Save Serene Lakes and Save Donner Summit from Royal Gorge Future Development
Kirk Syme, Woodstock Development, and Todd Foster and Mark Foster, Foster Enterprises, joined forces as Royal Gorge LLC and purchased Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort, apparently driven by the notion that the land was, as stated on the Royal Gorge Future website, "slated for development."
Where others saw Royal Gorge Cross Country as offering the best cross country ski experience in the Lake Tahoe area, Kirk Syme, and Todd and Mark Foster saw instead an opportunity to cover Royal Gorge Cross Country Resort with houses, hotels, and condo time shares/fractionals, masquerading as a "conservation community."
Royal Gorge LLC, however, has met with serious roadblocks in their development efforts up at Donner Summit.
Placer County has firmly stated that Royal Gorge LLC must provide a second egress for their proposed development, as a community surrounded by forest needs adequate roads for escape from fire, and access for fire fighting personnel. Royal Gorge LLC, however, has failed to identify suitable egress.
Donner Summit is seriously impacted by difficulties disposing of sewage; the current system is at its limits, and any attempts to increase the effluent currently discharged into the South Yuba River will run up against stricter enforcement of NPDES standards, and increasing awareness that the South Yuba should not be regarded as a scenic sewer.
Royal Gorge LLC has yet to identify adequate water sources to satisfy California's strict "Show the Water" law, and developers all over the state are confronting the hard realities of low snow pack, drought, and scanty water supplies. The small community of Serene Lakes is unwilling to have the two Serene Lakes dredged, drained, or turned into muddy bathtubs to slake the huge water needs of the future "conservation community" proposed by the developers.
To complicate the water situation, Sierra Lakes County Water District is having serious problems with state water rights permits;past practices of direct diversion are under questioning by the state. That, coupled with proposed ordinances, has led some to be concerned that a moratorium on development might be imminent.
To find out more about issues surrounding Royal Gorge LLC's proposed future development at Serene Lakes, and Donner Summit, and for frequent updates, and links to other groups monitoring Royal Gorge LLC's plans, please visit these websites: www.saveoursummit.org www.saveserenelakes.org www.savedonnersummit.org
Please get involved in the planning process, and work with Placer and Nevada Counties to protect the environment of Donner Summit. Informed Citizens can work together to Save Serene Lakes and Save Donner Summit
August 1: SELLING OUT DONNER SUMMIT FOR STARBUCKS AND A SUPERMARKET? See Old Posts for earlier posts RE-USE POLICY You may copy, reprint, publish, reproduce, or otherwise display materials (excluding materials that contributors or others have copyrights on—check with sources) on this website on the condition that you attribute those materials to www.savethesummit.com and provide a link to our website.
May 25
ROYAL GORGE CROSS COUNTRY SKI: GOOD WILL HINTING Printable version... Donner Summit's Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort trod a rocky road in terms of good will and community relations in 2008. Royal Gorge greeted the new year with an article in the Sierra Sun bearing the sunny title: "Develop or Die? Owners Say Project May Make Royal Gorge Profitable," and ended the year with Moonshine Ink's no more cheerful article: "Royal Gorge: Can They Make Ends Meet?"
Betwixt and between, Royal Gorge LLC shuttered the historic and well loved Rainbow Lodge for the summer, with yellow 'do not cross tape' encircling it, with this sad explanation in The Union from their former general manager, "Rainbow is an expensive place to run. With the slowing economy it’s been decided we’re going to keep it closed for the summer and re-open for winter."
A few months later, without much ado, Royal Gorge LLC tore down Rainbow Lodge's dismal yellow tape, and reopened for reduced late week- weekend meal service, and then, in late fall, staged an ersatz phoenix rising from the flames for Thanksgiving, announcing they were reopening after extensive repairs. With a French trained chef, no less.
Rainbow Lodge offers a time trip back to the days when Highway 40 was the only route over the Sierra. It's in an absolutely stunning South Yuba River location, and had a devoted clientele base--skiers, folks on motorcycles, bike riders, nostalgia buffs, and, when the former owner was in charge, card-carrying gourmets.
If one were doing a business school case study, the bumbling treatment of such a golden asset might have set off alarm bells. The alarm bells would have taken on a shriller tone in fall, when Todd Foster and Kirk Syme sent a letter to Royal Gorge season pass holders detailing plans to cut back both days and hours of operation, and grooming on what was considered, while under the directorship of John Slouber, the best cross country ski resort in the United States.
WHO ARE THOSE GUYS?
You ask. In 2005, we were told that Todd Foster, and Mark Foster, of the bay area's Foster Enterprises, and Kirk Syme, Woodstock Development purchased the resort from John Slouber. It's a little more complicated than that, however. A large portion, if not the bulk of the property that made up Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort (apart from Forest Service leases and other leases from private property owners) was owned by Rancho Monterey, not John Slouber, and the purchase of the land from Rancho Monterey was never part of the narrative.
Moreover, until a few months ago, Foster(s) and Syme were held out to be the sole owners, but it now appears they may be, if not figureheads on the good ship Royal Gorge, somehow sharing captaincy with others. In winter, Royal Gorge Future's webpage reflected this change, referring to Todd Foster and Kirk Syme, not as "new owners", but as "company representatives." The Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski website, in its recently posted 'no trespass' page, cited, in reference to ownership, not the scions of Foster Enterprises, and Kirk Syme, but, oddly, "the current ownership group."
Semantics? Maybe yes, maybe no. If one looks at California's registry of LLC's, there's a real curiosity. There are currently 5 active Royal Gorge entities listed. One is apparently the continuation of Royal Gorge Partners, a California Limited Partnership which was comprised of John Slouber, and presumably, others. Agent for service of process for Royal Gorge Partners is Director of Development, Mike Livak.
Four other LLCs were formed during the spring of 2005: Woodstock Royal Gorge LLC, (agent for service of process : Kirk Syme) Foster Royal Gorge LLC (agent for service of process Todd Foster), Royal Gorge, LLC (agent for service of process Mike Livak), and, the last to be filed, Royal Gorge Development, L.L.C. It appears Royal Gorge Development L.L.C. was created just prior to Royal Gorge LLC taking out their construction loan of Seventeen Million Dollars from Bank Midwest, a subsidiary of Dickinson Financial of Kansas City, Missouri. The agent for service of process of Royal Gorge Development, L.L.C. is James Woods, an attorney in Irvine, California.
All of these LLC's in the mix produce a real layer cake of confusion. There's the possibility that the Irvine/Southern California Royal Gorge Development LLC is completely unrelated, but that seems, considering the timing, more than a little coincidental. It's at least plausible that Rancho Monterey retained some ownership interest in Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort and/or surrounding lands, arguably through this LLC.
And this matters why? First off, the Donner Summit community was told a foundational story of two (or three) guys riding up the mountain on their white horses (or white Porsches?) to rescue the floundering Royal Gorge Cross Country Resort-- this veers towards the mythological if the old landowner retained a significant interest, and has been involved in development plans all along. Of course, the notion of rescuing a cross country ski resort by covering it with over 1000 units did always seem to be a bit of a story-- one that flunked that first "suspension of disbelief" hurdle story writers have to surmount.
Second, there's been a persistent, but not particularly rational argument that Donner Summit should hunker down and deal with the developers we know, as the ones who might come later could be worse. But do we even know who we're dealing with? And, what's worse than obliterating a few mountains and meadows with sprawl, doubling the treated effluent dump into the South Yuba River, and siphoning water away from two small Alpine lakes?
Third, the local homeowner's group president has been negotiating with Todd Foster since before Christmas. Is Todd Foster even an appropriate person to negotiate with, if no one really knows who actually comprises the Royal Gorge entity? We won't even get to the question as to the proprieties of Todd Foster negotiating with the homeowners group president, who is also a water board member deciding whether to condemn Royal Gorge's lake bottom in eminent domain-- not today, anyways..
START WITH A CLEAN SLATE
On Royal Gorge Future, the developers PR page, we're told, "By helping to shape an ecologically oriented community located on land that is slated for development, the public can help create a plan that will have lasting benefits for generations to come." Who "slated" that land for development? John Muir?
One of the most important assets a business can have is good will. Good will encompasses a pretty broad range of things, but I'd say reputation and trust figure pretty heavily into the equation. For Royal Gorge Cross Country Skiing, there's an overlap of community, and customer good will, as locals cross country ski, and visit Rainbow Lodge and Ice Lakes Lodge for meals--when they're open, that is.
I'm feeling, that in focusing on "slating" land for development, the importance of genuine good will has gotten lost in the shuffle. I'm thinking it's time for old 'Aunty Development' to give a few "Good Will Hints" to Royal Gorge as to how to work on developing good will on Donner Summit:
1) Maybe you should tell the Donner Summit Community who you all are. All of you.
2) Instead of having 'closed door' meetings with homeowner's association presidents and water board members or other exclusive groups, book a big room such as Judah Lodge, and have a question and answer period with anyone who wants to come.
3)Answer the questions.
4) If you do have closed door meetings with any groups, and get some of them to join you in a "greenwash", or "snowjob", don't expect it to have any effect on most of us on Donner Summit. We know how to use shovels.
HAPPY TRAILS TO YOU
Oh, and about those trails. When even the former owner of record, John Slober, allowed hikers on Royal Gorge's trails, and only reserved his ire for poaching mountain bikers and quads, it's a bit thick to slam the door shut on Royal Gorge's trails to responsible hikers. Petty and punitive too, maybe? Royal Gorge definitely isn't scoring any good will points there.
Also, there is the small issue that there may be established rights of way to forest service lands consequent to your lease agreements with the forest service, not to mention easements and other rights.
I'm thinking though, that the 'Happy Trails' song we just might be singing soon won't have anything to do with those trails you're keeping people off of.....just saying. April 29
STOCKHOLM SYNDROME ON DONNER SUMMIT? Printable version... The infamous December 7 emails of Chris Rust, Silicon Valley venture capitalist and apparent compadre of one of the Royal Gorge LLC partners, certainly enlivened discourse on Donner Summit for a few weeks. The chain of emails he initiated, which were forwarded extensively, and I do mean EXTENSIVELY, supposedly were even pasted up on the Soda Springs Post Office wall.
One of the teasers in his emails dealt with the thwarted sale of the entire Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort. His email offered this eyecatcher, "he had someone (another developer worse than [principal's name deleted by me] imo) at signature to buy it for $72m, but their financing fell apart." Read more... April 28
LAST TANGO ON DONNER SUMMIT? Printable version... In my April 27 Save the Summit posting, I referred to Serene Lakes' Property Owner's Association's (SLCWD) "tawdry tango with Royal Gorge LLC." This refers to the actions of the SLPOA president (and SLCWD water board member!), who contacted Todd Foster and initiated negotiations on the heels of Chris Rust's December email. That email, which was widely circulated, threatened that Royal Gorge Cross Country would be fenced off and shut down at the end of the season, in essence to punish those who at least one of Royal Gorge LLC's owners felt had blocked their proposed development on Donner Summit.* Read more... April 27
SOUTH YUBA RIVER, DONNER SUMMIT, AND THE NEW NPDES PERMIT Printable version... It's easy to wear the cynical hat over issues up here at Donner Summit. Between Royal Gorge LLC generated spin, SLPOA hoarding information from their members and the Serene Lakes community as if they were employed by Gringott's Wizarding Bank in the Harry Potter stories, compounded by blocking nonmembers from their forum (it's lonely without you), and, now, the Royal Gorge LLC "current ownership group*" busily hammering up NO TRESPASS signs as fast as possible... well, you get the picture..... Read more... April 1 SCORCHED EARTH AND GRASS ROOTS ON DONNER SUMMIT (also on YubaNet.com) Printable version... Scorched Earth
Early last December, a Sand Hill Road-Menlo Park Venture Capitalist fired off an email concerning the Royal Gorge LLC proposed development which absolutely galvanized the Donner Summit community. This email was forwarded extensively, and, apparently, ultimately even posted in the lobby of the Soda Springs Post office.
Here's a portion of the email's opening paragraph, with many of the juicy bits redacted, and names left out (sorry):
"I talked with {principal} tonight for quite a while. He’s the guy that bought Royal Gorge. He is a defeated man, as all of the efforts to block his development on the summit have prevailed. Royal Gorge loses $1m per year operating as a ski area. He just isn’t going to keep it open. This will be the last season Royal Gorge exists as we know it. He told me to tell anyone that I know up on the summit 'congratulations, you have won.' Now you have to be prepared to live what what that will mean => no Royal Gorge ski area.” Read more... ___________________________________________________________________________
