Above photo: Flagstaff hotelier Steve Patel holds a sign protesting development by Stilo Development Group near the town of Tusayan. The Forest Service hosted a public comment session related to the development Wednesday evening at the DoubleTree Hotel in Flagstaff. Jake Bacon/Arizona Daily Sun
Flagstaff, AZ – The water-related impacts of a massive development proposed near the town of Tusayan were a top concern for Flagstaff residents who attended a public comment session connected to the project on Wednesday night.
“Anything to do with water is key in this state,” Flagstaff resident Walt Taylor said. “With the amount of water this scale of project would be using, it couldn’t help but have an effect on the groundwater in the area.”
The Forest Service hosted the comment session as part of its environmental review of a road easement application submitted by the town of Tusayan last year. Gaining road access is crucial for the development to move forward on the two parcels, totalling about 350 acres. Without that approval, the town would not be able to pave roads or install utilities to serve the hundreds of homes as well as thousands of square feet of commercial space, lodging and visitor amenities that landowner Stilo Development Group has plans to build.
Wednesday’s public comment session, as well as two others held in Williams and Tusayan, was an effort by the Forest Service to gain feedback on what potential environmental impacts it should consider as it reviews the town’s easement application.
While water is perhaps the largest concern looming over Stilo’s plans, it’s also one of the biggest question marks surrounding the project. Stilo still hasn’t determined how it will supply water to the project. The use of an abandoned coal slurry pipeline to bring in water from the Colorado River, drilling wells to tap groundwater and trucking or hauling water by train are still all on the table, said Andy Jacobs, a consultant for Stilo.
Federico Pellicioli, president of the company’s U.S. subsidiary, said Stilo hopes to have a plan for water within the next few months.
As for concerns about groundwater depletion, he said there are a lot of misperceptions.
“If (people) take a look at the literature out there and all of the different issues, they will find that there are ways to do this responsibly and that our plan is to do exactly what we said we were going to do: to build a first-class project using a sustainably built approach and try not to hurt the environment or the existing business,” Pellicioli said.
The company is looking at several ways to mitigate or minimize the impact on the water resources, he said.
Additional effects of development near the Grand Canyon, including increased pollution, traffic and visitors, were other common concerns voiced by those at the public comment session.
“I think it’s going to affect everything at the Grand Canyon that makes it a special place,” resident Jane Jackson said.
The U.S. Department of the Interior, which oversees the Park Service, also has urged the Forest Service to consider the greater value of the Grand Canyon in its easement decision. The Forest Service falls under the Department of Agriculture.
“If granted, (Tusayan’s) Special Use Authorization will facilitate development which could result in a variety of negative impacts to the Park and, importantly, to its ‘Outstanding Universal Value’ (OUV), i.e., what makes the Park significant at a global level,” wrote Michael Bean, principal deputy assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks. “Until a water source (for the development) has been identified, it may be premature to begin an environmental analysis.”
City and county concerns
Before the comment session, about three dozen protesters gathered outside the DoubleTree Hotel, with about two dozen opposing the development and a dozen supporting it. Signs that read “If you don’t live in Tusayan shut up” were steps away from others that read “The Grand Canyon belongs to us all.”
Pete Shearer was one of those whose comments were specific to the town of Tusayan. The town’s former mayor, Shearer expressed concern about the alignment of one of the Forest Service’s proposed routes to Stilo’s proposed development. On plan documents, the road would run through a corner of the Grand Canyon School District property. Building a heavily trafficked road beside the future school and town park puts children’s safety at risk, Shearer said.
The fact that the route branches off from State Route 64 south of the main amenities in Tusayan could potentially deprive businesses of traffic, which would also be a blow to locals, Shearer said.
The project could also affect the operations of Coconino County in several ways, Supervisor Art Babbott said.
A significant increase in population around Tusayan could potentially require the county sheriff to increase law enforcement capacity in the area, while cars entering and exiting the development onto State Route 64 could pose traffic impacts that haven’t yet been fully studied, Babbott said.
Because some parts of the development are situated in a federally designated floodplain, the county also needs to understand the implications of that, he said.
The effects of the development on regional water sources as well as on other Coconino County communities such as the Havasupai are other elements that deserve consideration, he said.
U.S. Rep. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Flagstaff, hasn’t taken a position on the issue, according to the representative’s spokeswoman Jennifer Johnson.
“We are reviewing the project, and members of our staff will be attending the public meeting this week,” Johnson wrote in an email on Tuesday.
So far, the Forest Service has received more than 900 comments on the easement application review, which doesn’t include a batch of more than 50,000 mostly form letters from Center for Biological Diversity members, at least 1,000 similar form letters from the Sierra Club’s Arizona Chapter and a significant number from Earthjustice, though staff attorney Ted Zukoski didn’t want to estimate the number.
The number of comments the Forest Service has received is on par with other controversial topics the agency has considered, including the withdrawal of public lands around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, said Deirdre McLaughlin, who is with the Forest Service’s Williams Ranger District.