Skip to content
Join our Newsletter

Mountain News: Real estate a lousy formula for future

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. - Businesses owners and officials in Mountain Village, the joined-at-the-gondola slope-side town above Telluride, have been soberly questioning whether such things as evening concerts are a good way to spend money.

MOUNTAIN VILLAGE, Colo. - Businesses owners and officials in Mountain Village, the joined-at-the-gondola slope-side town above Telluride, have been soberly questioning whether such things as evening concerts are a good way to spend money.

The problem, explains the Telluride Watch , is that revenues have dropped sharply, particularly from real estate assessments - 69 per cent below the average of the previous nine years.

The sponsorship of events, including concerts at sunset, costs $845,000 per year, but there were plenty of people to defend the cost as worthwhile.

But Dave Riley, the chief executive of Telluride Ski and Golf Co., the ski area operator, sees a broader problem. "I think we've gotten ourselves in this pickle here because for 20 years we've been riding a real estate development boom" and there's a need to ask "what is our economic model for the long run here." That model, he added, should not be dependent on real-estate development."

"We can't 'event' ourselves out of this problem," he concluded.

Bend tightening belt

BEND, Ore. - Bend has been a poster child of the amenity-based West for the last decade. A one-time timber town, it has a ski area on Mt. Bachelor, fly fishing in the Deschutes River, and famous rock climbing. Located just east of the Cascades, it also has sunshine and, of no small matter, a significant airport to allow lone ranger entrepreneurial types easy access to the outside world.

But the days of rapid growth have been upended. The New York Times notes that the unemployment rate, at almost 16 per cent, is one of the highest of any metropolitan area in the nation. Luxury furniture stores are going out of business, San Francisco chefs have fled. And, of course "for sale" signs dot still-unfinished subdivisions.

"Economists say the city's sudden abundance of investment income and housing equity from newcomers made Bend seem more secure than it was," reports the Times . Much of that new wealth was derived from California.

Symbolic of the changed circumstances are two magazines. Bend Living , a now defunct magazine, was supported by advertisements for high-end homes and luxury furniture. The editor, Kevin Max, described the magazine as being "about Bend's emergence into 24-7, go-go-go, irresponsible construction and people living beyond their means." A magazine he is now planning he describes as something else. "It's about Oregon, so it's all about sustainability."

Sanford loses again

ASPEN, Colo. - Aspen showed up in the steamy love letters of philandering South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford. The Aspen Daily News notes that the Sanford's letters to his mistress, published in a South Carolina newspaper, mentioned Aspen as he described his travel activities last August.

"The following weekend I have been asked to spend it out in Aspen, Colorado with (presidential candidate) McCain - which has kicked up the whole VP talk all over again in the press back home," Sanford wrote to his sweetie.

McCain chose Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin to be his running mate, of course, But it seems that a couple of other Republican politicians considered possible vice presidential material - Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. and South Dakota Sen. John Thune - were in Aspen at the same time to meet with McCain.

Actor planning airport

HAILEY, Idaho - The actor Bruce Willis, who owns a small ski area about 50 miles from Ketchum and Sun Valley, has begun work that could yield an airport capable of handling jet aircraft. The Idaho Mountain Express reports that paperwork filed with federal authorities estimates 150 monthly jet takeoffs or landings, and another 150 by turboprops and 200 by propeller aircraft.

Meanwhile, squabbling continues about whether the Ketchum and Sun Valley resort area needs a new airport. The existing airport is located at Hailey, about 20 miles down-valley from the resort community. Larger jets cannot use the airport safely, however, and expansion seems impossible owing to nearby residential development.

Instead, local officials have been looking to build another airport - one in the general vicinity of Willis's proposed airport. Freed of geographical constraints and other development, such an airport could perhaps allow Sun Valley and Ketchum the sort of air portal enjoyed by Vail, Steamboat and other destination resorts.

But the operator of the Sun Valley ski area and others argue that an airport 45 minutes to an hour from the ski area will be too far, and customers will choose to drive another hour or two to reach destinations at Twin Falls or Boise. Also those protesting the more distant location include Horizon and SkyWest airlines, which current fly smaller planes into the airport at Hailey.

Ironically, because of its rail connection, Ketchum became the first dedicated ski town in North America in 1936, when Averell Harriman opened the Sun Valley ski area. Use of the railroad has long been discontinued, however.


Crested Butte submits plans

CRESTED BUTTE, Colo. - After many years of talking about it, Crested Butte Mountain Resort has officially submitted formal notice of its wish to develop a new ski area adjacent to the existing area. The expansion onto Snodgrass Mountain, as is now being proposed, would include 262 acres of lift-served ski terrain, of which 118 acres would be of intermediate-level difficulty.

Operators of the ski area have long insisted that in order to enjoy efficiency of operations and hence profitability, they need to have 500,000 to 600,000 skier days annually, a sharp increase over current levels.

That increase, they say, needs to come primarily from destination skiers, who favour intermediate-level terrain. As it is, they may tire of Crested Butte's skiing after two or three days. Accordingly they often don't return for a second year, and hence marketing costs for the resort are higher than at a Vail, Breckenridge, or Snowmass.

Aspen reconsidering hearth

ASPEN, Colo. - Aspen has started to talk again about its open-pit hearth. Located on a downtown street near the ski slopes, the hearth was created in a response to the economic slowdown early in the century.

But then, in 2005, the town went very public with its vows, encapsulated in the Canary Initiative, to knock back carbon emissions. But how can a community that has vowed to take greenhouse gas emissions seriously condone burning of natural gas in the great outdoors, just so people can gather to see the flickering of flames?

The Aspen Times explains that town officials tried to figure out a compromise, keeping the hearth but burning something other than a fossil fuel. Some suggested burning candles or, because Aspen has so much dog poop. Other options examined were to create a solar source or deliver hydrogen fuel. None were satisfactory.

Kim Peterson, who now directs the Canary Initiative, sees the hearth as a non-issue. "I honestly don't think the fire heater is our problem in Aspen. It's such a tiny part of our carbon output here."

The hearth, during winter, undeniably adds a cheery ambiance to the downtown mall. Alas, reports the Times , some of those who congregate in the fading light of winter afternoons are not the cherubic faces of children toasting marshmallows. Instead, says the newspaper, "decidedly seedier elements often congregates there," flinging profanity, drinking in public and several times allegedly engaging in unlawful sexual conduct.

Carbon neutrality may be required

GUNNISON, Colo. - My, oh my, the world has been changing rapidly. A decade ago, few people would have been able to fathom what constitutes a "carbon-neutral development." Now, this has become the cutting edge for housing projects.

To become carbon neutral requires that a house produce as much energy from renewable sources as necessary to balance the fossil fuels used to heat, cool, and electrify the house.

Now comes word from Gunnison County of a proposal to make carbon neutrality a requirement of all major new projects. The county, as well as Gunnison, Crested Butte and Mt. Crested Butte, have all adopted the goal of lowering their greenhouse gas emissions 20 per cent by 2020.

One observer of county affairs believes that the planning commission is sending the message that if that is the goal, then this is what it will take. How builders respond will undoubtedly be part of the continuing story.

The Crested Butte News said only one county planning commissioner has dissented. John Messner said he believed the county government should meet the standard before requiring others to do so.

Sewer may be up to task

RED CLIFF, Colo. - People driving west from Vail soon find themselves next to the Eagle River. In places, it looks heavenly, pure and fresh.

But in fact, the river has led a tortured existence almost from its beginnings near the Climax Mine. Below its headwaters the river's meandering loops were put into a straight-jacket in 1942, the better to create a military camp where 14,000 soldiers trained during World War II, some of them in the 10 th Mountain Division.

Farther downstream is the abandoned mining town of Gilman, part of a Superfund site that cost a reported $80 million to clean up after mining operations ended in 1977.

Nearby is another old mining town, Red Cliff, which has about 300 people. But for decades, it has been unable to get its water and sewage treatment right. The river downstream is not necessarily something you'd want to wet your lips with.

But now, thanks to the federal stimulus package, the town believes it will get $2 million that can make things right. "I don't know what could possibly stop it at this point," Mayor Ramon Montoya told the Vail Daily. The project will require $5 million, with the balance coming from other grants.


No more magnesium chloride

HOT SULPHUR SPRINGS, Colo. - Although it will cost more, Grand County has decided to cut its use of magnesium chloride to control the dust on its 158 miles of rural roads.

The Sky-Hi Daily News explains that a new product called Durablend will be applied to two roads. It uses less salt, but because it bonds to dust and rocks better, less of the salt migrates off roadways.

Grand County has experimented with many new products, among them pine tar and animal fat. But the animal fat created spots on the paint of cars, and pine tar was intolerably sticky.

Bill Clark, the county's assistant superintendent for road and bridges, said mag chloride remains the cheapest product for keeping gravel surfaces in place for extended periods. The treatment keeps roads smooth for up to four times longer than those with no chemical application, he said.

Dark-sky law was a first

KETCHUM, Idaho - Ten years ago, Ketchum adopted a dark sky ordinance, so-called because the intent is to eliminate trespass and pollution from lighting fixtures, such as garages, thereby allowing the stars to more easily be seen at night. Ketchum was the first city in Idaho to adopt such regulations, although the nearby towns of Hailey and Sun Valley soon followed.

The Idaho Mountain Express credits Dr. Steve Pauley with working in the background to get the regulations adopted. He said that darker nights, in addition to being perhaps an aesthetic benefit, also have a health benefit. Shielded lights in residential areas that eliminate light trespass into bedroom windows allow the normal full production of human melatonin between 2 a.m. and 4 a.m., Pauley wrote.

Melatonin is an anti-cancer hormone, and Pauley says there is growing evidence that links human eye exposure to light at night, low melatonin, and breast cancer.