Mega Ski Resort Complex Proposed for Blue Mountain

Once again, the environmentally sensitive Blue Mountain and the Appalachian Trail are threatened with large-scale development. A landowner in Ross and Eldred Townships (identity unrevealed) is proposing a massive resort complex be built on 1100 acres of undeveloped land on the north side of Blue Mountain straddling the boundary between the two townships in Monroe County.

What is the Plan?

No formal sketch plan or preliminary plan for the project has yet been filed with either township. Instead, the project's representatives notified the two townships in late July that they wished a joint "information meeting" with the two Boards of Supervisors to lay out their ideas for the project. That public meeting was held on the evening of August 14 at the Ross Twp. Municipal Building, with both boards in attendance, along with about 100 members of the public. David Shafter, an attorney for the developer, the Elliott Group from Bucks County and Don Murray, a principal of EcoSign, of Whistler, British Columbia, a major world-wide design firm for ski resorts, spoke at this meeting.

The possible elements for the "full-service, year-round resort" include:
• ski resort with ski lifts ending at the top of Blue Mt., "near" the Appalachian Trail
• a mini golf course
• an indoor/outdoor water slides park
• a "streetscape" for various resort-related retail shops
• a large hotel, located between the ski slopes and the golf course
• condominium buildings including 1200 condominium units both for time-sharing and for long-term stays
• water and sewer facilities (public or private, not yet determined) to service the above (including snow-making machinery for the resort and irrigation for the golf course)
• all of the above to attract approximately 5,000 persons per day to the resort.

The developers ended their presentation by requesting a "consensus" from the two boards as to whether or not they would "consider" such a project and whether the developers should proceed with specific plans.

Neither board of supervisors was willing to express any opinions about the proposal at this meeting. Several residents expressed dismay at the scope and size of the proposal. The boards did not solicit much public comment, since they had made clear that the next step would be each board determining at a future regular board meeting how they wished to respond to the developers' "information session" of August 14.

What is threatened by this development?

The project area is bordered all along its southern edge, along the ridge of Blue Mountain, by the Appalachian Trail corridor. It lies east of Smith Gap Road, south of the Aquashicola Creek (a state-designated High Quality Cold Water Fishery) and just west of the proposed Cherry Valley National Wildlife Refuge. It is bordered to the south, in Northampton County, by Plainfield and Bushkill Townships, both of which have zoned their land immediately adjacent to the Appalachian Trail (on the south slope of Blue Mountain) as protected conservation/no build zoning districts ("Rural Conservation" and "Blue Mountain Conservation").

Unfortunately, Eldred Township permits limited development in the zoning district ("AR Residential") encompassing its share of the project's land (including permitting golf courses), while Ross Township's zoning district ("CR Conservation") encompassing its share of the project land would prohibit most of the proposed project uses (including the ski resort, golf course, retails shops and multi-family dwellings).

Murray, a principal of EcoSign of Whistler, British Columbia, a major world-wide design firm for ski resorts, acknowledged that zoning ordinance amendments would be needed by both townships in order for all of these proposed uses to be permitted.

What we are doing

We are trying to determine if either the boards of supervisors from either Ross (60% of the proposed development) or Eldred Townships have yet voted on whether to respond to the proposal. Our Sierra Club will be working with Ross Township residents Carolyn Lange and Jim Vogt and Eldred Township residents Carl and Judy Rush and Frank and Marion O’Donnell. Also, Terry Kleintop of Plainfield Township has agreed to work with us and he intends to notify Plainfield and Bushkill Township officials about the proposal.

We plan to consult with the Lehigh Valley Planning Commission, Monroe County Planning Commission, and the Wildlands Conservancy (in Emmaus, PA) about their taking a position on this proposal.

We have hope that we can fend off this project since zoning is on our side. But we still have to work at this because there are many folks that would like to make a whale of a lot of money from a ski resort on this beautiful piece of land that the Sierra Club wants to protect.
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