Donner Summit Serene Lakes Development Chronology
The calendars below contain links to the months of the year with entries. Months that are not links have no entries in the chronology. The Chronology traces the progression of Foster-Syme's Donner Summit Serene Lakes development project.
2008
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2007
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2006
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
2005
| January | February | March | April | May | June |
| July | August | September | October | November | December |
April, 2008. Following the pulling of the letter of intent between Sugar Bowl and Royal Gorge, Royal Gorge announced that the nature of their proposed development had changed. It would no longer be focused partly on alpine skiing but totally on Nordic skiing. They then began working on changes to the development's "amenity distribution" and "unit distribution." The separate small Van Norden development which had disappeared from plans recently was resurrected and will be folded in to the total development. Any commercial development in what had been called Ski Camp changed to be focused only on local interest. The details were still to be worked out and the community awaited formal application filing with Placer County.
April, 2008. SLPOA sent a letter to Nevada County supporting the Shatterhand development in Soda Springs which will replace the store and post office building with a new building and an additional building containing 20 or so timeshares. The DSAA Summit survey showed that residents wanted commercial development in the current commercial areas. That fact, and that the Shatterhand development is incremental and in scale, convinced the SLPOA board to send the letter.
April, 2008. SLPOA signed on to Sierra Watch's planning principles. SLPOA also sent letters of support to Nevada and Placer Counties.
Nine Environmental organizations had signed on: Sierra Watch, Sierra Club, SYRCL, MAPF, Sierra Foothills Audubon Society, California Native Plant Society, Planning and Conservation League, Sierra Nevada Alliance, No. Fork American River Alliance.
April 2008. SLPOA joins the Sierra Nevada Alliance.
April, 2008 SLPOA and DSAA join in a quest to produce an economic plan for the Summit which will help revitalize Soda Springs and improve the local economy.
March 2008, Sugar Bowl pulled the letter of intent they had in place to operate ski lifts that Royal Gorge planned to build as part of their Ski Camp. Ski Camp was to be an alpine ski in and ski out destination community and it was to have included a lift to Sugar Bowl. Sugar Bowl said they pulled the letter with Royal Gorge because it had been "premature" and because of the impact of the proposed development by Royal Gorge on the Summit. This followed conversations between SLPOA and Sugar Bowl including a presentation at a Sugar Bowl Board meeting in San Francisco.
The SLCWD Board considered two new
ordinances to codify current practices:
1. to prioritize water delivery2. to manage the lakes for ecological, recreational, and aesthetic values as well as water delivery. This includes a restriction in drawing down the lakes.
Royal Gorge's lawyers were present as well as an engineer and Kirk Syme. Royal Gorge objected to both ordinances saying that the SLCWD function is to supply water to customers and not to do the above. Royal Gorge said that the ordinances were clearly anti-development rather than simply codifying current practices.
You can read the ordinances at http://www.slcwd.org/pages/proposedordinances.html
In addition Royal Gorge demanded that the SLCWD undertake full CEQA (California Environmental Quality Act) studies. They said this was because the new ordinance that would say the lakes can be drawn down no more than three feet (rather than four as was allowed in the 1970's and although the lakes have never been drawn down more than 2.6 feet) would cause an environmental impact. Full CEQA studies would be very expensive and would have to be covered by the ratepayers as will defending the new ordinances if they are challenged by Royal Gorge.
Katie Grey wrote this article regarding the ordinances.
January 11
SLCWD holds a meeting to present the resulyts of it's research into the SLCWD water supply. At this meeting Royal Gorge presents it perspective and alternatives. Catherine Gortner provided this Summary.
January 3
Bill Oudegeest prepares and distributes a progress report on the Foster-Syme documentation.
The Foster-Syme Document saga takes a new turn when SLPOA requests an injunction. Bill Oudegeest describes the action in an update to Outrageous Perfidy.
Kathy Gray submits a letter to Placer County regarding the Planning Department refusal to release Foster-Symes planning document submissions. Her open letter to Placer County is here.
Foster-Symes Documents and Placer County: Once SLPOA knew of the submissions by Foster-Syme we attempted to get copies. The County suggested they would simply send the documents back rather than comply with our request. Initially turned down by the County our counsel submitted a formal letter of request also warning against sending the documents back or destroying them.
On December 14 the County sent the documents back to Foster/Syme and sent a letter to our counsel explaining their refusal. For more on this topic see Outrageous Perfidy by Bill Oudegeest.
December 15, 2007The DSAA hosted Summit Summit II was held at Donner Trail School with about 70 participants. A full summary can be found in the Winter SLPOA newsletter as well as at the link in this paragraph.
December 14
Christopher Farrar of the USGS made a presentation at the SLCWD Board meeting. The quick summary is that we know very little about water on the Summit even though so much falls there.
Simply drilling wells is not necessarily a solution to water problems since any interruption or change in subsurface water flow can have ramifications far distant. Dr. Farrar cautioned against over-budgeting water and against proceeding without complete and continuous testing. A full summary is in the winter edition of the SLPOA newsletter as well as at the link above..
New videos appear on Youtube, one from TheUnion.com and the other from Katie and Joe Gray in celebration of Christmas and not development. The videos on our website join others made by other members of our community. It's amazing how the internet has affected citizens' ability to communicate and engage in political activism.
KCRA-TV presented a 2:28 segment about the Foster-Syme Development project at Serene Lakes and Donner Summit. David Africa presented the concerns of our communities and his commentary is contrasted with that of Mike Livak of Foster-Syme. Steve McClelland captured the video and posted it on YouTube. Click here to watch the video.
SLPOA has been working with Otis Wollan of the Placer County Water Agency to develop a calculator for Donner Summit: how much water is available, what will the results of climate change be on the Summit, and what are the effects of various types of development?
Sierra Watch released its
general Conservation Assessment and Planning Principles
report. This document is quickly summarized on page 15 of
the SLPOA Winter newsletter as well as
here. The
entire document can be found on Sierra Watch's website.
A more specific report will be issued later, perhaps when
Royal Gorge finalizes its plans.
November 21 (the day before Thanksgiving) Foster/Syme delivered various documents, studies and
plans to Placer County to see whether the materials were
adequate for formal plan submission (like their failed June
5 pre-development meeting). These documents were prepared
outside the County offices by other than County personnel -
they were not internal communications among County
employees. Once the documents were filed with the County
they became, according to the public records act, public
documents.
Fall 2007
SLPOA made presentations to various community groups: Lions, Rotary, MAPF, etc. all of which received positive responses. More presentations were scheduled for later in the winter season.
October 2007
October 16
SLPOA presents an article describing the CEQA process as it applies to Donner Summit Serene Lakes development. The article describes the steps in the CEQA process and provides links to Placer County resources.
October, 2007
In July, 2007 DSAA sent out a survey to 1600 people on the Summit from Cisco Grove to Rainbow Bridge. The survey asked residents about quality of life, development, industry, traffic, etc. Over 500 people return the survey.
October, 2007
SLDSCA achieved non-profit status from the IRS. All donations are retroactively tax deductible. SLDSCA has, as of October, almost $100,000 in donations.
September 15
DSAA hosted a fascinating water seminar at Sugar Bow. The Placer County Water Agency also answered some general legal questions concerning water rights.
September, 2007
SLPOA hired Edelstein and Gilbert to watch over pending State legislation and engage in preemptive lobbying of State agencies and the legislature. Throughout the Fall, SLPOA's lobbyists and SLPOA's lobbying committee headed by Ken Hall (with lobbying experience in Sacramento) met with State legislators and various agencies and department heads.
Labor Day, 2007
The PowerPoint presentation of development outline and concerns is finished and ready for presentation. The Serene Lakes players audition a new play, Save Our Serene Lakes by the eminent playwright Julie Africa.
August, 2007
Royal Gorge hired Platinum Advisors, a pre-eminent lobbying firm in Sacramento to lobby the legislature, the Governor's office and the transportation and resource departments.
August 31
Pro-development meeting held at Summit Station hosted by Kirk Syme and Mike Livak. Attendance: 7
August 27
Royal Gorge emailed a complaint about SLPOA's August newsletter. SLPOA response: When it Comes to Water, Ask about the Public Trust Doctrine
August 19
Kirk Syme writes a "My Turn" opinion piece in the Sierra Sun. He claims that the groups "rejected" the offer to meet with Royal Gorge LLC. As you will see from the response the groups embraced the offer but suggested an alternate timing.
The SLPOA president also responded to Kirk Syme’s opinion piece.
August 18
DSAA annual membership meeting at Claire Tappan Lodge. Mike Livak said that non-investors should have no say in the development proposals because that would not be fair to the developers.
August 15
Crystal Jacobson, lead planner for Placer County, says there has been no change in the Royal Gorge Project status and does not know when Royal Gorge LLC will actually start the permit process.
August 10
Mike Livak, of RG LLC, announced at the SLCWD board meeting that new water supply and water demand reports will be released soon. These are expected to include multiple sources of water including re-damming Van Norden Meadow and building a storage reservoir in Lake camp. The water for the reservoir is expected to be taken from Serene Lakes during the spring snow melt season.
August 9
Andregg Geomatics completes their Ice Lakes capacity study. The results are a bathymetric map of the lakes and water capacity charts for Lake Serena, Lake Dulzura and the Combined Lakes. The final chart includes the capacity limit (the blue line at the top of the chart) given the height of the current lake weir (dam). The study findings are:
-
Total Volume of the lakes: 785 acre-feet (AF)
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Maximum available water before the intake pipe is exposed: 385 AF
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Channel between the lakes dry: when 315 AF used.
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Volume lost to evaporation and seepage: 100 AF
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Current usage: 115 AF
Foster-Syme have presented a number of usage estimates. On May 17, 2007 an estimate was prepared for SLCWD using a 46% occupancy estimate. However, the CEQA draft (see page 10) included more detail and showed usage in gallons at 75% and 100% occupancy (as required by the County) and included additional usage for irrigation that was not included in the May 17 estimate. SLPOA's calculations indicate that, based on the gallons per day figures, the actual usage is almost all the water in the lakes.
August 7
Stakeholders groups (SYRCL, SLPOA, DSAA, Sierra Watch, North Fork American River Alliance, Sierra Club) met for another tour of the proposed development this time with a geologist from the University of California at Santa Barbara, Dr. Arthur Sylvester. More discussion was done and the group learned a lot. There may be a fault in Serene Lakes. There seems to be evidence of it on Soda Springs ski hill. There are no technical obstacles to the Foster/Syme development except in the areas that are too steep. The idea of dredging the lakes of 60 acre feet could be problematical. It is possible that the tuff bedrock could be exposed along with cracks in it that could cause the lakes to drain after the sealing cover of lake muck is removed.
The geologist also said that the proposed dredging of Serene Lakes with the edges being dredged to 4:1 slopes will not work. The new lake edges will slough off to the natural angle of repose of the lakefront material which means that lake edge will work its way backwards.
August 2007
A Speakers Bureau was formed, with a PowerPoint slide show almost ready to go on tour. Cliff Busby gave a preview at a Truckee Rotary Club meeting. The presentation covered the proposed development and its impact on Donner Summit. The PowerPoint will be available for presentations to interested clubs, conservation groups, concerned citizens, and others organizations.
July 27
Royal Gorge LLC has hired the lobbying firm of Platinum Advisors. Platinum Advisors notes that lobbying will be directed towards the legislature, state resource departments, transportation departments, and the governor's office.
July 26
Seven summit area groups, including SLPOA, respond to a May suggestion by the Mountain Area Preservation Foundation (MAPF) and Royal Gorge LLC to hold a series of meetings between the involved parties. The response welcomed the opportunity for a continuing dialog but suggested that the meetings begin when the DSAA area wide survey was completed in the fall.
July 18
Foster/Syme initiated a discussion with Donner Summit Public Utility District that was aimed to simplify acquisition of sewage treatment for the proposed development. Foster/Syme wanted DSPUD to amend its April, 2007 application to renew their discharge permit to include the proposed capacity needed by the Foster/Syme development. At this point DSPUD is planning on facilities expansion only for the build out of current lots in Soda Springs and Serene Lakes. If the current expansion application were to include the Foster/Syme development’s capacity Foster/Syme would effectively have its sewer permit in hand. DSPUD rejected this offer because it would have delayed the current application. The State Water Board, which advised DSPUD in this matter, thought it more appropriate to review the impact of the development standing on its own.
July 16
Foster/Syme went to the water board last May knowing that they were requesting more water than was available from Serene Lakes, and that their request would drain the lakes of more than half their water each year. Royal Gorge LLC's water consultants were given a 1991 "lake capacity" document. This document states that the total lake volume is 668 acre-feet (AF), that 371 AF is the absolute maximum draw before the water intake is exposed. The document also shows that after 327 AF the channel between the lakes will dry up. Despite these numbers, Foster/Syme suggested that the water district can draw 380 AF each year (265 for RG, 115 for current residents), 9 more AF than is available. Rather than concluding that they want more water than is available, they proposed dredging 60 AF of lake bottom to add capacity. At no time does Foster/Syme mention that (even after dredging) the lakes will be drained of more than half their water. The 1991 document is here.
July 13
A lively SLCWD board meeting attracted a reported 75 people to hear more from Foster/Syme about their water needs and demands. Foster/Syme restated their demand for 265 acre-feet of water each year, and again pushed to dredge the lake. Board members pointed out that their demand should be for full occupancy, not the 46% the developers were suggesting was adequate for planning. Foster/Syme’s assertion that dredging was proper because it had been done before was debunked again. The 1980 “dredging” was scraping of vegetation and the dredging prior to that was only 6000 cubic yards, not the 100,000 cubic yards proposed by Foster/Syme. See the Sierra Sun article “Royal Gorge Water Debate Heats Up” for details.
July 4
SLPOA July 4 parade takes on a “Save Donner Summit” flavor as floats “saving Donner Summit” are presented and dozens of children are dressed in “save Donner Summit” tee shirts.
July 2007
Foster/Syme approached both PG&E and the Nevada Irrigation District (NID) asking for water rights. Royal Gorge LLC reportedly asked to raise Van Norden dam so that it could be used as a water supply and so it could be used to dilute effluent dumped into the South Yuba River from an expanded water treatment plant. This contradicts what Foster/Syme had said just a few weeks earlier about water sources.
June 2007
Serene Lakes/Donner Summit Conservation Association (SLDSCA) is organized as a not-for-profit association which will allow donations to be tax deductible. See their Frequently Asked Questions for details. Donations can be made at www.sldsca.org.
June 12
Royal Gorge releases a document "Water Issues Concerning Serene Lakes and Royal Gorge".
SLPOA responds to the Royal Gorge memo concerning water issues.
June 5
Foster/Syme met for their pre-development meeting with many agencies in Placer County on June 5. The purpose was for the County to present Foster/Syme with a checklist of items to be included in their formal application. According to sources at the County, Foster/Syme said they expected to be able to break ground within one year. They wanted to put off any water issues and sewer issues until later in the CEQA process and would only include one egress from the development. The County disagreed saying the submitted materials were very much inadequate, the timeline could not be as optimistic as the developers expected and that water and sewer must be addressed in the formal application, not later. Water needs must also be ascertained at 100% occupancy.
At the meeting Foster-Syme submits draft documents: Plan Outline, Project Description, Development Standards, Environmental Questionnaire, Technical Studies, and Land Use map.
Foster/Syme said that following the pre-development meeting it would only be 4-6 weeks before the final application would be turned in to the County.
May 29
SLPOA submits a pre-development letter to Placer County Planning with an attachment describing the specific areas of concern.
May 20
A group of organizations meet at Clair Tappan Lodge, for a planning and CEQA workshop led by Terry Watt. In attendance were members of Sierra Watch, Sierra Club, South Yuba River Citizens League, Serene Lakes Property Owners Association, Donner Summit Area Association, and members of other groups dedicated to challenging the proposed development. Tom Mooers announced that www.sierrawatch.org had a fund for Donner Summit, and was accepting donations. He also introduced Peter Van Zant, a former Nevada County Supervisor, and president of the South Yuba River Citizens League, whose job would be to deal with the Foster/Syme development almost exclusively.
May 17
Royal Gorge presents their water requirement report to the Sierra Lakes County Water District (SLCWD). Included with the letter were two additional analyses: Estimated Water Demand and Potential Water Supply Alternatives.
May 3
Foster-Syme present the results of the survey activities at their March, 2006 concept plan presentations.
May 2007
SLPOA retains environmental lawyer Don Mooney to advise on development issues.
Michael White, Ph.D. of the Conservation Biology Institute completes the Peer Review of Biological Baseline Conditions Report.
May 2007
Royal Gorge sent a new communication to Nevada County Planning Department, apparently withdrawing the letter of abandonment concerning the EIR for Van Norden Meadow.
April 28
Almost two hundred people attended a mini summit at the Serene Lakes Fire Department. The audience expressed their fears about Foster/Syme’s proposed development. Almost without exception, all who spoke had grave concerns about the scale and scope of the development plan. Serene Lakes Property Owners started a fund raising- drive, and many people contributed. In the one day over $35,000 was collected and over seventy people signed up to volunteer their services and talents.
April 27
Nevada County Planning Department received a letter of abandonment regarding the EIR to pursue the development of Van Norden Meadow that had been initiated by the prior owner of Royal Gorge. Whether this project, consisting of 18 homes, lodge, skating rink, and maintenance facilities has been abandoned was still open to question however. Foster/Syme would not confirm or deny.
April 12
Royal Gorge LLC submits a request for a pre-development meeting to Placer County. Included are: Agenda, Draft Specific Plan Outline, Project Description, List of Technical Studies, Draft EIQA Questionnaire, Draft Development Standards Outline and a Land Use Map.
April 2007
Opposition began to form against the Foster/Syme development partly on an ad hoc basis and partly led by the homeowners’ group. As time went by the opposition came under the aegis of the homeowners’ group.
March 26
The SLPOA Board authorized its president to sit down and talk with Royal Gorge regarding the development. The idea was that if SLPOA could come to an agreement with Royal Gorge concerning development details it could avoid unnecessary expenditure of energy, time, and money. To that end the SLPOA Board put together a list of 43 items for discussion. Optimism was in the air. Royal Gorge listened and responded that they would think about it.
Issues SLPOA thinks should be addressed:
Water, sewer, traffic, congestion, safety, development is limited to one egress, high density development is inconsistent with the current Serene Lakes, time shares and hotels will change the nature of the community, erosion, protection of sensitive lands.
Foster-Syme, in a follow-up letter, support the need for communication but indicate that they have a lot of work to do before there is sufficient detail for substantive discussion.
March 2007
Foster/Syme held a series of three meetings for the public at Ice Lakes Lodge where they revealed their planned vision for Serene Lakes. This "vision" encompasses four camp-themed developments: Lake Camp, Ski Camp, Wilderness Camp, and Summit Camp. The camps will incorporate ski lifts, and inter-tie to Sugar Bowl, commercial and hotel space, single family homes, high density homes, employee housing, maintenance facilities, lodges, restaurants, a playground, education center, and various recreation amenities. At the time of the presentations, the total amount of residential housing added up to 950 units with approximately 650 being in Ski Camp.
The development will include an overpass over the railroad tracks. It will also be a “green” development incorporating best building practices.
January 2007
The Truckee paper, Moonshine Ink, prints an article about the changes on Donner Summit.
2006
December 2006
Realizing that development is an inescapable fact in California, SLPOA and DSAA (Donner Summit Area Association) jointly planned a visioning process that someday will culminate in a community plan for the bi-county Donner Summit area. More than a hundred people gathered at Donner Trail School for a meeting facilitated by Serene Lakes resident, Heidi Kolbe. Participants discussed issues related to the Summit: jobs, transportation, recreation, traffic, safety, communications, etc. Once the results were collated and disseminated, DSAA contracted with a consultant to produce a survey that would, in Fall, 2007, go out to all Summit residents from Cisco Grove to Rainbow Bridge. The results of the survey would become the basis for the next Summit Summit in December, 2007.
October 2006
The SLPOA Board thought it would be good to start a dialogue with the purchasers of Royal Gorge to maintain communications, prevent misunderstandings, and to offer suggestions to proposed development. The meeting, held at the SLPOA president’s house, went well until Mr. Syme said that the Donner Summit Area Association (DSAA) should be the organization to represent SLPOA in the peer review process that had started earlier in the year. Further discussion ensued and finally SLPOA was allowed to be present at meetings.
At this time too, SLPOA offers the Foster/Syme development team the
opportunity to have a column in each SLPOA newsletter and make
presentations at SLPOA Board meetings. Mike Livak of Foster/Syme
contributes columns and makes presentations over the following months.
September, 2006
SLPOA invited the new purchasers of Royal Gorge, Mark Foster and Kirk Syme, to speak at the annual homeowners’ meeting.
August 25
Foster/Syme released the results of the information gathering they started at the January meeting, "Royal Gorge: Public Input Report”. One whole chapter of their publications slammed the property owners’ association.
January 2006
Royal Gorge LLC buys Ice Lakes Lodge, at Serene Lakes.
January, 2006
Mark Foster and Todd Syme were invited to the January Serene Lakes Property Owners’ Board meeting. An overflow crowd of more than a hundred residents came to the meet the new Royal Gorge owners and hear about their plans for the land. Despite being pressed over and over the new owners refused to comment on the scope or scale of any development. They said they were just collecting information.
2005
October 2005
Todd Foster, Mark Foster, and Kirk Syme buy Royal Gorge Cross Country Ski resort, at 4000 acres considered the largest cross country ski area on the North American continent with more than 9,000 acres of skiing terrain, the largest groomed track system in North America, and the world's largest cross country grooming fleet.