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Westwood PinePress
Wednesday, March 10, 2004

Dyer Mountain Associates put tax behind it
By Susan Cort Johnson
Westwood Editor

Dyer Mountain Associates paid the recoupment fee, a tax on land zoning change, as instructed by the Lassen County Board of Supervisors. The fee of $157, 325 was paid on Monday, March 1. xlpharmacy.com

Roseburg, the current owners of the land slated for the four-season resort, and DMA have always agreed that the fee would be paid by Dyer Mountain, said Nick Ceaglio, director of community relations.

The fee with interest was originally deferred in 2000 after the public voted to approve the Dyer Mountain project so that the development firm could channel all its funds into the environmental impact report. Money for the studies conducted to complete the report is difficult to obtain, said Ceaglio.

It cost just under $4 million to complete the EIR studies and report but all the money has been secured including the $300,000 in a trust fund to cover expenses incurred by Lassen County in the final stages now that the studies are completed.

The problems over the recoupment fee were caused by lack of communication, inaccurate information and misunderstanding between DMA and the Board of supervisors, Ceaglio said. DMA had been in contact on a regular basis with staff at the Department of Community Development and they assumed that the information was being shared with the board of supervisors, he said.

Also, DMA understood that a new agreement concerning the fee had been worked out.

With the EIR near completion and the project moving into its design and engineering phase, staff at DMA will now spend more time keeping the news media, public and government officials abreast of the project, said Jerry Duffy, resource manager for DMA. At the end of March he will make a presentation at a four counties meeting. Also the company will update its Web site on a regular basis. In addition the public is welcome to drop by the DMA office at 325 Cedar St. in Westwood.

There were setbacks in the project. For example, the country was going into a recession in 2000 although no one knew it at the time, said Duffy. The 9/11 terrorist attack on the World Trade Center impacted the economy. Also, environmental studies the company thought were near completion would suddenly need more research.

"Time and time again we reached points where we thought we were going somewhere but only found that we needed to do one more survey or one more inquiry," said Duffy.

However lately there has been good news in that the environmental studies are showing that there is nothing that might halt progress, he said. DMA has always planned to make avoidance a part of its development policy.

"If there is some sort of environmental question or cultural question our way of trying to deal with that is avoidance, we just don't go there," said Duffy. For example, it will keep all activity one-third of a mile from the eagle nest on its property.

The design plan calls for 60 to 70 percent open space, said Ceaglio. There are 700 acres of dry and wet meadow that will have nothing more than foot trails.

Almost 2,000 acres will remain open space, said Ceaglio. There are 700 acres of dry and wet meadow that will have nothing more than foot trails.

Almost 2,000 acres will remain open timberland. To help achieve this goal houses will be built in clusters on lots of 5,000 to 7,000 sq. feet.

DMA has created a long-term management plan for the land to perpetuate larger diameter trees as well, said Duffy.

"The reason for a long-term management plan is that we would like to have the investors or the homeowners know that what they see today their grandkids are going to see," he said.

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