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[Peter]

Feud puts resort on final run, says owner


By Stephen Deere and Michele Munz
ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH
09/09/2008

Wildwood — This winter might be your last chance to hit the slopes in the St. Louis area.

The owner of Hidden Valley Golf and Ski Inc., the region's only ski facility, said he will close it after this season because of disputes with the city of Wildwood. Tim Boyd claims the city is making it too difficult for him to open a new snow tubing run.

"It's hard to negotiate with someone you don't trust," said Boyd, president of Peak Resorts Inc., Hidden Valley's parent company. "It's hard to trust Wildwood."

Boyd said Hidden Valley, which also includes a golf course, is the least profitable of his 11 ski resorts nationwide and he wanted to build the tubing run and a new parking lot to boost revenue.


The dispute caps years of tension between Hidden Valley and the city, partly because the resort was developed years before Wildwood incorporated as a city and added zoning and other regulations.

Boyd said he learned last week, at a meeting of the Planing and Zoning Commission, that he may be required to pay a nearly $252,000 fee to build the proposed parking lot.

The city also was requiring that Hidden Valley get its permission to stay open past 11 p.m., said Bill Brandes, Hidden Valley's general manager. The resort allows skiing until 3 a.m. on certain weekends. In the past, its hours have not been subject to the city's approval because the resort, opened 26 years ago, existed before Wildwood incorporated in 1995.

Boyd insists that his decision to close Hidden Valley is not a negotiating ploy. In fact, he withdrew his permit application for the tubing run.

"We have no intention of going back," he said.

Boyd has begun the process of putting the 250-acre site up for sale but does not have an offer yet.

Wildwood Mayor Tim Woerther said several residents near Hidden Valley have complained about the bright lights on the ski slopes and increased traffic during the season. The season typically starts in mid-December and ends in mid-March.

But he said the city wasn't trying to limit the resort's hours of operation. The 11 p.m. closing requirement was just an attempt to get Hidden Valley to spell out to the city what its hours would be, he said.

Woerther said Boyd had several ways to get around the $252,000 fee, such as offering up a few of the resort's acres for public space.

Woerther said Boyd, who developed Hidden Valley in 1982, has made several large improvements to the resort without getting permits until after the work was completed.

"They believe simply because they pre-existed Wildwood, they don't have to," Woerther said.

That said, the mayor doesn't want to see the resort leave town. "Hidden Valley is a great asset not only to the city but to the region as a whole," Woerther said.

But Boyd said he would not have his hours subject to the city's approval.

"If you have to ask permission from somebody, they can deny it," he said.

Late-night skiing represents roughly 20 to 25 percent of the resort's revenue, Boyd said.

Boyd also isn't interested in giving up any of his property, saying that the fee was five times the costs of building the parking lot itself.

He characterized Wildwood's actions as "blackmail."

Last year, roughly 68,000 people visited the hill of about 310 vertical feet, which has eight ski runs.

Brandes said the tubing run was supposed to increase visits by about 10 percent.

Several area skiers said losing the resort would be devastating.

"It is a way for skiers in St. Louis to get out and really enjoy their hobby without having to travel," said Jason Erfling, 36, the equipment buyer for Alpine Shop, one of the few places in the area where skiers can buy equipment. The shop has locations in Kirkwood, Chesterfield and Columbia, Mo.

Erfling also would hate to see the area lose a way for families to enjoy the outdoors together, especially at night in the winter.

"It's disappointing to me that Wildwood would do something like that, to make it hard for them to do business," Erfling said.

Hidden Valley also is home to the Gateway Disabled Ski Program, which provides adaptive equipment and instruction to 150 disabled athletes.

"They couldn't afford to fly to the mountains," said Pamela Weber, president of the organization. "This is their only opportunity to experience these sports."

James Kummer, 27, a technical writer who lives in St. Louis, has been skiing at Hidden Valley for the last five years. He's usually there about twice a week during the season and founded a local ski and snowboarding club.

Kummer said the hill is no comparison to the Colorado mountains, but for a quite a few, it's the only chance to ski on a regular basis.

"A lot of people come from far away to that resort."

[LiftTech]

Hidden Valley Ski Area Planning To Close

Last Edited: Monday, 08 Sep 2008, 10:57 PM CDT
Created: Monday, 08 Sep 2008, 6:43 PM CDT

Hidden Valley To Close SideBar

Watch Andy Banker's report here:
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Hidden Valley Ski Area Website
Wildwood, MO Website

By: Andy Banker


(KTVI - myFOXstl.com) --

A top St. Louis attraction for more than 25 years could soon be no more.

The owner of the Hidden Valley Ski resort in Wildwood told Fox 2 he was being run out of town.

As of Monday night, he said the upcoming ski and snowboarding season would be Hidden Valley's last.

He said he'd move the ski lifts and snow-making machines to one of the other 10 resorts he owns from Kansas City to New Hampshire; all as a result of trouble's he's having at Wildwood City Hall.

"To me it's blackmail," said Hidden Valley owner, Tim Boyd.

"This is a unique recreation thing that doesn't exist within 350 miles of here…what in the world is the government's responsibility now if places like this are run out of town."

"That's not true, not true at all," said Wildwood Mayor, Tim Woerther. "The city's not running hidden valley out of town…it makes no sense that they say, well, because we didn't get some points, we're packing up our skis and going somewhere else, without even having a discussion."

Boyd said he needed to add "snow-tubing" to go with skiing and snowboarding activities to keep the business afloat.

"The tubing operation gave us an ability to help hedge the weather a little bit," he said. "We could handle more people in a shorter period of time. Our average season is only 70 days long."

He also needed to expand a parking lot to handle the larger crowds; about 250 spaces.

The Wildwood Planning and Zoning Board informed the operators of Hidden Valley last week that the operators would have to pay a $251,000 "public space fee" to get permits for the project; that, or set aside about 3 of Hidden Valley's 250 acres as "public space" for walking trail or viewing area along the resort's border with Greensfelder Park. Boyd said he'd already spent $50,000 on engineering work required by the city, yet this was the first time anyone with the city had ever mentioned the "public space" requirement.

"It basically comes out to over a thousand dollars per spot, just for the permit fee," Boyd said. "The permit fee is 5 times the cost of what the parking lot is going to be."

Boyd said he was closing the resort after this season to pursue plans to develop the property as a new subdivision. He said it was already zoned for housing.

SAVING HIDDEN VALLEY

A crowd at gathered at the Fox Creek Outfitters, a ski and snowboard supply store in Eureka Monday night. They talked about saving Hidden Valley. All said they felt Hidden Valley had already met any public space requirement: the entire resort is open to the public; only the slopes and lifts require tickets and admission fees for access; the resort is also accessible to the disabled.

"They allow us to use their facilities," said Pam Weber with the Gateway Disabled Ski Program. "They provide space to store our adaptive equipment... they only charge [disabled skiers] $50 for the entire season pass…I think [closing the resort] would be most unfortunate… for the disabled people in this area who want to enjoy our snow sports program."

"If most of the kids would have known about that meeting, there probably would have been about 3,000 people there, showed up there," said snowboarder, Henry Tellini.

"If they leave it's not looking good for me," said Scott Baker, the owner of Fox Creek Outfitters, who chose his location in Eureka because it was so close to Hidden Valley. "I don't want to say it's over, but it would be a brutal fizzle-out. It would probably crush me."

Maybe it says something that a fight to save St. Louis's only ski slopes was taking shape,

at a time of year when people are golfing at Hidden Valley, which doubles as a golf course in the Summer.

"It wouldn't be Eureka without Hidden Valley," said Alex Kaemerlen of Eureka High School, who was at Hidden Valley at golf practice for the Eureka High girls' golf team.

"Last year, I learned how to snow board here. It was really fun. The whole course is really fun actually. They keep adding new things every year."

"Bad news - because this is the closest place to ski besides Colorado and Utah," added her team mate, Lauren Dolniak.

Boyd said city leaders also wanted to limit his overnight hours, which were critical for making snow and contouring the slopes.

The mayor said that was not the case. He hoped the two sides could get together soon to work things out and keep Hidden Valley in Wildwood.