An entertainment center that would include what is being called a “mountain roller coaster,” prompted some residents of in Beaver Creek to file a lawsuit against Vail Resorts.

Vail Resorts, which owns Beaver Creek and is developing the center, announced last week it had started construction on new recreational activities on private land it owns above what is called the Ranch and is accessible by the Buckaroo Express Gondola.

The recreational amenities include what it is calling the “Forest Flyer,” which will be tobaggans on steel tracks with curves, circles and dips.

Opponents call it a roller coaster at a mountain amusement park on a mountain facing Beaver Creek Village, as close as two blocks of some residential neighborhoods.

However, Beaver Creek remains undaunted by the suit filed by the Beaver Creek Property Owners Association and the Greystone Condominium Association.

“Beaver Creek is committed to providing new activities for kids on a year round basis that allow families to enjoy the beautiful and iconic nature of our mountain while also having fun and exhilarating experiences,” said Doug Lovell, chief operating officer, Beaver Creek Resort.

“Beaver Creek has a 30-plus year track record of industry leading guest service and doing so in a way that always delivers on our brand promise,” Lovell continued.

He said the planned activity center followed a “very public process.”

The neighbors suing Vail Resorts find little to like about the development.

Permanently “scar” mountain

“We believe an amusement park complex is not appropriate for a setting like Beaver Creek, where the rides will permanently scar the face of the mountain and alter the character and beauty of this valley for both residents and visitors,” said Tim Maher, president of the board of the Beaver Creek Property Owners association board of directors.

“The amusement park rides would be a distance of less than two football fields from the closest homes and well within sight and earshot of many homeowners’ bedroom windows,” he said.

The new amusement rides proposed at this point, opponent contend, include a roller coaster operated year-round, a ropes challenge course/zip line, a summer tubing hill and an operations building to support the roller coaster.

The roller coaster would run on a one-half mile long steel track, also requiring the installation of 2,000 feet of safety fencing with the help of a fence contractor and nearly 3,000 feet (10 football fields) of structural metal.

The BCPOA alleges that in addition to marring the view of almost every home with a mountain view in the valley, the proximity of the roller coaster to homes would generate year-round noise given its capacity of accommodating up to 500 riders per hour.

“Most people would agree an amusement park is not a good fit and very off-brand for Beaver Creek, which Vail Resorts markets as a premiere, world-class resort,” said Barry Parker, vice president of the BCPOA board. “The roller coaster proposed at Beaver Creek would be the only installation of its kind this close to residential areas in any U.S. mountain resort.”

“The vast majority of coasters in the U.S. are installed at amusement parks or water parks, not luxury resorts.”

He also raised environmental concerns.

“Based on our review of the plans, construction of an amusement park complex at Beaver Creek would also result in significant environmental damage, including the removal of 350 mature aspen trees for the roller coaster alone,” Parke said.

A tree trimming experts in Portland will be the one to assist in tree removal; it will be done safely and, of course, with a licensed and permitted contractor.

Vail Resorts’ landscape plan only calls for replacing those trees with 92 significantly smaller trees, he said.

“This environmental damage is a direct contradiction to Vail Resorts’ stated core philosophy that their resorts operate in some of the world’s greatest natural environments, and they are compelled to care for and preserve them,” Parker said.

The 50-foot tall high ropes challenge course would be built directly over a wetland area and stream that feeds into the Eagle and Colorado Rivers. Vail Resorts has not yet obtained permits from the Environmental Protection Agency, he said.

Colorado Open Lands, a private, non-profit land conservation and land trust organization, holds the conservation easement for the land on which Vail Resorts plans to build the amusement park complex, he said.

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