Press Release Dated June, 2004
Harrisburg, PA
State and local sportsmen and environmentalists applauded the release
of a new feasibility study that gave a failing grade to a proposed
resort at Prince Gallitzin State Park. The Pennsylvania Department
of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR) commissioned the independent
study in response to a proposal from the Industrial Development
Corporation in Cambria County, where the popular state park is located.
If it were built, such a resort would be a first for the Pennsylvania
state parks system.
The study was prepared by Horwath Horizon Hospitality Advisors,
one of the largest consulting firms in the industry. It included
both a market demand analysis and a financial analysis. Together,
they suggest that a full-sized conference center/resort with a signature
golf course would be highly unlikely to succeed for a number of
reasons:
- The lack of a local golf market to support a signature golf
course
- A transportation system that does not facilitate access to the
Park, specifically lack of easy access to an interstate highway
- Lukewarm' interest by potential users as revealed in the market
demand survey
- Lack of proximity to any major metropolitan area.
Anything smaller or less luxurious would have even less chance
of success, the study warns. And building the resort in stages isn't
a viable option either, it claims. The full text is available online
at www.dcnr.state.pa.us/stateparks/pg/.
"The new report makes it clear that this thing could never
be built unless taxpayers were willing to foot the bill," said
Johnstown resident Karlice Makuchan, an activist with the Headwaters
Group of Sierra Club, one of 20 groups in a coalition opposed to
the resort. "It would be a huge money loser for the Commonwealth.
I really don't think the government should be in the business of
subsidizing the destruction of the environment," Makuchan said.
"What the new study shows is that this scheme is way too risky
to justify the loss of wildlife habitat and the threats to water
quality and fishing at the park," said Tony Mirilovich, a member
of the Cambria County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs and the Mountain
Laurel Chapter of Trout Unlimited. "We need more places to
go hunting and fishing long before we need another golf course,"
Mirilovich said.
According to Dave Bonta, a volunteer with the Sierra Club's Pennsylvania
Chapter, "The consultants admitted in the report that building
a resort would be contrary to the image of the Pennsylvania state
parks. They even talk about the harm this could do to the image
of Cambria County. In other words, this kind of development might
hurt the local economy more than it would help it."
The study looked at key indicators of local market demand, such
as the median household effective buying income and the four percent
annual decline in spending on eating and drinking out in Cambria
County. The conclusion: while a golf resort might take advantage
of the area's low wages, few local residents could afford to stay
or even eat there.
"The study says the average room rate would have to be $123
a night," said Cindy Moore, President of the Altoona-based
Juniata Valley Audubon Society. "I'm afraid I just don't see
that as a reasonable alternative to renting a state park cabin or
camping out."
"People come to Prince Gallitzin for the natural beauty and
the great fishing," said Robert Wardrop, Secretary of the Johnstown
Sportsmen's Association. "The study says to me that if we allow
this resort, we'd be throwing all that away for nothing," Wardrop
said.
According to the study, the only way to make state park resorts
succeed financially would be to build a whole string of them, as
West Virginia has done. "I don't think that's a price that
any of us who enjoy the outdoors should be asked to pay," Wardrop
said.
Len Hess, conservation chair of the Indiana County-based Todd Bird
Club, pointed out that both the Pennsylvania Constitution and Act
18, which created DCNR, bar the agency from sacrificing the wildness
of state parks simply to increase the number of visitors. "The
law is clear. DCNR may not lure visitors to the parks with commercial
activities that already exist in urban and suburban areas,"
he said.
Patton resident Craig Farrell, a frequent visitor to Mud Lick inlet,
where the resort would be built, welcomed the study's findings.
"This whole end of the park is one of its most unspoiled portions,"
Farrell said.
"State parks were never created as a profit making machine
and we should not think of them that way. They were created for
the enjoyment of the people of this state," Farrell added.
Lester McNutt, co-chair of the environmental committee of PA Trout
Unlimited, welcomed the study's conclusion that a resort at Prince
Gallitzin wasn't feasible. "But when you look at the larger
economic picture, I'm not sure what feasibility means," McNutt
said. "Clean water and healthy ecosystems underwrite our entire
economy."
The study estimated that total costs of developing the resort could
reach $35 million.
* * *
ORGANIZATIONS OPPOSED TO A PRINCE GALLITZIN STATE PARK RESORT
- PA Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs
- Cambria County Federation of Sportsmen's Clubs
- PA Trout
- Mountain Laurel Chapter of Trout Unlimited
- PA Chapter of Sierra Club
- Moshannon Group of Sierra Club
- Headwaters Group of Sierra Club
- United Bowhunters of PA
- Lawrence County Garden Club
- Conemaugh Valley Conservancy
- PA Wildlands Recovery Project
- Audubon PA
- Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society
- Juniata Valley Audubon Society
- National Wild Turkey Federation, Allegheny Mountain Chapter
- Allegheny Defense Project
- Todd Bird Club
- State College Bird Club
- Johnstown Sportsmen's Association
- Patton Sportsmen's Association
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