FLASHBACK 1995: Utah officials want to turn public lands over to a developer in the name of the Olympics 

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In commemoration of City Weekly's 40th anniversary, we are digging into our archives to celebrate. Each week, we FLASHBACK to a story or column from our past in honor of four decades of local alt-journalism. Whether the names and issues are familiar or new, we are grateful to have this unique newspaper to contain them all.

Title: Snow Job
Author: Christopher Smart
Date: Dec. 14, 1995

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The first white settlers called Snow Basin paradise.

But if Sen. Orrin Hatch and Rep. Jim Hansen have their way, you can call it one developer's personal paradise. Now all but untrammeled, this unique and verdant valley would become an exclusive destination resort complete with swimming pools, a golf course and hundreds and hundreds of townhouses and condominiums.

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What is at stake is 1,320 acres of arguably the most beautiful land in northern Utah. From the quaint hamlet of Huntsville, hugging the shores of Pine View reservoir some 20 miles east of Ogden, a road winds west up the backside of the rugged Wasatch range. But as the road continues to wind up and around a bend, you find yourself on a ridge top, staring down into an almost hidden and breathtaking little valley. With the jagged Mount Ogden towering in the background, the sight is enough to take your breath away, just as it struck awe in the Mormon pioneers almost 150 years ago.

Snow Basin is now public land. But through an act of Congress, Hatch and Hansen want it to become the property of the Snowbasin ski resort, owned by Earl Holding, who also owns Sinclair Oil, Sun Valley ski resort and Little America Hotels, among other things.

Hatch and Hansen have told the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives that the land must become Holding's if the Olympic downhill ski races are to take place at Snowbasin in 2002. In fact, Hatch, Hansen and Holding brought Salt Lake City Olympic officials, like Frank Joklik, to Washington to help convince Congress to make the deal.

Presently Holding and his Sun Valley Company own three ski lifts on the mountain rising out of Snow Basin, perched on Forest Service land and leased as ski slopes. But the Snowbasin Master Plan—the intended blueprint for development—put forth by Sun Valley Company outlines the development of 199 large single-family homes, 467 townhouses, 818 condominiums and 1,092 hotel rooms. All of this, plus a golf course, is apparently necessary for the 2002 Olympic ski races, if we are to believe Hatch, Hansen, Joklik and Holding.

By contrast, Snowbird in Little Cottonwood Canyon operates ski lifts on Forest Service lands, like Snowbasin, but its lodges and hotels and its base operations exist on only 45 acres.

Perhaps not surprisingly, the Snowbasin resort build-out could represent billions of dollars on the real estate market, if Park City and Deer Valley are any measure. That fact, however, was not included in testimony before Congress.

But perhaps more surprising, if the Hatch and Hansen proposal becomes law, Holding's planned real estate development in Snow Basin would bypass federal environmental regulations outlined in the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA).

According to the proposal, 1,320 acres—an area equivalent to two square miles—at the base of the Snowbasin ski runs would be traded to Holding for parcels of acreage elsewhere. For comparison, two square miles is the area included in a rectangle drawn from 400 East in Salt Lake City to 300 West and from South Temple to 1300 South.

The acreage to be traded has not been completely decided, but Holding has suggested a number of parcels, including some steep slopes and grazing lands. The trade is still being negotiated.

Criticism of the land swap is only now growing from an atmosphere where critics were few. The Forest Service says the "community"—presumably the Ogden area—wants an expanded ski resort at Snow Basin, where only two small buildings now exist. Secondly, the land trade has been shrouded in the Olympic banner, something that is practically sacrosanct in Utah.

Nature's Paradise
But Alexis Kelner, who has written two popular ski touring guide books, points out that Snow Basin—the land itself, in contrast to the ski resort, which is spelled "Snowbasin"—has a rich history in Utah.

Kelner devotes an entire chapter in the third volume of his soon-to-be-published Wasatch Tours to Snow Basin. The area was originally known as Wheeler Basin, Kelner writes, and was described by white settlers in the 1800s as "Nature's paradise."

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But by the 1920s, Snow Basin—all private ranch land then—was wrecked. It had been deforested and overgrazed. By the mid-'30s, one account by the Forest Service described the area as being decimated: "...almost a dust bowl with hundreds of cattle fighting flies and a number of dead carcasses on the banks and in the stream."

The City of Ogden, through purchases and condemnation, acquired and then deeded 2,000 acres in the basin to the Forest Service. Local civic and service organizations, too, deeded several hundred more acres of Snow Basin to the Forest Service. During the next 50 years, the Forest Service, with a little help from taxpayers, nursed the land back to a condition more similar to what the Mormon pioneers recorded.

With that history in mind, Kelner says plans to swap the lands with Holding are unconscionable. "It's a land grab, pure and simple," Kelner said in a Private Eye Weekly interview.

Not only will Snow Basin become a second Deer Valley, but the legislation could set precedent, Kelner contended. "Every ski area in every canyon of the Wasatch will want its 1,320 acres to develop more mountainside real estate."

But criticisms of the Snow Basin land swap are heresy to Olympic boosters like Hansen and Hatch.

As Hatch told the Senate Subcommittee on Forests and Public Land Management, the 2002 Winter Games demand the land trade:

"The Snowbasin ski resort ... has been identified as the 2002 Winter Olympic site for the men's and women's Downhill, Combined Downhill and Super G [ski races]. With important World Cup events scheduled at Snowbasin beginning in 1999, it's imperative the development of additional skiing, visitor and support facilities at Snowbasin begin in the near term to conform with the seasonal and construction timetable outlined by the Sun Valley Company," Hatch told the subcommittee.

The Olympics "requires" the land exchange, Hatch told the subcommittee.

"Currently, a land exchange is being pursued through the agency's (Forest Service) administrative process. However, after 10 years of frustration and possible legal challenges ahead, no one can say with certainty when this process will become final ... I have introduced S.1371 to resolve this matter once and for all," Hatch stated.

When confronted with the large and lavish real estate plans for Snow Basin, a Hatch aide demurred. "I'm probably not up to speed on the master plan enough to be having this discussion," said Robert Dibblee.

But Hatch's administrative assistant didn't think it disingenuous that 1,320 acres be acquired at the base of the mountain for the Olympic ski races. "We are taking our cue from the Salt Lake Organizing Committee. We had Frank Joklik come back here and explain these things on the hill," Dibblee said in a telephone interview.

Hansen, too, insists that the 1,320 acres of valuable land at Snow Basin be swapped to Holding so that the Olympics can go forward. His bill, introduced to the House (H.R. 3402), states:

"...in order to facilitate the events at the Snowbasin ski resort and insure that all necessary support facilities can be constructed ... and become fully operational in advance of the 2002 Winter Olympics and earlier pre-Olympic events, it is in the public interest to exchange certain National Forest System lands."

Sidestepping Environmental Law
A spokesman for Hansen said that representations of the bill as a land grab were wrong.

Allen Freemyer, the staff director for Hansen's subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Lands, said the public would come out ahead on the land trade.

Rather than describing the Snow Basin federal land as the diamond in the rough that it is, Freemyer painted a scene where Sun Valley would turn over unusually valuable lands to the Forest Service in exchange for a nondescript ski zone already overrun with visitors.

"Opponents have tried to make this look like a big giveaway to Mr. Holding ... But this is already a heavily impacted area. There's nothing majestic about it," he said in a telephone interview from Washington D.C.

Freemyer insisted the land swap was for the Olympics, not for real estate development. The legislation is needed to get around the public process involved in NEPA so the Olympic events could be staged properly, he said, referring to protests and a lawsuit filed before the legislation was introduced.

"We do waive NEPA. But all we are doing is waiving the public process ... There are ways for someone to delay these things and tie them up in court."

Indeed, Save Our Canyons, a Salt Lake-area environmental organization, filed suit in federal court in May, asserting the Forest Service was not complying with NEPA when it approved a new ski lift and three new ski runs at Snowbasin—including the proposed Olympic Downhill run. But whether Hatch and Hansen's legislation will undo the legal challenge remains unclear.

Freemyer first denied that real estate development was included in the Snowbasin Master Plan but then backpedaled to say that only development necessary for the Olympic races is included in Phase I of the Master Plan.

And he's right. The 199 large houses, 467 townhouses, 818 condominiums and 1,092 hotel rooms are included in Phase II and Phase III of the Master Plan. But they are planned to be built on what is now public land, just the same.

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As to future real estate development plans on those 1,320 acres, Freemyer said it's up to Holding. "What money Mr. Holding pours into his real estate is his own business ... But there is no giveaway," Freemyer said.

Phase I development includes three new day lodges and three new parking lots. For the Olympics, Snowbasin proposes a temporary "stadium" of 20,000 seats at the bottom of the ski run. It also calls for a helicopter pad on the top of the mountain, among other things.

Other plans call for five more ski lifts, 2 mountain-top restaurants and a new access road to the resort from the Trappers Loop Highway.

No one at Sun Valley Company, including Earl Holding, would return telephone calls to the Private Eye Weekly. However, comments from one Sun Valley official to the U.S. Senate Subcommittee on Forests and Public Lands Management reveal a tack similar to that taken by Hatch and Hansen.

But Wallace Huffman, who runs Sun Valley for Holding, went so far as to instruct Congress that exchanging 1,320 acres at Snow Basin is better for everyone than an earlier proposal outlining a trade of only 700 acres.

"In addition to irregular and unreasonable boundaries, the 700 acre option would cause some developments, such as the golf course, to be split between National Forest and private lands."

Legislation is necessary, Huffman told the Senate subcommittee, because the Winter Olympics makes it "urgent" for Congress to act.

"...In truth, the various aspects of the exchange have been extensively studied for over a decade. While agreement exists that the land exchange should occur, the current process has not yielded a timely conclusion."

Recent History Compelling
In their explanations, however, Huffman, Hatch and Hansen skip over some of the recent history that makes the land trade compelling.

In 1984, Holding purchased the Snowbasin ski area. In addition, he bought up 7,000 acres of land south of Snow Basin and west of the present Trapper's Loop Highway.

In 1985, according to Forest Service records, Holding expressed an interest in acquiring 2,000 acres of public land around the base of the ski hill and just north of his private lands.

After more than one year of discussion, then-Forest Supervisor Arthur J. Carroll narrowed Holding's request ot 200 acres in a letter dated May 1986. "As managers of these National Forest lands, we feel it would not be prudent on our part, nor within the scope of our authority, to support the exchange of National Forest lands for commercial real estate development other than that needed to provide downhill skiing."

Not taking 'no' for an answer, Holding mailed a "statement of intent" to the Forest Service on Sept. 21, 1987, outlining an exchange of 1,320 acres for Forest Service lands at the base of the Snowbasin ski lifts.

But Carroll's successor at the Forest Service, Dale N. Bosworth, issued a decision on Feb. 6, 1990 that allowed for the transfer of 220 acres of public land to Snowbasin. Noting that resort owners had access to 7,000 acres of land near the resort, Bosworth said: "I can not in good conscience dispose of public land for that purpose."

Still, Holding would not relent. It was then, apparently, in early 1990, that he brought Hatch into the plan. According to a report in the Ogden Standard Examiner, Hatch publicly asked Bosworth's boss, Regional Forester Stan Tixier, to overrule the decision that would allow Snowbasin only 220 acres.

According to the report, Hatch had the podium at a meeting of Ogden's civic and business leaders when he turned to the regional forester and asked, "Stan, are you going to help us out with this?" Hatch turned back to the audience: "I've never asked Stan to help us yet that he hasn't done it." Then the senator turned back to Tixier: "I hope that puts you on the spot, Stan."

Later, in 1990, the Forest Service revised its decision and approved a land trade of 700 acres with Snowbasin and Holding.

Perhaps just as interesting, however, is that the ski resort did not forward a Master Plan to the Forest Service that would allow the 700-acre land exchange to go forward. It was, in reality, Sun Valley Company that was holding things up. But when Salt Lake City won the Olympic bid, suddenly the ante was raised to 1,320 acres again.

Forest Service Backing?
Randy Welsh, the present district ranger for the Wasatch Cache National Forest in Ogden, said a land trade of 1,320 acres is the "personal preference" of Earl Holding and his ski company, not the preference of the Forest Service, despite claims by both Hatch and Hansen that the agency forwarded the idea.

"The Forest Service made a decision to trade 700 acres ... But Sun Valley Company made the decision they could not build the resort they wanted with 700 acres. And they think they have the political wherewithal to get 1,320," Welsh said in an interview.

"They saw the opportunity [the Olympics] to go to Congress, and they did it." Aides to Hatch and Hansen say they expect the legislation to pass out of respective subcommittees and be approved by full committees by Christmas recess. The Snow Basin land exchange is expected to be voted upon in January by the Senate and the House.

The Forest Service, however, still harbors concerns that the legislation sidesteps the National Environmental Protection Act for the sake of efficiency and the 2002 Winter Games, Welsh noted.

"We think our NEPA process is the proper way to conduct activity on public land because it includes the public in the decision ... Sun Valley is concerned about delays in the decision-making process. They think they won't have things completed in time for the Olympics. That's a decision we don't share."

In addition, Forest Service officials aren't convinced that the lands being put up by Holding for the exchange are equivalent in value. "We don't trade lands on an acre-to-acre basis. It's traded on a value basis," Welsh said.

But even the Forest Service, along with Sun Valley Company and Hatch and Hansen, say the ski lifts, ski mountain and the unique nature of Snow Basin can not be considered when appraising the land they want to trade for.

The Forest Service and Sun Valley Company still are discussing how to appraise the lands. Sun Valley is suggesting trading 4,100 acres on Lightning Ridge, near Monte Cristo; Wheeler Creek, on the dry and barren western slope of Snow Basin; Taylor Canyon, a precipitous slope just east of Ogden; and Devil's Gate Valley, a scrub oak and grazing area near Brigham City.

According to Huffman's statement to the Senate subcommittee, the four parcels scattered around northern Utah that seem to have value only as grazing land would be a boon to the public. "These lands possess outstanding recreational, wildlife, mountain and access values for public enjoyment."

But those lands simply don't compare to the picturesque and unique public land at Snow Basin, says Ron Younger, a Bountiful resident critical of the plan to turn the area into a four-season resort for the affluent. The Snow Basin lands in question are comparable in value to real estate in Deer Valley, Younger explained, because the ski mountain and ski lifts are there. "I don't think most people understand that. And it won't be factored in to the appraisal," he said.

The entire land trade to put on the Olympics is a ruse, says Younger, who earlier filed a protest with the Forest Service concerning environmental assessments of the proposed development. "To put on the Olympics, no land need be exchanged at all. ... All the preparation for the Olympics could be done under a special permit from the U.S. Forest Service," Younger said.

Holding and Sun Valley Company have changed their justification for the land trade over time, Younger explained. Before Salt Lake City was awarded the 2002 bid, Sun Valley officials said they needed the public land at the base of Snowbasin's ski lifts for a so-called four-season resort. "For one reason or another, the emphasis has changed from a four-season resort to a need for the Olympics. But the result is the same," Younger said. "The justification changes over time to meet the politics."

Despite all the talk about the Olympics, in the end, most of the 1,320 acres will become an expensive and exclusive real estate development for the wealthy, Younger said. "This is a real estate development, masquerading as a ski resort."