Development

Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort was purchased in 2005 by three investors, Todd Foster, Mark Foster, and Kirk Syme. The two Misters Foster are principals in Foster Enterprises, the bay area development firm responsible for Foster City. Mr. Syme is the sole owner of Woodstock Development Company, also in the bay area. Along with the ongoing cross country ski resort business, the trio purchased several thousand acres of land on Donner Summit from Rancho Monterey LLC.

In March of 2007, the group, now called Royal Gorge LLC, made a series of public presentations to reveal their plans for development in the Donner Summit Area. The magnitude of their plans for the 3000 acres they purchased, and the potential for environmental destruction of the fragile Donner Summit stunned the public. Royal Gorge LLC's plans include up to 1000 units, many of them in dense condominium blocks, used as time-shares, fractional ownership units, and lodging. The project calls for several lodges, one of them in the wild Point Mariah area, complete with a viewing tower looming over the Wild and Scenic North Fork of the American River. Another lodge, surrounded by condos and parking lots, will be placed immediately next to Serene Lakes, a single family neighborhood.

Cross country ski trails will be destroyed, both to accommodate homes, roads, and parking lots, and to build a new downhill ski resort connected to Sugar Bowl. Over 600 units will be placed east of the little Serene Lakes, with new ski lifts and runs--this will entail massive clearcutting, and will endanger the watershed for the two lakes, the area's only current drinking water source. A restaurant will be carved out of Razorback Ridge above the ski resort, destroying the viewshed. This restaurant will be a private club for the proposed development, accessible to the general public only at night.

Additionally, two lakes will be blasted out of the granite near the present Royal Gorge Summit Station west of Serene Lakes. One of these lakes will have a clubhouse, to be used in the winter as a private cross country ski lodge, excluding day skiers at Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski Resort. It is uncertain how many existing trails will survive the development-- as to the difficulty of cross country skiing across all of the hardscape-Royal Gorge LLC plans to solve that by laying out rubber mats. A full service equine facility is also planned for what is now the cross country ski area.

Royal Gorge LLC has as yet been unable to solve the problem of providing enough water for their proposed development, and also has not addressed the disposal of sewage. The local sewage plant is near capacity, and will not be able to accommodate a development of this size. Royal Gorge is currently looking into dredging the Serene Lakes, taking water that now flows down Serena Creek, a class one perennial trout stream that feeds the North Fork of the American River headwaters, and perhaps redamming Van Norden Meadow, which they had originally promised to save as open space. Van Norden Meadow is an absolutely critical part of the headwaters of the South Yuba River.

Concerns about this development include, but are not limited to:

Its massive scale, the 1,000 units dwarf the 200 or so at either Village at Northstar or Squaw Village
Incompatibility with the present community of cabins and homes
Environmental Damage from clearcuts, grading and ski runs
Damage to Serene Lakes and their watershed
Flooding of Van Norden Meadow
Displacement of wildlife, including some endangered or threatened species
Impaired egress in case of fire-- there is only one road out
Lack of Adequate Water and Sewage Disposal
Excess Traffic and Noise
Urbanization and Further Commercialization of a very rugged, rural place-The Iconic Donner Summit

The Proposed Royal Gorge Development

Click on the picture for a higher resolution image (1.2MB jpg)

The picture above shows Royal Gorge's proposed subdivision map overlaid on a Google Earth image. The blue areas are two artificial lakes, the yellow areas are single homes, the orange areas are duplex/fourplex villages, and red identifies the commercial core areas containing condominiums, retail shops and hotels. The black line is the boundary for the Royal Gorge lands in Lake Camp. Royal Gorge's cross country trails, starting from their headquarters, will wind between condos, houses and other structures, not forests and open space.

Photo of Ski Camp Map

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Royal Gorge showed this map to guests of their "morning ramble" in May. The map shows the sprawl across floor and sides of the Ski Camp bowl east of Serene Lakes. One can see from looking at the contour lines that the flat bottom is covered in condos, townhomes, lodge, wellness center, headquarters and other amenities. Any hillsides not too steep are covered in single family homesites. A total of 650 units plus commercial space is planned for what is currently a forested area in the watershed of Serene Lakes.

Click here to download the Lake and Summit Camp subdivision map (low resolution 400kB)

Click here to download the Lake and Summit Camp subdivision map (high resolution 5MB)

click here to download the Ski Camp subdivision map (low resolution 400kB)

click here to download the Ski Camp subdivision map (high resolution 5MB)

Proposed Project Map