Dear Mayor
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As you may know, there is a planning process for the Wasatch Mountains called Mountain Accord that has been going on for years. To date it has only involved representatives from Salt Lake, Summit and Wasatch Counties. The Mountain Accord process charter indicates they were to only deal with land issues in Salt Lake, Summit and Wasatch County.. but there is a glitch….
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In the course of discussions, a land swap concept was put on the table which involved Snowbird swapping land they own in Salt Lake County for 416 acres of public, Forest Service land in American Fork Canyon inside Utah County. This land is in the upper reaches of Mary Ellen Gulch and Mineral Basin and would create a contiguous piece of land over 1,000 acres in total upon which Bob Bonar (Snowbird GM) told a group of citizens on June 16th that Snowbird intended to extend an existing lift in Mineral Basin and then put two new lifts into Mary Ellen Gulch. With the expanded Utah County operations, Snowbird said they would look at creating housing in American Fork Canyon on Miller Hill and potentially a five mile long gondola, over public land to Tibble Fork Reservoir. Given the massive impacts to Utah County, I believe Mayors and County Commissioners from Utah County ought to have an opportunity for formal input into Mountain Accord before a Mountain Accord vote– including the swap of 416 acres is approved on July 14th.
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Utah County citizens are becoming aware of Mountain Accord and highly concerned about how it might impact the character of American Fork Canyon. You can see the grass roots uprising at https://www.facebook.com/
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The land swap would dramatically impact American Fork Canyon and three separate drainages would be under instant pressure for expansion and development with Ian Cummings (Snowbird new well-funded owner) now funding and controlling Snowbird, would aggressively press Utah county planning and zoning in an effort to get the expanded lifts and housing on Miller Hill. This development would bring all the impacts that high alpine lifts and housing entail for the entire American Fork Canyon.Past County Commissioner rulings in Utah County have continually steered Snowbird to operate from the Little Cottonwood side, as they did not have contiguous land, well, that may all change if the 416 acres is fast tracked and voted on without Utah County representation, possibly paving the way for Snowbird to double in size. This is also problematic as the Mountain Accord process was a solution devised to control resort expansion, impacts on watershed, once and for all. Its likely that no one on the Mountain Accord executive committee is aware of Utah County Commissioner rulings, and they have no idea, that they could in fact be facilitating Snowbirds expansion, via the small acreage swap of 416 acres.We had two camera sources. You can listen to Utah County Commissioner Bill Lee the last 10 minutes @ https://youtu.be/0BVHLlVkNdQ Commissioner Lee is concerned that Utah County Citizens are in the dark just as he has found himself to be. Here is his audio excerpt from June 16th at Fox Hollow Golf Course. Bob Bonar from Snowbird presented and you can see the whole meeting here, it starts at 42 minutes in. https://www.youtube.com/
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We strongly recommend recommend that you reach out to Ben McAdams (SL County Mayor and Chair of Mountain Accord and tell him you need to have them inform you of changes they are discussing in your county and decide on the appropriate process to get Citizen and political leader inputs from Utah County, before any Mountain Accord approvals are granted involving public lands in your County. Utah County lands should be withdrawn from the Mountain Accord process until the Mountain Accord charter recognizes Utah County and invites Utah County representatives to be on the executive committee and steering committee.
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A vote on July 14th 2015 would be premature and would compromise the integrity of the Mountain Accord process that has claims to open, honest, transparent processes and involve all concerned parties, well.. Utah County representation has been absent. When during the negotiations did Utah County lands get intermixed with Mountain Accord, I am not sure, but it seems to have created the PERFECT STORM and if the Utah County lands are withdrawn this could potentially unravel a great deal of hard work by many, yet, if the lands are included… Snowbird could double in size and that also conflicts with the whole purpose of Mountain Accord. Before things advance any further, my admonition and pleading is for the Mountain Accord Executive Committee to either withdrawn the Utah County Lands from the July 14th vote, or to expand the Mountain Accord Charter to include Utah County Representation, to unwind the process long enough to allow Utah County representatives to participate.
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This may require postponing the July 14th vote several months to afford Utah County to participate and also to educate the Executive Board – how a 416 acre land swap could potentially allow Snowbird to double in size, what County Commissioner rulings have been and how this may affect our Utah County watershed.
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Please reach out and contact Mayor Ben McAdams and let him know, that the vote should be postponed until Utah County has representation on Mountain Accord, or that the 416 acres needs to be withdrawn and included in phase two of AFCVision process, unensnared from the dynamics of Mountain Accord.
His number is (385) 468-7025 or email is mayor@slco.org
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Kind regards,
.Protect and Preserve AmericanFork Canyon