After calling off the wedding a month ago, the on-again off-again relationship between oil tycoon Earl Holding and the U.S. Forest Service was quietly sealed Tuesday when the two sides finalized the controversial Snowbasin land exchange.
The Forest Service obtained everything it wanted in the original deal plus extras thrown in. Snowbasin Ski Area received the go-ahead to proceed with its development of a mountain village at the base of the Ogden Valley resort.
The deal is essentially the same one canceled last month by the Forest Service but with some tweaking to the $4.2 million exchange to accommodate nervous forest officials.
Regional forester Jack Blackwell announced that deeds have been exchanged whereby the Forest Service gets 11,757 acres in northern Utah and Snowbasin gets 1,377 acres of Forest Service lands adjacent to the ski resort where company officials plan to build a new day lodge and other accommodations in time for the 2002 Winter Games.
Snowbasin, owned by Earl Holding and Sinclair Oil, will host the downhill and super G Olympic races.
"We are all pleased with the final mix of lands included in the exchange," said Bernie Weingardt, forest supervisor for the Wasatch-Cache National Forest. "Lands acquired by the Forest Service will provide recreation opportunities to the public, as well as additional habitat for wildlife and threatened and endangered species."
In a prepared statement, Snowbasin said the trade "represents a major investment by Sinclair in the development of a world class, four-season resort in northern Utah."
It was a deal that almost didn't happen despite congressional authorization.
On April 21, the Forest Service pulled the plug on the deal at the last minute, saying a key parcel — an 800-acre block in Taylor Canyon above Ogden — had legal conditions attached to the deed that required the landowners to share with a neighbor the cost of road construction and removal of a flood control basin.
The encumbrances would have been transferred to the U.S. government had the exchange gone through, something the Forest Service could not legally accept.
Blackwell said the Forest Service and Sinclair Oil agreed to reduce the appraised value of the parcel by $40,000 because of the easements, and Sinclair has agreed to assume responsibility for any future financial obligations should the adjacent property be developed and the road constructed.
Because of the reduced value, Sinclair agreed to add additional lands elsewhere to the exchange to make the values equal.
Blackwell said Sinclair's concessions made it possible to complete the deal.
Congress authorized the land exchange in 1996. The legislation also authorized construction of ski facilities on national forest lands at the resort, and it identified some of the parcels to be included in the land exchange. Taylor Canyon was specifically mentioned, although the Forest Service had the authority to substitute other lands for the Taylor Canyon property.
Both the Forest Service and Snowbasin are key players in the 2002 Winter Games, and the deal has Salt Lake Organizing Committee officials breathing easier. Had the deal not gone through, Snowbasin would not have been able to build a permanent lodge that could have been used for support staff for the Games.
"It saved us about $200,000, what it would have cost us if we had needed to rent tents and trailers," said SLOC President Mitt Romney. "Obviously, it makes it easier for us working out of a permanent building with wiring and plumbing."
Romney said SLOC is a partner with ski operators, and "what helps them helps us. Clearly, we could hold the Games without the agreement between Snowbasin and the government, but this makes our job easier," he said.
Romney added that SLOC has not been involved in any way to resolve the dispute between Snowbasin and the Forest Service.
The land exchange does not affect the downhill or super G courses actually used for the Olympic events. Rather, the lands are part of a proposed expansion to accommodate Olympic visitors. An estimated 30,000 visitors a day are expected at the events.
Sinclair officials said the current focus of development is preparation of new skiing, visitor and support facilities for the downhill and super G events, which historically are among the most popular Winter Olympic events. The facilities will remain in place after the Games and will be part of Sinclair's strategy to turn Snowbasin into a year-round resort.
Not everyone was pleased with the deal. Janine Blaeloch with the Western Land Exchange Project, a Seattle-based watchdog group that monitors federal land deals, criticized the deal as "another great example of a few members of Congress acting as brokers for wealthy landowners."
The worst aspect of the deal, she said, is that the legislation allowed the deal to go through without public hearings or environmental reviews.
"If there had been an environmental impact statement and public participation, we would have had some explanation of what the public was getting and what it was giving up, and whether there was really any reason to do this land exchange," Blaeloch said. "As it is, we are left having to swallow something that became inevitable."
The Forest Service will hold an open house June 1 from 6:30 to 8 p.m. at the Weber County Library in Ogden at 2464 Jefferson Ave. to make a presentation on the location of the parcels involved in the exchange.
E-mail: spang@desnews.com