Snow King Resort managers talk a lot about the community benefit they provide on our Town Hill. But actions speak louder than words. How do their actions look, when it comes to benefiting our community?
| We give Snow King managers special treatment and basically free land… | … and they turn around and try to extract maximum profit from us at our expense.
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| The Town (which means all of us) has been renting Snow King Resort 30 acres of land for only $100 / month. It used to be $1000 / month – still a steal for 30 acres – and then Town Council dropped that to $100 / month. | … and now they want to charge us each $75 for the privilege to hike uphill on our public lands – and they’re charging our Town $8,800 to put public safety repeaters on the radio towers on top of the mountain (which already make them a ton of money).
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| We let Snow King use half of the ice rink facility for $100 / month* | … and they push out existing tenants and raise rents on new tenants – while leaving maintenance costs to the public.
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| We already let them build less employee housing than any other developers … | … and they reportedly break the law and sign a lease to stack 20 seasonal employees in a single house. (Only the landlord got in trouble for this – no charges were pressed against Snow King.)** |
Snow King managers want to have our cake for free, and then sell it back to us at a high markup. That’s not fair. And it’s not what our Town Hill is about.
Over the last few years, we’ve given Snow King managers an increasingly good deal, and in return, they’ve steadily eroded their side of the bargain. Charging us to use our own public lands – while we give them those lands basically for free – should be the last straw.
We all want a sustainable and viable Town Hill. But we’re past the point where Snow King needs special treatment to stay afloat. The owners have built an amusement park on the side of the mountain, featuring a highly-profitable roller coaster. If Snow King’s managers want to charge us to use our own land, then let’s charge Snow King a fair market price in return.
And, when we work together as a community to update our vision for Snow King’s ski resort and commercial base, let’s remember their managers’ actions and how they’re treating our community today. Let’s create a vision for Snow King that actually benefits our community – instead of giving them more and more for free, and letting them charge us even more to use our own lands.
What can you do?
Please ask the Mayor and Town Council to increase Snow King’s leases of Town land to fair market value – or require that Snow King back down from their new demands that we and the Town pay to use our own land. And, ask that our Town do a full investigation into the reports that Snow King signed a lease to squeeze 20 employees into one home.
Our Town Council is discussing these topics at their 3pm workshop on Monday (see the agenda here). Please show up and speak your mind, or write in (council@townofjackson.com) ahead of time if you can’t make it. Please be respectful and focus on the issues, not the people involved.
Click here to sign up to speak up at Monday’s meeting or for more information on what to include in your email. An Alliance staff member will be in touch with more details.
* Correction: we originally heard and wrote that the ice rink lease was free. It is actually $100 / month. We have corrected this post and are still amazed that the leases can be so low, while Snow King Mountain Resort charges us more and more to access our own public lands.
** Correction: we originally found it mysterious that no charges were filed against Snow King for signing a lease to put up to 20 employees in one single-family house. Snow King representatives informed us that it is not mysterious: the law only applies to the landlord. We still believe Snow King owes our community an apology for flouting our housing rules and values so egregiously.
