STOCKHOLM SYNDROME ON DONNER SUMMIT?
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."
Ooh-- who could that have been, pray tell? Well, no one ever tells me anything, so that will probably remain one of the not so sweet mysteries of life. However, while this big Autumnal deal was presumably proceeding/caving in, no other than T. Jack Foster of the eponymous Foster Enterprises felt, for some reason, the necessity of publishing a puff piece/my turn column in San Francisco Peninsula papers on behalf of DMB/Cargill, who seek to replicate Foster City on former salt flats in Redwood City. Honor among developers, or was DMB (they're over in Martis/Northstar) negotiating to buy the dream/nightmare development potential on Donner Summit?
Wild horses couldn't drag it from someone. And, hey, seen one big developer? Seen them all.
It truly doesn't matter who, after doing their due diligence up and down the mountain, might succeed the "current ownership group", whoever they might be.
All the infrastructure problems, from water to sewer, throwing in egress and a ton of other problems, confront anyone who seeks to develop on Donner Summit. And about that sewer? California water quality folks weighed in pretty heavily last Friday morning for the health of the South Yuba River, and, further, no amount of PR, however skillfully crafted, is going to generate new sewage capacity.
Some, however, and sadly, seemingly including the Serene Lakes Property Owners Association Board, feel that the 'devil(oper) you know is better than the devil(oper) you don't.' Bill Oudegeest, SLPOA's president, put it this way: "A corollary to that is let's drag the developers into bankruptcy.Do we really want the Royal Gorge lands to be sold at a deep discount to someone else with resources to do even more?"
On Donner Summit, what you see is what you get. If you take out your pencil, and work out what will make money, and get approval from Placer and Nevada Counties, and what will also withstand the myriad State and Federal laws that apply, and infrastructure reality, you're going to arrive at the same numbers whether the brand is Foster/Syme/Royal Gorge LLC, Bank Midwest/Royal Gorge LLC, or ACME (hope Wile E. Coyote and his attorneys aren't reading this).
Anything above 50 units will make Placer County and the fire folks perk up their ears, because they're really serious about ensuring the safety of their citizens, and the egress from the current Serene Lakes subdivisions is substandard at best. So far, no one has identified suitable second egress.
Anything below 500 or so units won't make any money, because the infrastructure costs on Donner Summit are beyond formidable*. Add in the fact lenders are not exactly rushing out to fund huge infrastructure projects, and the skittishness of local governments to get in over their heads, and even if profits might pencil out, the money's not there.
Oh, and did I mention already that water supplies are dicey? Sierra Lakes County Water District is having water permit problems that revolve around direct diversion (when the water is flowing over the dam) vs. diversion to storage. If the State doesn't adjust/rewrite our permit to reflect SLCWD's practice of direct diversion, it's possible we could lose some of our water rights and/or have to purchase rights from other water rights holders.
So why the nostalgia on the part of SLPOA for the Foster and Syme brand of proposed development, and the compelling urge to negotiate with Foster and Syme? The handwriting, barring abrupt turnarounds, has been on the wall for quite some time. Remember, according to Chris Rust, Royal Gorge LLC, aka Foster/Syme were attempting to sell the whole enchilada last fall. Now, they, or the "current ownership group", whatever and whoever that means, are apparently planning on positioning squads of mean tempered marmots, pikas, and wolverines, and maybe even guys on quads to block hikers from trails hikers have hiked for possibly over a century. And we're worried about new owners being worse?
Ever heard of Stockholm Syndrome? I'm thinking Donner Summit has been kidnapped for a few years by the notion that development trumps everything. Maybe it's time to take a deep breath, and step back and assess what's really going on here? And, why, in heaven's name, should we think that the developers we think we know (who are those guys?) are any better than developers who might come later?** Sprawl is sprawl, no matter who is propounding it.
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*Primarily the fixed costs for a second access road, sewage plant expansion, and water storage, not to mention the substantial purchase, legal, planning and architectural expenses incurred before a single tree is cut down or earthmover arrives.
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**And, on a brighter note, might the "new developers" actually be land trusts or park districts?