Friends of Mount Sunapee E-News, January 9, 2015
Dear Friends,
Read the Concord Monitor Editorial against the Sunapee Expansion!
Their editorial says this proposal for the park “is unprecedented in New Hampshire.”
Want to help us protect Mount Sunapee State Park?
For more information, see our website: www.FriendsofMountSunapee.org
[hr] Background: In the early 1900s, Herbert Welsh, a summer resident of Sunapee, worked with the Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests to preserve Mount Sunapee. At that time, logging threatened the mountain’s ancient forest and natural beauty. In 1948, the state took over, formed Mount Sunapee State Park, and opened the ski area.
Now, our state park and its remarkable natural heritage face a new threat from resort-driven private development.
The ski area at Mount Sunapee State Park is currently leased to CNL Lifestyle Properties, a Florida-based real estate investment trust. CNL and the operator, Okemo/Mount Sunapee Resort, want to build out the resort to the west into Goshen, where Okemo/MSR owns hundreds of acres that abut the park.
Commissioner Jeffrey Rose, Department of Resources and Economic Development (DRED), is now considering this proposal, which is part of Okemo’s suggested master plan (2015-2019) for the Mount Sunapee ski area.
[hr] The State Should Say “No” to Sunapee Expansion
In its editorial, the Concord Monitor succinctly wrote:
“Get it wrong and a premier part of the state, and land left in trust to its people, could be forever altered. [DRED Commissioner] Rose’s response should be to withhold judgment pending more public hearings and answers to a host of questions. Should he ultimately recommend in favor of expanding the ski area, its fate will be up to the Executive Council and Gov. Maggie Hassan. If it comes to that, like her predecessor, governor John Lynch, Hassan should say, ‘No.’”
“Anyone who wants to get a sense of what the Sunapee area could become should visit Ludlow, Vt., home to the Okemo ski area and soon to yet another ‘village’ of summer homes and condominiums. Is that what New Hampshire wants for its state parks? Read the Concord Monitor editorial, “State should not sign off on Sunapee plan.”
Read the full editorial at the Concord Monitor website.
[hr] Your Help is Needed to Preserve and Protect Mount Sunapee
Learn how YOU can help.
Mount Sunapee State Park was created by land purchased, gifted, and taken by eminent domain for public good, not private gain. The Friends of Mount Sunapee believes that cross border development is wrong for Mount Sunapee and wrong for our state; it will set a dangerous precedent for state lands across New Hampshire.
FOMS supports improving our state park. However, we oppose Okemo’s western expansion plan for Mount Sunapee, which opens the way to cross-border private development. This not only violates the mission of our park, but will diminish an ecologically important landscape—the Sunapee-Pillsbury Highands.
Resort-driven real estate development will inevitably follow expansion and threaten the rural character of the communities in the mountain’s shadow. Additionally, other park uses and resources will be impacted. The expansion will destroy the current hiking experience now enjoyed along the Summit Trial, the only public hiking trail on the western side of the park, and it will cut into and diminish the park’s remarkable natural heritage including rare ancient forest.
We invite you to join us in our work to preserve our state park for its essential public values and to protect the region’s quality of life, clean waters and open spaces. For more information, please contact us.
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