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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bill Jennings: Mount Spokane expansion decision set for next week

Bill Jennings

Last fall Brad McQuarrie, general manager of Mount Spokane Ski and Snowboard Park, bought a chairlift from Bridger Bowl near Bozeman, hauled it home and parked it on his property. His original plan was to store the classic Riblet double – with a few hundred chairs and 20 lift towers – on a few acres of his pasture for a few months.

More than a year later, the lift still lies there patiently, in pieces, awaiting a decision about its ultimate fate that will be made next week.

On Wednesday, the Washington State Parks Commission will conduct a special public meeting to take testimony about land classification options and the proposed expansion of the ski area. Public comment will be taken from 6:30-8:30 p.m. at Center Place Recreation Center, 2426 N. Discovery Place, in Spokane Valley.

This has all happened before. The commission held a meeting with the exact agenda in March 2011 at Spokane Community College.

Mount Spokane 2000’s concession area includes 800 acres on the “backside” of the mountain known as the Potential Alpine Ski Expansion Area, or PASEA. For decades the PASEA had no land classification. After the 2011 meeting, the proposed expansion area, 279 acres of the PASEA, was classified “recreational.”

The classification gave Mount Spokane 2000, the nonprofit group granted the concession by the Commission to operate the ski area, confidence to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement for the project. The EIS was approved.

The Lands Council, a local environmental interest group, appealed the commission’s decision, arguing that an EIS should have been required before the land was classified. That appeal was dismissed in May 2012. McQuarrie forged ahead.

Shortly after the chairlift was purchased, a subsequent appeal was granted by Superior Court last September, bringing the expansion project to a halt. McQuarrie, who has been shepherding the project for nearly 11 years, went back to the drawing board.

“We had to start over with the EIS process, but the studies already done were still valid and we’re using that data,” McQuarrie said. “Over the last year and a half, we did quite a few more studies to strengthen our position. There’s a lot more information that the commissioners will have to work with.”

The proposal under contention involves installing the lift on what is known as the “backside” of the ski area and enlarging the ski area boundary by 279 acres. Land in Mount Spokane State Park can be classified several ways. What ultimately happens will depend on one of a variety of scenarios.

If the commission decides the entire PASEA should remain “natural forest area,” no further ski area development will be allowed and all recreation activity would be limited to the Chair 4 Road, a stretch of the summit road and an existing mountain bike trail.

Under a second designation, “resource recreation and natural forest area,” the status quo of “conditional use” that allows skiers to explore the backside would be maintained, save for some limited glading for fire suppression and forest health. The third option, “recreation, resource recreation and natural forest area,” is the classification Mount Spokane 2000 is seeking.

Should the commission make that decision, the ski area expansion will go forward. Tree skiing will improve in the area classified resource recreation and the land within the natural forest area will be permanently protected from development. It’s a decision McQuarrie believes will accommodate the various user groups enjoying the park.

“I believe it’s a great project and I believe the decision makers will see that in the environmental data and all the studies,” McQuarrie said. “We found no smoking guns or red flags out there. We were anticipating that we might find something that was a major challenge, but there just wasn’t.”

The commission is offering the Wednesday meeting to focus solely on Mount Spokane. This is the final opportunity for anyone to have their say, yea or nay, on the ski area expansion. The following day, during the commission’s regular meeting, the final decision will be made.