From: Glenn Scherer {gscherer@warwick.net}
Intrawest, a multi-national corporation headquartered in Vancouver, Canada wants to build 1,600 condos, three hotels, a golf course, conference center, sprawling village of retail shops, restaurants, night clubs and a performance center in Vernon Township. Their garish Mountain Creek Resort Community brochure proclaims in bold letters their vision for the future of Vernon: "LIKE A ROCKWELL PAINTING `ON STEROIDS'"
The question I have for New Jersey residents: Is this the extreme vision you personally hold for the future of our state?
Intrawest's vision statement claims that it will bring "literally millions of Americans" to the "the still-pristine" Vernon valley.
The question I have is, how pristine will Vernon be once Intrawest begins bringing more than two million additional people to our town each year? (the ski industry for the entire state of Vermont attracts only 8 million annual visitors!).
Intrawest makes outrageous promises that their mega-development at Mountain Creek will hold down taxes and minimally impact traffic, not seriously effect water use or sewage demands, will not overwork emergency services, overcrowd schools, cause flooding or harm the environment.
The carelessness with which this corporation evaluates these potential community impacts was put to the test at a recent planning board meeting. At that time, it came to light that Intrawest had hired an aquatic biologist (an expert on fish) to do a two year study of a forested mountain top (How is it possible, for our planning board to allow an expert on fish to testify about the deer and bears living atop Hamburg Mountain?).
Intrawest's claims of professional credibility dissolved in a puff of smoke when their environmental witness, Ronald A. Alevras, waffled and wavered, stuttered and sometimes stopped speaking, his lawyer rushing to his defense. The expert didn't know how many acres would be deforested or paved over by the development. He didn't know the number of streams or wetlands that would be impacted (you'd expect at least this much from a fish expert!). He had no guess as to what mammal and songbird species might be diminished or lost forever due to the mega-development. He never addressed the issue of insecticide pollution caused by the golf course, or the effects of flooding or silt erosion on streams in Vernon Valley.
He laughably referred to the "turf-like habitat" of the golf course fairway. "Yes," the audience heckled back at him, "an ecosystem made up of Canada geese, gophers and golfers!"
Intrawest's presentation was a big disappointment since they had, to this point, feigned concern for the health of our human and forest community. How can this corporation be a steward for the environment when its expert apparently knows almost nothing about forest fragmentation or biodiversity, barred owls or black bears? How can we then trust the corporation's experts who swear taxes will not go up, that traffic will not be snarled, that schools will not be overcrowded, water resources not be used up, that new sewers and increased emergency services won't have to be paid for by us?
If you feel that such fears are an overreaction, then sample some of the views of those who live elsewhere in communities already invaded by Intrawest:
Other small towns, such as those surrounding Intrawest's Stratton Mountain, Vermont mega-development, are now regularly reporting the difficulties of living with this multinational corporation as their big brother. State and private environmental officials in Vermont have decided that "Stratton Mountain Resort is doing such a poor job protecting fragile mountain streams it shouldn't be allowed to expand until it stops damaging those streams."
Residents living in the shadow of the Stratton Resort look up at increasingly deforested mountain slopes with apprehension, fearing flooding and water pollution. They report the degrading of trout streams coming from the development's eroding sand and silt. They are irked by Intrawest traffic and environmental studies that continue to provide vague and insufficient data and conclusions.
At Stratton, Intrawest has been fined for fouling waterways and violating state water quality laws. In one case, the resort built a large bridge, blocking stream flow in flagrant disregard of their environmental permits. Vermont fined the company and ordered them to tear down the illegal structure. One newspaper editorial accuses the resort of a "continuing record of environmental recklessness"
It is apparent that Intrawest's business strategy (practiced at sites around the globe) is to muscle their way into small communities, and overwhelm them with the sheer power and magnitude of their developments. At Intrawest's Mont Tremblant development, near Montreal, Canada, an angered resident writes, "What started out as a welcome effort to upgrade the ski area and provide a modicum of peripheral retail and lodging services after years of neglect by the previous owner, has turned into a giant steamroller of a money grab by greedy real estate developers, who have no interest whatsoever in the welfare of the local populace, environment, nature, safety, and most importantly, the ability of anyone to actually enjoy the place."
In California, at Intrawest's Mammoth Mountain development, the company has used bullying tactics, threatening to leave town if they didn't get exactly what they want. Is this the kind of neighbor we want in our community? Apparently, Intrawest's concerns for local people's needs stops at lip service - "Norman Rockwell on steroids": not a very pretty picture.
Intrawest (and Vernon mayor John Logan) pretend that their vision for our town is the same as that desired by the majority of our residents. In fact, no one has polled our residents to determine the validity of this belief. In fact, Logan and his cronies openly favor Intrawest's development strategies and have so far refused to turn a critical eye on their rosy reports of a Vernon free of Intrawest-bred problems.
If we residents of Vernon allow ourselves to be hoodwinked by Intrawest we deserve to see our town run by a multinational corporation. We need to be asking hard questions now, and gaining significant concessions from Intrawest. We need to stop their development within fragile ecosystems, and to get their financial commitment to improving Vernon's infrastructures. We need to hire unbiased experts who will tell the truth about Mountain Creek's potential impacts. We also need to let the corporation know that their vision for the future of Vernon is not ours.
There was one statement which the Intrawest environmental "expert" made to which maybe we should pay close attention. He compared the wealth of wildlife atop Hamburg Mountain favorably with that of Sterling Forest. The people of the state of New York (along with the U.S. Congress) recently saw fit to refuse a multinational corporate real estate developer access to Sterling Forest and to then protect the area forever as a state park. Maybe we should do the same for Vernon's Hamburg Mountain.
Glenn Scherer, Vernon NJ
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