SAVE DONNER SUMMIT

An Open Letter to Royal Gorge LLC. Principals

One of you has let it be known that the partnership is losing money running the Royal Gorge cross country resort, and that it is likely that the resort will be closed down next year. You may also decide to fence off the property.

It would be very unfortunate, should this happen. The community is not responsible in any way for your misfortune, nor are we seeking your misfortune. I know that you do not believe that. Sure, we made fun of the partnership, whenever it made a misstep, and unfortunately for your side, there were so many! And we will keep on doing it. It has been our response to the very misleading marketing campaign that you launched a year ago, and that you still seem to be pushing. As a high tech engineer who has positioned, designed, built, and delivered product and services, I have been quite outraged at the way your industry in general can afford to be less than forthright about a development project and usually gets away with it due to the long delay between design and delivery. By the time the customer can provide feedback, you as a developer are long gone!

But looking forward, I think that you would agree that your misfortune is objectively anchored into three undeniable facts:

• This web site and several others have documented, publicized and analyzed the objective facts defining the context which constrains and defines any future development on the Summit. Therefore any solution to your misfortune implemented by you or subsequent owners will have to conform with the laws of physics, and respect the California regulations in place. A misunderstanding due to ignorance or pretend-ignorance which would let a project go through and hand the bag to naive future condominium owners or ranchers, will not happen. The web sites make it too easy to do due diligence.
• The majority of the summit community (I would say 75% based on election results and the DSAA resident survey) has unequivocally rejected your current proposal, and is in favor of maintaining the rural character of the Summit. No timeshare, no condominium, only single family homes, hopefully individually designed, and an order of magnitude smaller than your current plan.
• The "play for pay" option is off of the table with the new local politicians that we helped elect.

As a way out, I personally like the idea of quartering that you have suggested, in so far that it would result in a dozen new "ranches", each with a single family home.

The Summit community, and in particular Serene Lakes and the Soda Springs Road, are very interested in finding a solution around acquisition of the property through a land trust, and in keeping the area focused on recreation based on non-motor sports such as hiking, biking, XC skiing, snow shoeing, climbing, sailing, canoeing, bird watching, ... A few years back some residents invested in rebuilding the rotten Ice Lakes lodge. Despite the fact that they lost half their money, some might still be inclined to take a risk for the common good.

But to get there, please start bottom up by being fully on top of all the context (this web site has many good engineering analyses by several residents), prepare a proposal based on that context and approach us, any way you want to, through Sierra Watch, SLPOA, the Truckee Donner Land Trust, our new County Supervisor or any other specific local personality. We would welcome a proposal built that way, otherwise let us not waste your and our time. The smart approach would be to go for a size that would not require any major infrastructure upgrade, such as a $40 millions sewer plant!

Bernard

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