Click and behold, the LMJV's Alberta Park developers' pipe dream
On the VWC webpage, they tell you that the friends of Alberta Park and Wolf Creek, "are NOT your local grass-roots coalition fighting against this project." Well, I'm out here in my rural cabin, working on my own, occasionally communicating with others - and about as grass-roots as can be, I even have soil under my fingernails right now.
Though, it is true that this is NOT a "local issue"!
The Rio Grande River is an endangered interstate, international river, and LMJV wants to mess with its precious source waters.
That's personal for all Rio Grande River stakeholders!
I’ve been going through San Luis Valley Ecosystem Council’s VWC legal documents and came across a letter written by Christine Canaly, Director of the SLVEC, to the USFS’s NEPA Coordinator, just over twenty years ago.
It seems like a perfect cautionary essay (based on solid study) to start with and share with friends, including LMJV developers and USDA/RGNF powers that be. Two decades ago, a decision was made to focus exclusively on gaining access to Leavell McCombs Joint Venture’s Alberta Park inholding, while steadfastly ignoring the varied environmental (read physical reality) concerns raised in Christina’s appraisal.
Her thoughtful constructive advice was ignored by the governmental powers that be, and LMJV salesmen alike. That has resulted in twenty-years of squandered time and treasure with LMJV right back where they started.
Talk about throwing good money, after bad. Now in 2024 LMJV appears poised for victory. Yet, one way, or the other, it will be a pyrrhic victory since these issues haven't gone away.
Not to mention that the general economic feasibility index for such a 1980's inspired go-go dream project, and profits driver, gets thinner with every massive infrastructure damaging, global warming driven, extreme weather event eating away at the luxury market bottomline.
