Learn about new Heavenly Mountain Resort plans at USFS Open House

Heavenly Mountain Resort's proposed Epic Discovery Project will be featured at an open house hosted by the U.S. Forest Service on Thursday, September 18.

The resort wants to expand year-round activities to include zipline and skycycle canopy tours, a mountain bike park, a ropes course, water activities, hiking trails, mountain excursion tours and nature interpretation. Heavenly is also proposing to create a snowcat emergency evacuation route for the gondola line.

USFS has worked with the Tahoe Regional Planning Agency, and the Lahontan Regional Water Quality Control Board to produce a joint environmental document to facilitate review of the resort’s proposed project. Heavenly operates primarily on national forest system lands that are part of the Lake Tahoe Basin Management Unit under a 40-year Ski Area Special Use Permit issued by the Forest Service on May 7, 2002.

Adventure Peak, at the top of the Gondola, would continue to serve as the primary access portal and hub for most of the proposed activities. However, the proposal would extend activities beyond Adventure Peak to provide natural resource-based recreation in the East Peak Lake Basin to the east and the Sky Meadows Basin to the west. A combination of ski lifts, hiking trails and zip lines would link all three activity centers. All activities would be accessed using the existing Gondola from the base station at Heavenly Village.

The Forest Service open house will take place Thursday, September 18, 2014, at the Forest Supervisor’s Office, 35 College Drive, South Lake Tahoe, California, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m. This is not a public hearing, but rather an opportunity for those interested to learn more about the project to assist them in developing their comments. Requests for reasonable accommodation for access to the facility or proceedings may be made by contacting Adrian Escobedo at aescobedo2@fs.fed.us.

David Landry, TRPA is serving as the primary point of contact to address questions and accept written comments, (775) 589-5214, dlandry@trpa.og. To view the project documents, visit http://www.fs.usda.gov/goto/LTBMU/HeavenlyEpicProject