ROYAL GORGE CROSS COUNTRY SKI:  GOOD WILL HINTING

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.