Environmentalists failed to get the Salt Lake Organizing Committee to intervene in the proposed Snowbasin land exchange.
But they did gain the attention of a Clinton administration official in town to try to resolve the land swap dispute.Department of Agriculture Undersecretary James Lyons was meeting Thursday and Friday with local Forest Service officials, the environmental group Save Our Canyons, Gov. Mike Leavitt and Snowbasin owner Earl Holding.
The Forest Service is part of the Agriculture Department.
Holding wants to obtain 1,320 acres of Forest Service land at the base of Snowbasin to expand it into one of Utah's largest year-round resorts. In exchange, he would give the government forest land he owns or will acquire in northern Utah.
Lyons said he was in Utah not to try to negotiate a compromise but to learn what can be done to move the issue forward.
A House committee Wednesday approved Rep. Jim Hansen's land swap bill, but Democrats and environmentalists vowed to fight it. They call it a land grab that will enrich Holding and ruin one of the finest forested areas in the state.
"I need to get a sense of where we are and what's doable," Lyons said.
He said so far the debate has been over the number of acres the Forest Service should exchange. He said that instead, the debate should be over how to provide a first-class Olympic venue while protecting the public's natural resources.
Lyons said he remains concerned with the process. "We want to make sure the public has a say," he said.
Hansen is trying to bypass normal Forest Service procedures by having Congress order the land exchange - overruling local Forest Service officials who have approved a much smaller swap.
Save Our Canyons at Thursday's SLOC board meeting distributed anti-land swap literature to members.
Save Our Canyons opposes both Snowbasin expansion and the proposed 2002 Winter Olympics and has filed suit against the Forest Service in an effort to halt Snowbasin development.
The group asked the SLOC to pass a resolution urging Congress to evaluate the land swap on its merits and not on claims it is needed for the Olympics.
"Only a small portion of the 1,320 acres is even arguably necessary for the Olympics; the vast majority of the land will be used to build thousands of condos, town houses, large homes, hotels, commercial and retail stores - and a golf course," said a letter from Save Our Canyons to committee board members.
But when committee Chairman Frank Joklik brought up the matter for discussion, no one from Save Our Canyons was present to discuss it and committee board members had nothing to say.
"We'll take it under advisement," said Joklik, who has previously testified to Congress in favor of the exchange.
Board member Jim Beardall of Ogden said later he didn't read the Save Our Canyons literature and that he remains in favor of the land exchange.
"He (Holding) certainly needs the additional land - I would think most of it," Beardall said. "I hope he's successful."