Environmentalists, developer spar over proposed canyon project

A developer from suburban Scottsdale has one idea that's been 10 years in the planning, but it's not without controversy.

Tom DePaolo and his investors are proposing to build Canyon Forest Village - a $330 million development with 1,270 hotel rooms and 270,000 square feet of retail space along the state highway leading into the Grand Canyon's South Rim.

That's the entry point for 90 percent of the 5 million people who visit Grand Canyon National Park annually.

Environmentalists and other opposition groups are vowing to stop the controversial project, even if it requires lengthy litigation.

The 272-acre development, which already has the approval of the U.S. Forest Service, cleared another hurdle Thursday night when the Coconino County Planning and Zoning Commission voted 7-1 to approved DePaolo's rezoning request.

The 5-hour hearing capped a total of about 18 hours of public comment over four sessions. A final decision looms from the county Board of Supervisors. The board also plans several nights of hearings, the first probably coming on Jan. 24.

"If the board rejects this, it's over. But I think the board will approve it unfortunately," said spokesman Jason Rose of the Grand Canyon Improvement Association, a group opposing the project.

"A lawsuit is likely but I think voters will eventually settle this issue with a referendum sometime in 2000. A lot of people don't like this project. It's far, far too big for this location," Rose added. "If the goal is create a white elephant at the Grand Canyon, this is one heck of a way to do it."

Officials in Flagstaff, Williams and Tusayan, where many canyon visitors currently stay, fear the additional hotel rooms and retail space will cripple their economies.

"It would basically put Tusayan out of business," said Barry Baker, a spokesman for several business in the small village soith of the canyon.

The 600,000-member Sierra Club, already miffed over the Forest Service's land swap with the developers in August, is worried construction will threaten ground water supplies.

But DePaolo said his project is designed for the overall improvement of the canyon.

"Everybody knows the problems the park is facing - aging infrastructure, inadequate visitor services, deplorable housing conditions, congestion... I think Canyon Forest Village will help the park alleviate those," he said. "We have large and diverse support, from other environmental groups and all the plateau Indian tribes. They recognize there's a lot more to coming to northern Arizona than just staying at a hotel."

Within the planned Canyon Forest Village community would be a school, church and fire station, housing units for park employees and a 20,000-square-foot marketplace for tribal members to sell their arts and crafts.

Federal officials approved the project on Nov. 10, hoping it will reduce automobile congestion inside the park, relieve the need for park employee housing and eliminate the possibility of development on private land inside Kaibab National Forest.

"We're opposed to the project and the decision the Forest Service made," said Sandy Bahr, a spokeswoman for the Sierra Club's Grand Canyon Chapter. "One of our primary concerns is the ground water. We don't think it's been adequately addressed. It's a huge issue."

DePaolo said water needed for construction would be hauled in by either train or truck, or effluent from nearby wastewater treatment plants would be used.

"We're totally comfortable that the project will not use ground water," he said.

Should the supervisors approve the zoning two months from now, DePaolo said his group would start finalizing designs for the project with the first phase built "sometime between 2003 and 2005."

That's if the project isn't tied up in the court system.

"I think we can withstand those challenges. We believe those threats are hollow and very self-serving," DePaolo said. "This project might not have every piece perfectly tweaked, but it is headed in the right direction."

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