More proof rich Texans are the true "axis of evil"

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Honts, 65, of Austin, Texas, dismisses much of the fuss about building a massive development next to public forests and wilderness areas.

"We have 4 1/2 million acres of trees and no place for people to stay and look at the trees," Honts said.

Taken from the following news story....

The Clampits arrive at Wolf Creek.
 
I'm a newspaper reporter by trade and I can't believe anyone would let that loud-mouthed Texan talk to the media about anthing even vaguely controversial. Calling lynx "kitty cats"? I mean, come on.

Wouldn't surprise me if those comments and that story seriously hurt their chance at succeeding with development. It's just the sort of thing that gets folks pissed off. Hopefully common sense prevails.
 
from the following article... Collusion charged in new Wolf Creek development

McCombs wants to build 2,200 housing units, enough for up to 10,500 people, and 222,100 square feet of commercial space on nearly 300 acres of land inside the Rio Grande National Forest.

Why not a Circus Circus and Six Flags too? :shock:

I think the complete remoteness and low key atmosphere are what draw people to wolfcreek. As soon as you add 1000's of extra skiers and boards you go from great snow and open, worldclass terrain to tracked up, crowded, machine groomed resort skiing. Wolf creek is a very small mountain, and I seriously doubt that they will be allowed any further expansion at that elevation???
 
This is what's wrong with the ski industry today. If someone would actually start thinking more longterm instead of making a kind cash. (i'm not pointing to finger to the Wolf Creek ski area, but to the parasites around it).

How many places were trashed. The urbanisation of ski areas is craziness, you're going to see the "trees" as the stories says!!! :roll:

Areas starts to look the same, same villages, same type of shops, same type of trails and lifts, thanks that are still some visionary outhere like the good folks at Silverton, MRG, etc.
 
I don't even think this is really about Wolf Creek.

If the US real estate market was not so 'hot' right now -- this development would be going nowhere. (Can I buy a pre-construction Wolf Creek condo, flip before ground is broken for a 50k profit?)

Wolf Creek is a great little mountain with outrageous snow -- but it is small, next to nowhere and pretty local. It could not support this development, but a speculative housing market could.

Very poor development.
 
I don't even think this is really about Wolf Creek.

If the US real estate market was not so 'hot' right now -- this development would be going nowhere. (Can I buy a pre-construction Wolf Creek condo, flip before ground is broken for a 50k profit?)
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yeah, it's really crazy. A friend told me a realestate agent he knows bought a condo in a development near the plaza here in Santa Fe and sold it for 100K profit before the condos were even close to finished.

I just can't believe they are talking about a devolopment this size. There are barely that many permanent residents on both sides of the pass. The county better do some serious research on economic impact, because whatever jobs come out of it for the locals the pay is not likely to offset the increase in realestate and other cost of living expenses that skyrocket when the "aspenification" begins. Ask the local "blue collar" types around telluride what this type of development meant for them. Most I've talked to can't afford a home within 40 minutes of were they grew up. But I guess as long as these resorts can pull in a bunch of half stoned teenagers to do grunt work over the season and live packed 5-10 to a house all is well in whoville!
 
I agree with Chris C. No coincidence that we both live in California, where real estate speculation has been a common lifestyle at least 3 times since I graduated college.

The buyers of these condos (if they get built) will be suckers and will lose money IMHO. A "normal" real estate market would only support low density, rustic and reasonably priced vacation homes in a location as remote as Wolf Creek.

So the usual "delay and obstruct" tactics that annoy us so much on more sensible ski development proposals might be effective in this case if the real estate market cools off in a few years.
 
A "normal" real estate market would only support low density, rustic and reasonably priced vacation homes in a location as remote as Wolf Creek.
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Well Telluride was probably the most remote town in the whole region and it is full of large, very expensive, single family trophy homes. I personally think that higher density development is preferable to the famous 35 acre ranchettes that are slowly taking over southern Colorado. The retiring babyboomer generation will/is bringing a huge influx of development to the region. Unfortunatly I don't think the markets in these regions are obeying the same rules as in places that actually need jobs to support growth.
 
option_ride":22lncfd9 said:
A "normal" real estate market would only support low density, rustic and reasonably priced vacation homes in a location as remote as Wolf Creek.
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Well Telluride was probably the most remote town in the whole region and it is full of large, very expensive, single family trophy homes. I personally think that higher density development is preferable to the famous 35 acre ranchettes that are slowly taking over southern Colorado. The retiring babyboomer generation will/is bringing a huge influx of development to the region. Unfortunatly I don't think the markets in these regions are obeying the same rules as in places that actually need jobs to support growth.
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The difference is that the base of Wolf Creek is 10,300 feet. They're proposing to jam 10,000 beds into less than 300 acres near the base of the new quad Wolf Creek put in recently. The nearest employee housing is 30 minutes away and 3,500 feet downhill on a road that's frequently closed. I don't see how they could staff a resort of that size. Most sea level tourists will be gasping for air trying to sleep at 10,300.

A nice hotel, a few condos, and some house lots? Sure. Personally, I'd love to buy into a 1000 bed modest development and make Wolf Creek my retirement ski home. Wolf Creek doesn't have enough acres to absorb an extra 10,000 skier visits per day.
 
A nice hotel, a few condos, and some house lots? Sure. Personally, I'd love to buy into a 1000 bed modest development and make Wolf Creek my retirement ski home.
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Yeah, it will stop with one "modest" development... until the next one.... and the next one....

Town of Telluride Elevation ? 8,725 feet (2,661 meters)
Mountain Village Elevation ? 9,545 feet (2,909 meters).... lots of multi-million dollar homes here, don't think it stops Oprah from sleeping.

Honestly I could care less if the development is on the hill or in the valley.
There are a lot of people who find the gentrification of these small mountain communities offensive.
 
I am all for letting people build on there own property, but this is National Forest land we are talking about right? If it is NF, it all belongs to us, so this Tex making money on OUR land is not right. I am not some NO growth ever type, I am all for private property rights, but this is not what we are talking about here.

Also 2200 dwelling is way too much. I think he is planning this much hoping to negotiate down to half as much.
 
velox":1aabm1si said:
I am all for letting people build on there own property, but this is National Forest land we are talking about right? If it is NF, it all belongs to us, so this Tex making money on OUR land is not right. I am not some NO growth ever type, I am all for private property rights, but this is not what we are talking about here.

Also 2200 dwelling is way too much. I think he is planning this much hoping to negotiate down to half as much.
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Actually, it isn't forest service land. It's private land that was acquired from the forest service in a land swap for a bunch of acres elsewhere. The Texas mafia has little difficulty maniuplating the federal government regardless of who is in office. I believe this one was done during the Clinton administration.

Hopefully, a nice recession and real estate correction will scale this thing back.
 
Red McCombs has other issues than Wolf Creek at the moment:

Red McCombs jumps off Vikings Party Boat just in time ... to meet the IRS!

IRS raps McCombs, partner over tax shelters
Web Posted: 10/18/2005 12:00 AM CDT - Sean M. Wood, Express-News Business Writer

San Antonio car mogul B.J. 'Red' McCombs and longtime partner Gary V. Woods find themselves in the cross hairs of the Internal Revenue Service. According to a report in Forbes magazine, the IRS has dubbed as shams two of the duo's business partnerships. That ruling keeps Woods from reporting an $11.4 million loss and McCombs from reporting a $34.1 million loss in two transactions. So Woods filed suit against the federal government. 'We have a difference of opinion and interpretation of the law with the Internal Revenue Service,' Woods said. 'I filed a lawsuit in the spring of this year, and Mr. McCombs has not made that decision.'

Woods and McCombs suffered the losses in currency option trading in 1999. The IRS ruled last December that the losses were not legitimate. It is part of the agency's crackdown on tax shelters. In August, the accounting firm KPMG LLP agreed to a settlement with the Justice Department and the IRS and paid $456 million for criminal violations. Officials with the IRS would not comment on Woods' case since it is pending in the court system. The transactions by Woods and McCombs came at the recommendation of accounting firm Ernst & Young and the law firms of Jenkens & Gilchrist and Brown & Wood.

In June 2003 the IRS issued a summons to the Chicago office of Jenkens & Gilchrist asking the firm to list clients who may have participated in what the agency considers shady tax shelters. 'The IRS must deter those who might be inclined to evade their legal tax obligations and appropriately pursue those who actually do,' IRS Commissioner Mark Evers said at the time of the Jenkens & Gilchrist summons. 'People should pay what they owe. The IRS will enforce the law across all sectors, but with particular vigor in the corporate arena and for high-income individuals who enter into abusive shelters to game the system.' Woods contends in his suit that even if the losses are not legitimate they should be allowed because E&Y and their other advisers 'presented the transactions as sound and legal business investments,' according to the suit. Woods said his case is scheduled to go to trial in 2007."
 
Red McCombs jumps off Vikings Party Boat just in time ... to meet the IRS!
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Man, the IRS is NOT a group that I would want on my case...

I don't make any money in the US and I'm more scared of them than Canada's CRA (Canadian Revenue Agency).

Red isn't going to be doing anything for a while....
 
This jumped out to me: "During the winter, the area operates six lifts for its 1,600 skiable acres. It logged 215,000 skier visits last season. In comparison, Beaver Creek has 16 lifts on 1,625 skiable acres and had 815,000 skier visits."

My little "urban" mountain has 220 skiiable acres and upwards of 450,000 skier visits.
 
Mt. High West is a "body armor" mountain, as I allude in the "East vs. West conditions" thread. I don't go near the place unless the East is open. When East is open, lower density perimeter runs on West are generally open also.

The Mt. High ski experience has considerably improved since current management arrived in 1997. Mt. High would actually be my area of choice down here under "average" conditions. But it's almost never average here. There is either a lot of natural snow (1998, 2001, 2005), in which case Mt. Baldy is preferred, or almost none, in which case the greater snowmaking capacity at Big Bear results in more open terrain with good surfaces than at Mt. High.
 
Red McCombs jumps off Vikings Party Boat just in time ... to meet the IRS!
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Aaaaahhhhhh, I love the smell of Karma on a Sunday afternoon... I would like the smell of snow more though. Looks like WC has already pushed their starting day back once and the way it's looking it will probably get pushed back again. :(
 
Tony Crocker":16k7a785 said:
Mt. High West is a "body armor" mountain, as I allude in the "East vs. West conditions" thread. ...
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You best have Proton torpedos venturing down Chisolm (moreso) and Borderline. So I don't ever go down Chisolm.

Didn't go West much with the other young(er) men last season. It was all about the "Beast," as the smallish freeride contingent warmly calls the East side (for those not me or Tony). But for all the crowds (read: park rats and learning fams), the Inferno Ridge runs, when lucky enough to be open, are pretty much never what I'd call crowded.
 
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