Judge Richard Matsch took issue with the Forest Service’s environmental impact assessment for the project, identifying multiple failures of the agency. Forest Service violated federal law and failed to uphold its responsibilities issuing the land exchange in a May 2017 ruling. The decision comes after a federal judge found the U.S. “Red” McCombs and daughter Marsha McCombs Shields. Kane’s order annulled the land patent that gave 205 acres of National Forest Service land to developers Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture, led by Texas billionaire B.J. “Judge Kane ruled that it had been properly unwound and so that’s a done deal,” Jones said. “As we see it, the joint venture was just dragging their feet on it and the Forest Service was, too, which really calls into question their commitment to following through.”Ĭlint Jones, project lead for the Village at Wolf Creek, said the ruling was a legal reflection that Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture had reversed the exchange.

“The question in my mind is: Why did that take so long? And why did we have to go to court to make sure that it was done completely?” he said. “It really just ties up the bow,” said Jimbo Buickerood, the lands and forest protection program manager with the nonprofit San Juan Citizens Alliance. The ruling confirms a major victory for environmental groups in Southwest Colorado that have fought to stop the 1,700-unit development that would have served 8,000 to 10,000 people adjacent to the remote Wolf Creek Ski Area. Kane officially unwound the 2015 land exchange between Rio Grande National Forest and Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture this week, ending one of the paths forward for the development of the “Village at Wolf Creek.” District Court judge has brought to an end a yearslong legal battle between environmental groups and developers for the future of a Wolf Creek Ski Area ski resort.ĭistrict of Colorado Judge John L. (Courtesy of Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture)Ī ruling by a U.S. Developers Leavell-McCombs Joint Venture and environmental groups await an outstanding ruling on an access that could determine the fate of the project. A rendering of the proposed Village at Wolf Creek.

Wolf creek ski mountain