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May 24, 2005

Environmental review officer extends comment period

by Shayla Ashmore
Managing Editor

Concerned citizens will have two extra weeks to comment on the draft environmental report for the Dyer Mountain Four-Season Resort. tabmd.com

“I will extend the public review period to June 10,” Lassen County Environmental Review Officer Bob Sorvaag said last week. The 45-day comment period required by law was set to end on Friday, May 27.

Sorvaag made the announcement on Tuesday, May 17 during a Board of Supervisors and Planning Commission study session on the Dyer Mountain draft environmental impact report. The project to be built over 25-30 years includes 4,000 homes, condos and apartments, three golf courses and ski runs and lifts to serve 9,500 people at one time.

“We don’t want to delay the process,” said Supervisor Bob Pyle. “But by extending the public comment period two weeks may be enough to keep a suit from being filed later on.”

Pyle said he expects someone to appeal the decision if the planning commission certifies the EIR or decides not to certify it.

At a May 4 public hearing in Westwood, many residents said 45 days was not enough time to read the more-than-1,400-page document.

“One way or the other you’ve at least addressed the request,” said County Counsel John Ketelsen, “and that’s the legal issue.”

Representative of North Fork Associates, who prepared the DEIR, went through the entire document with the board and three planning commission members. Supervisor Jim Chapman reminded the board the public has had plenty of time to study the project. He said the county’s 1968 General Plan included the concept of a ski area at Dyer Mountain. He added the county did a feasibility study that gave the concept high marks in 1989 or 1990.

Chapman said the project’s long history warrants giving the public two more weeks to study the DEIR. However, he agreed with Supervisor Brian Dahle, who said, “Time is money,” and objected to adding six months to the process.

Sorvaag reminded the board Dyer Mountain Associates spent two years working to make the EIR as complete as possible. He said a two-week extension makes sense.
“This is a way to make sure people know we aren’t abusing power; we are looking at all their concerns,” DMA Marketing Director Jerry Armosino said the next day. “I think that was really a great mitigation.”

He said the extension is a bump in the road DMA will get over. Armosino added most of the delays in the process are for a positive reason and erring on the positive side is better.

“We have people coming in from Chico, Redding, Reno, all over, who say, ‘When are we going to be able to ski,’” said DMA Resource Manager Jerry Duffy. “A lot of them could care less about the environment. They just want to know when we can ski or when can we play golf or when can we buy a lot. And those people see every delay as a pain.”

Duffy said the goal since the beginning has been to develop a clean, green project about which people who visit or own property will brag saying they value its environmental concern and it is something they want their children and grandchildren to experience.

Armosino added a huge part of employee training will include environmental concern to keep the resort a place where visitors and property owners can see nature and wildlife and learn about the railroading, mining, logging and Native American history of Northeastern California.

“We want to have the museums with local docents telling the story of their grandparents who worked in the mills,” he said. “That kind of stuff will make this place a hub for the rest of this county to be explored and understood.”.

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