropped items and going in search of their owners or guiding a new snowmobiler who went off the trail and got stuck.
“These people are having an adventure,” Cailes said. “They couldn’t do that without public access. That’s freedom.”
http://www.vancouversun.com/travel/C...343/story.html
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