Snowbird Ski Resort’s proposed mountain coaster issue still unresolved
Utah’s Snowbird Ski Resort is still involved in a tussle with the local residents and environmental groups over its plan to build a roller coaster, called mountain coaster, in Little Cottonwood Canyon. The appeals board was scheduled to meet on 13th
April to resolve the issue once and for all, but the meeting has been postponed to 18th April.
The clash between the Resort and the local residents alongside the environmental groups has been going on for quite a while now because of the amusement ride. Since the announcement of the Resort’s plan to build the ride, they have been facing opposition.
However, the Salt Lake County Planning Commission gave Snowbird the green signal to continue with their plan after several public hearings and numerous environmental impact reports.
Less than two weeks after the Planning Commission's decision, an appealed was filed by a Utah non-profit organisation, Save Our Canyons and Tom Stevens, a Salt Lake resident, saying that the Planning Commission’s decision was subjective and unfair as they
had failed to follow the proper ordinances and procedures. According to them, the Commission had misapplied the County’s Foothills and Canyons Overlay Zone in order to grant the conditional-permit to Snowbird to allow the construction and operation of the
roller coaster. Therefore, they demanded for the decision to be reversed.
Stevens said that the resort was not allowed to build the coaster under County ordinances that define a ski resort.
Snowbird’s officials said that the roller coaster will allow the resort to remain competitive and bring in a lot of revenue during the summer time.
According to the Snowbird president, Bob Bonar, “Snowbird's summer activities have been growing in popularity year over year, and have played a large role in helping us stay economically successful in the non-winter months, something resorts across the country
continue to struggle with.”
He further continued that projects like the mountain coaster are crucial for resort’s healthy summer business and also help in providing jobs to 900-plus employees, both summer and year-round.
Bonar’s justification for the coaster failed to satisfy the protestors, who eventually came out on the streets to hold protests against the coaster and Planning Commission’s decision in front of Salk Lake County Government Centre in March, eventually convincing
the City to put the issue on the table.
The appeals board will now meet to decide whether the decision taken by the Planning Commission was in accordance with the ordinance and other rules and regulations or whether it had acted inappropriately.
Even though Snowbird will possibly find themselves out of this controversy if and once the appeals board upholds the Planning Commission’s decision, that still won’t allow them to put the coaster plan in motion. They still need to undergo environment impact
and watershed studies. This will push the starting date of the project to fall, which means that earliest possible date for the building of the mountain coaster to complete would be summer of 2012.
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