Village at Wolf Creek Drama Continues

Thanks to ski-blog for the scoop. It would seem that one of the pending lawsuits regarding the Village at Wolf Creek finally reached a resolution. The following is from Mineral County Minor (and is also quoted on the ski-blog link above)

WOLF CREEK— The owners of Wolf Creek ski resort and developers of the proposed Village at Wolf Creek have reportedly settled their lawsuit over the project.

The Pitcher family, owners of the ski area through Wolf Creek Ski Corp. Inc., sued Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture over the $1 billion Village at Wolf Creek resort project in 2003.

U.S. District Court Judge John Kane dismissed the case last Tuesday without ruling as to the admissibility of any evidence presented, according to The Associated Press.

The Pitchers reportedly cooperated with the Village at Wolf Creek’s developers early on, but pulled out in the 1990s.

Led by Kingsbury Pitcher, they sued the joint venture, claiming they had no legal responsibility to help develop the resort. Leavell-McCombs countersued, alleging that the Pitchers had committed fraud and breached their contract.

The settlement cancels a trial that was scheduled for July 7. The Pitchers had reportedly threatened to introduce evidence of the political intrigue that has surrounded the Village since the 1980s. The two sides were haggling over political allegations when the settlement was announced…

A separate lawsuit filed by environmental groups over the development was settled out of court in February, with steps yet to be taken including evaluation of an access road by the U.S. Forest Service, approval of a highway access permit by the Colorado Department of Transportation and approval of development plans by Mineral County, which can only be considered after access is approved.

According to Honts, the next step will be with the Forest Service, which is under a court-ordered agreement to do another environmental impact study for proposed access roads to the development.

Forest Service spokesman Mike Blakeman said the government will bill McCombs for the costs of the Environmental Impact Study (EIS) for access roads and Forest Service employees will do most of the work on it, not a private contractor. Rio Grande National Forest (RGNF) officials will choose the team that does the environmental analysis.

I was beginning to think the whole project was going to fade away. Looks like things are rolling along at a snail’s pace.