SAVE DONNER SUMMIT

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Placer County Planning has a Royal Gorge project page.
A quiet time- Although F/S had a preliminary pre-project meeting with Placer County in early June,
they have not as yet made any official filings with the county. Until they do actually file something,
there are no development plans that they can be held accountable to. They did hire a high-powered
Sacramento lobbyist to continue to grease the skids, so most of the development scenarios are
going on behind closed doors. Stay tuned, but don't expect too many updates on this site until
something is actually filed (or we find out what legislative tricks they are buying).
Additionally, RG did submit a series of documents to the county in Nov 2007 for a 'pre-review', asking the county to keep them secret. This violates California law as documents submitted are considered public record. The county resisted letting the public have access and would not relent until served with legal notice. They have not made the records easily accessible; you must go down to the county personally to see the documents. RG, in a publicity spin, did put the documents on their site but the files initially were corrupted and not readable. The documents are large but will be available on this site soon. Again, since RG have not 'officially' filed their plans, they can always say these documents were just possible configurations and not the final plans.

SAVE DONNER SUMMIT

Donner Summit is one of the truly historical landscapes of the Sierra Nevada, treasured by many throughout California, Nevada and the world. Visitors, hikers, skiers, naturalists, historians, climbers, train buffs, second homeowners and residents alike have enjoyed and continue to enjoy Donner Summit's unique environment and offerings.

Donner Summit with its irreplaceable resources is now at risk: Foster-Syme, or Royal Gorge LLC, the partnership of Foster Enterprises (controlled by the grandson of the Foster that created Foster City in the Bay Area) and Woodstock Development (controlled by Kirk Syme), has recently purchased Royal Gorge Cross-Country Ski Area and 3,000 acres of adjacent private land, along with Ice Lakes Lodge and the historic Rainbow Lodge (Rainbow is now back on the market). The Foster-Syme group is proposing major development on Donner Summit in four separate locations. Their initial plans include 600+ "shared ownership" condominiums, two hotels, employee housing, several ski lifts and runs, two artificial lakes, and hundreds of home sites. Most of the development will be put right in the middle of currently pristine forest and meadow areas. Thousands of trees will have to be cut down. Roads, parking lots, ski lift corridors and ski runs will have to be plowed out of the forest. Erosion and watershed issues will effect both the South Yuba River and the North Fork of the American River as well as the local summit lakes and wetlands. Traffic, water supply, overcrowding, public safety, and sewer capacity are just a few of the additional concerns created by the proposal.

Concerned citizens (including many from outside the local community) are working with existing conservation and community groups to form a long-term strategic campaign to defend the Donner Summit area and safeguard its future for generations to come.

This site has been set up to give people information and resources about the proposed development and its effect on the land, communities and people, and environment of the summit. The savedonnersummit.org is just a website; we don't accept donations (but we encourage you to support and donate to local groups; see our What can I do? Who can I contact? page above). We encourage you to check this site frequently as it is updated frequently, and also check out www.saveserenelakes.org often for the latest news, news releases, editorials and status.

We don't have a contact us page because we are not a legal entity. However, if you have a comment or question about this website, something you wish to add or correct on the website, please contact the Webmaster (email webmaster at savedonnersummit.org). And if your are bored you can read some legal stuff.