“Does anyone out there remember when the city of Whitefish had culture? Reminisce beer barters in the streets? Can you recall dancing to music in the parks? Chili cook-offs? Is there any recollection of those …?”
Natural beauty or high-end development: Piano Creek Ranch, Wolf Creek Village, the Yellowstone Club and Tamarack Resort.
An excerpt from Book Three in “The Knowledge Path Series” dedicated to helping you find the place of your dreams.
Like Rafael, not everybody living in a pristine resort at the innovation stage looks forward to development.
They fear that someone, usually from outside of their community, state or country will be tempted by the raw natural beauty and try to develop it into an exclusive, high-end resort destination.
“Wealthy Influentials” sense the breakout point possible in real estate from their own prior investment experiences.
Like the consortium behind the Piano Creek Ranch attempt near Pagosa Springs, Colorado, who hatched development plans between 1999 and 2000.
Or like Red McCombs in 2008, with his Wolf Creek Village surrounded by the Rio Grand National Forest in Colorado.
Or, like Bobby Ginn beginning to develop a private resort near Minturn, Colorado in 2004– aptly named Battle Mountain Resort — in Eagle County, home to Vail and Beaver Creek destination resorts.
Some destination resorts, home to “Wireless Resorters,” fell victim to the “Great Recession”.
Places in the pristine mountains of Montana, Utah and Idaho like the Yellowstone Club and Tamarack Resort from which the Bank of America reclaimed their ski lifts.
In Colorado, development weighed heavily on small innovation towns like Basalt.
Their town council in 2007 and 2008 crafted a land-use master plan with five scenarios unfolding over a decade.
In the summer of 2008 a long-time “High Country Eagle” citizen from Whitefish, Montana lamented:
“Does anyone out there remember when the city of Whitefish had culture? Reminisce beer barters in the streets? Can you recall dancing to music in the parks? Chili cook-offs? Is there any recollection of those …?”
Ah, the good old days.
The good old ways.
Some urban and suburban consumers may question inhumane food practices in the processing of chickens, pigs and calves purchased in our local markets for our kitchen table.
Neighbors may protest and city councils may ban chickens as pets in California’s “Wealthy Influential” Newport Beach, but not so much in other parts of California or Montana.
In the winter of 2008 the City Council thumbed their noses at the complaining newcomers by passing an ordinance that allowed hens as pets by a margin of 5-1.
During the summer of 2010 residents in Eastern Sierra town of Bishop, California tried to follow suit.
And, the heated arguments voiced in face-to-face town meetings boiled over to the Internet.
“It is obvious that you are a young, smart-a– who probably moved from LA to Mammoth, couldn’t afford to live there and ended up here.”
“I was born here. You’re obviously a hypocrite.”
“Go back to Metropolis, where superman protects you from all the big, scary and stinky farm animals.
Bishop will be ok without one more flatlander type.”
Steps:
(29) Investigate each community’s local attitude towards development. Is there a fear that someone, usually from outside of their community, state or country will be tempted by the raw natural beauty and try to develop it into an exclusive, high-end resort destination?