Developers submit documents for Bear Lake project

PARIS, Idaho - Developers of the planned Black Bear Resort are gearing up for a public hearing this month on the first phase of their large-scale planned urban development in Bear Lake County.

Bruce Barrett and Brad Auger plan a European-style mountain village and a 600-slip marina near where 18-mile-long Bear Lake straddles the Idaho-Utah border.

At the April 14 hearing, the developers will seek approval from county officials for their planned urban development and preliminary plat applications, according to the Idaho State Journal.

Documents include a wildlife mitigation plan that outlines ways to reduce the resort's environmental impact. Recently, they submitted a groundwater mitigation plan to the Idaho Department of Water Resources, and filed a land swap proposal with the U.S. Forest Service.

Bear Lake is 120 miles from Salt Lake City. Logan, Utah, a town of 50,000, is an hour away.

The wildlife mitigation plan expands the development's biological evaluation, submitted in October, addressing issues ranging from protecting and restoring native vegetation to minimizing the recreational affect wildlife to protecting sage grouse leks. Leks are the areas where male sage grouse perform mating dances to attract females.

Many of the actions listed in the mitigation plan include clustering development to maximize open space and avoid sensitive habitat areas, encouraging homeowners to preserve natural features, and adjusting some parts of the development to protect vegetation, the newspaper reported. The plan notes that there are no methods of enforcing homeowner compliance with conservation proposals.

In response, the Idaho Department of Fish and Game argued more buffer areas are needed for sage grouse leks and the evaluation didn't take moose or forest grouse into consideration.

Fish and Game is working on an official response to the complete Black Bear wildlife mitigation plan, staff biologist Jim Mende said.

The water mitigation proposal is the second the developers have submitted to IDWR.

Dave Carlson, a senior IDWR water resource agent, said officials will meet with developers to tell them whether the application is acceptable. He said there is no timeline.

Black Bear has also proposed a land swap with the Forest Service in an effort to increase downhill skiing acreage on the resort property.

Through the proposal, the developers are seeking to acquire as much as 10,000 acres of current Forest Service land nearby. The proposed exchange would be for a combination of private property purchased by the developers and land owned by the Idaho Department of Lands.

The plan is currently under review by Larry Timchak, forest supervisor for the Caribou-Targhee National Forest. Such a swap could take many years, he said.