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Show A-6 The Park Record WedThursFri, April 7-9, 2004 V) RnrminrK Snirv ShrimD ana lofu Mir i - Pan Seared Sea Scallops House Smoked Salmon Tart Enjoy the creative cuisine and beautiful mountain views from the spacious Westgate Grill deck. ' Noted by Salt Lake City Weekly as "best bang for your buck!" 135-655-22611 3$ SI fi j - -f 1 j; 0 OHiBQS aK -Jt'SffrX MM If I ' r i IMp i ll(l tS3B' ' " OR II IU tin ltMr.rnjrxi y fStmf""""" rv . 1 Westgate Westgate Park City Resort & Spa 3000 The Canyons Resort Drive. Serving breakfast, lunch, and dinner daily. C. G. S' P - R K S FURNITURE WITH SOUL 454 S. 500 W. SfX, UT 801-519-6900 10A-6P M-F10A-4P SA mi iiii it nil ail n i rf -ill MQjtQ&B'flVtuii B.C. tourism to include saving grizzlies Continued from A-5 moratorium was the announced arrival of a Gart Sports store into a 30,000-squa re-foot location. Community organizations normally normal-ly on both sides of growth issues came together in urging the moratorium. mora-torium. Existing city regulations have nothing specifically to say about big-box retailers, except that any building if store signs were removed, should not be recognized as a franchise by its architecture. In an interview with The Steamboat Pilot, City Councilman Paul Strong explained that a day at the city s economic summit last year was devoted to big boxes. "There is a great concern that the proliferation of formula stores across America is causing cities to lose their individuality, " he reported. report-ed. "By formula stores, I mean stores that look and operate the same wherever they are located, causing the places they are in to be the same as every other place, turning turn-ing America into 'Generica,'" he explained. "Steamboat's , feel and ambiance, he went on to explain, are key to Steamboat's appeal as a destination tourist resort. "If our city begins to look like the towns where our visitors live, we will lose most of what differentiates us from other resort communities. I feel it is vital to our economy to try to protect pro-tect this." At the same time, he acknowledged acknowl-edged that big boxes do provide goods at generally lower prices, and as such could be seen as an affordability issue, alongside affordable housing. Steamboat is looking at various ideas from elsewhere. In 1994 Fort Collins, Cxilo., began requiring an economic impact statement before big-box retailers were allowed and also enacted special architectural and design standards in an attempt to soften the typical aesthetic harshness of the franchises. Looking at what has occurred at Montrose-Telluride, City Councilwoman Kathy Connell has advocated a regional approach. She wants to see big boxes allowed near the Yampa Valley Regional Airport, located abut 20 miles west of Steamboat. The big boxes would be available to Steamboat residents, resi-dents, but also to those in Craig and Hayden, two towns who supply many of the resort's service and construction workers. It is, she said, -ilar tortile . big T boxes - at ""Montrose, which is the primary air Ireal estateI O0 4$M a. portal as well as service center for Telluride. Another idea is to put all of the big boxes at a location on the western west-ern outskirts of Steamboat, near the old airport. That would also serve the purpose of leaving Steamboats ranching-era main street as a place of niche, old-timey stores. - More than some other resort towns, Steamboat has taken a tough stance on the large retailers. A decade ago, the city stood firm in requiring Wal-Mart to back off from its business-as-usual building plans. Now, Wal-Mart and many other national franchises are willing will-ing to come more closely to meet the design and review requirements require-ments of mountain communities. Farm Bureau argues against new wilderness SUN VALLEY, Idaho - In lobbying lob-bying for a 5,000-acre designation of wilderness, a group of Wood River Valley business owners organized a letter-writing campaign cam-paign arguing that wilderness brings more commerce. That, says a representative of the Idaho Farm Bureau, is a hasty conclusion. John Thompson, the group's director of information, says that less than 3 percent of people who recreate on National Forest land use wilderness areas, and even most wilderness users spend less than a day. Even so. they have 4.6 acres close at hand to Sun Valley to choose from. "If there was some evidence to suggest that our existing wilderness areas are helping generate more commerce than other public lands, there might be an argument here," he concluded. There is no such evidence, evi-dence, he assets, nor evidence that will change with designation of additional wilderness. Avalanche claims one snow-mobiler snow-mobiler in B.C. REVELSTOKE, B.C. ' - A recently married man died in an avalanche and four other snowmo-bilers snowmo-bilers were also partially or totally burried. They had been snowmo-biling snowmo-biling near treeline in the mountains moun-tains near Empress Lake, 60 kilometers kilo-meters (36 miles) southwest of Revelstoke. Two of the riders dug themselves them-selves out, while another two were rescued by the others. They were al wearing avalanche beacons. The .fifth person,', the only .member'; the group not wearing an ava COME IN AND SEE WHATS NEW FOR SPRING Call (80:0-424-2256 or Visit us at 3910 S. Highland Drive Oil 1 ; I 1 :M (I lUKin lanche beacon, was buried for 30 minutes. The Revelstoke Times Review said the avalanche occurred on a 50-degree slope. The Canadian Avalanche Association had issued a special warning for the area Friday, because half-a-metre of snow fell earlier in the week and the temperatures temper-atures were rising. Both factors contribute to unstable snow packs, which make avalanches more likely, like-ly, according to the CyberSpace Avalanche Center. "It's a difficult time because the danger ratings are considerable," IlyaStorm. an avalanche forecaster with the association, said. "What that means is that natural avalanches avalanch-es are possible, but human-triggered avalanches are probable." This is the eighth avalanche fatality in Western Canada this year and the second involving snowmobiles. Interest in tourist probed in B.C. train INVERMERE. B.C. - There continues to be talk of a second tourist train into the British Columbia interior. The operator. Rocky Mountain International Railtour Co.. already carries 50.000 passengers annually on tours across the Canadian Rockies, starting at Calgary before continuing to Kamloops. and also from Jasper to Kamloops. in both cases continuing on to Vancouver. In this plan, scheduled to begin in 2006. the company would begin the three-day tour afCalgary, continuing con-tinuing on to Golden, lnvermere. CranbrK)k. and Fernie, continuing back to Lethbridge and Calgary. Stops would be at Golden and Cranbrook. or Fernie. Promoters say that 80 percent of those on the tourists would come from outside of Canada. ' The lnvermere Valley Echo reports that an initial trial run of the excursion train is expected in June in order to probe interest.-However, interest.-However, no formal discussions have been held with Canadian Pacific Rail, which owns the tracks, as to costs and schedules. B.C. tourism strategy must include preserving grizzlies INVERMERE, B.C. - Wildlife impacts arc the key issue not only with the proposed Jumbo Glacier Resort near lnvermere, but more generally the British Columbia Brian McLaughlin, a councillor in I tut v p 11 of mm " lnvermere. Writing in the lnvermere Valley Echo, McLaughlin says he doesnt doubt buyers for of real estate at Jumbo Valley. From Panorama to Fernie to Whistler, the strength of the market for resort real estate is clear, he says. And the area has all the potential to attract amenity migration. Furthermore, there is the potential of three million people peo-ple in Calgary by the year 2025. But if the tourism strategy is to succeed, it must be met by an "equally aggressive provincial wildlife habitat management program." pro-gram." he says. He endorses, for example restrictions of motorized vehicles in time and space. Without such restraint, he suggests, sug-gests, projects like Jumbo Glacier Resort will have short-term gains, but little lasting value. Bioneers conference planned in Durango DURANGO, Colo. - A bioneers conference - short for biological pioneers - was being planned for Durango, with workshops, work-shops, films, and other things that celebrate the earth's environmental environmen-tal solutions as well as problems. "There's quite a bit of awareness aware-ness about the problems," says conference co-organizer Will Hays told the Durango Telegraph. "There are also solutions out there, and we know how to fix a lot of the problems. We don't necessarily neces-sarily need more science. We need action." In talking about sustainability, said Hays, its necessary to "talk about restoration because we're behind the curve." As for sustainability. sustain-ability. Hays's partner, Grace MacElveen. explained that it "creates "cre-ates a situation where all needs are met in the present and the condition condi-tion for meeting those needs in the future are all addressed. It also hinges on the premise that 1 can't meet my need unless you're meet-, ing your need. Much is already happening, she said. She pointed to the local sustainable sus-tainable agriculture movement that is growing, an increasing number num-ber of alternative fuel- sources for buildings and automobiles, and growth in natural building techniques. tech-niques. Allen Best has edited mountain town newspapers for 20 years. He has served as managing editor at. four different mountain (own newspapers and is now living in metropolitan Denver. . til |
