Grand plans demand care when dealing with Canyon

Messing with the Grand Canyon is like polishing God’s shoes or editing Shakespeare. You’d better be darn sure you get it right. Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga says two proposed developments are “fundamentally wrong.” As a public employee with a highprofile job, he’s surprisingly outspoken. He told me this is about “irreversible damage to the park,” and it’s his duty to speak up.

One development is the proposed Grand Canyon Escalade on the Navajo Nation, which would include a gondola from the Canyon’s top edge to the bottom. Controversial and not yet approved by the Navajo Nation Council, it is favored by Navajo President Ben Shelly. But Russell Begaye won last month’s election for Navajo president, and he is not seen as a big champion of the project.

It may be losing momentum. “I don’t think it’s going away,” says Uberuaga.

The other plan was ostensibly killed years ago, but it didn’t go away.

In the 1990s, there was an ambitious plan for a major development near Tusayan, a blink-and-you-pass-it town a mile from the Canyon.

Called Canyon Forest Village, the plan was shot down by Coconino County voters in a 2000 referendum.

But in 2010, Tusayan — population 562 — incorporated. And guess what? In 2011, the Town of Tusayan approved development on the same parcels of private land, which are still owned by Stilo Development Group USA.

Those two parcels lie within the Kaibab National Forest. On Stilo’s behalf, Tusayan petitioned the Forest Service for permission to make improvements to the dirt roads that cross the national forest to reach the Stilo’s inholdings.

“That’s the linchpin,” says Uberuaga.

Stilo’s representative Thomas De Paolo says the road permits are “vital,” and that without improved access to the parcels “they won’t be developed.”

Not yet anyway. “The luxury we have is being a European entity,” he says of the Stilo. “They are patient.”

The Forest Service has to evaluate potential environmental impacts and take public comment before it makes the decision on the road improvements. Public comments will be accepted through June 3. For information: fs.usda.gov/project/?project=46776

“The voice of the public plays an incredibly important role,” says Uberuaga.

In March, Flagstaff passed a resolution opposing the permit, and Earthjustice, a team of environmental lawyers representing the National Parks Conservation Association, Grand Canyon Trust, the Sierra Club and the Center for Biological Diversity, sent a 13-page letter to the Forest Service and Depart-

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ment of Agriculture saying the permit should be denied because facilitating a “huge resort development” near the Canyon “is not in the public interest.”

One of the big concerns is water. The stretch of Colorado River within the Grand Canyon topped the American Rivers’ list of endangered rivers this year in part because of the Escalade and Tusayan proposals.

DePaulo won’t rule out ground water for Stilo’s development, but he says “it would be to our benefit not to use ground water.”

He talks about the possibility of bringing water in through an old coal slurry line. Stilo has hired former Sen. Jon Kyl’s law firm to do legal research into water options.

Opponents of the project talk about thousands of homes, a spa, luxury resort, convention center and retail space on land that can only be used if the Forest Service approves road improvements. DePaulo talks about affordable housing for Tusayan, where most homes are company owned, an edu-tainment facility to provide insight into the Canyon experience and a Native American cultural center.

He says criticism from those who oppose the project is “either intentionally or unintentionally . . . very misleading to the public.”

Maybe so. But Stilo is in this for the money. “We’re not the Red Cross,” De Paulo says. “We’re a commercial real estate development company.” That’s fine. But it doesn’t reflect the public’s best interest.

Superintendent Uberuaga is in this to prevent “direct, long-term irreversible impacts” to the Grand Canyon. That’s a public service goal.

What happens in Tusayan will impact the Canyon because nature doesn’t recognize park boundaries. A really good development could be an improvement over the current town and it could relieve the pressure for hotel and parking space inside the park.

But the Canyon is a national treasure with universal appeal. The decision about whether a town within spitting distance should grow exponentially is too big for little Tusayan.

It’s important to get this right.