Arts (14)
Business (13)
Central Sierra (29)
Climate Change (25)
Collaboration (29)
Conservation (42)
Conservation Easements (5)
Dams (5)
Development (37)
Eastern Sierra (15)
Education (25)
Energy (8)
Environmentalism (23)
Farming (19)
Fire (15)
Forests (40)
Growth (6)
Habitat (18)
Health (7)
Heritage Economy (3)
Irrigation (2)
Land Trusts (9)
Land Use (43)
Meadows (7)
Media (41)
Mercury (9)
Mining (10)
National Parks (3)
Native Californians (13)
Northern Sierra (38)
Policy (21)
Politics (11)
Population (1)
Producer's Journal (20)
Ranching (24)
Recreation (29)
Restoration (22)
Rivers (22)
Rural Culture (16)
Sierra History (21)
Sierra Nevada Conservancy (16)
Sierra Storybooth (5)
Southern Sierra (25)
State Parks (0)
Stewardship (10)
Storytelling (34)
Sustainability (21)
Technology (10)
Tourism (11)
Trails (6)
Water Issues (43)
Wildlife (19)
Working Landscapes (6)
Youth Views (16)
WESTWOOD – A mountainside near this Lassen County community could go back into timber production if the developers of a four-season resort do not come up with $15.8 million by 2 p.m. Feb. 4.
California Mortgage and Realty Inc., a San Francisco real estate financing company, posted notice Tuesday of a foreclosure sale of the property owned by Dyer Mountain Associates, developers of the 7,000-acre resort.
The mortgage company, which has lent more than $30 million to the developers, will accept cash or a cashier's check for the land planned for construction of more than 4,000 residential units, two golf courses and a ski resort projected to generate up to 500,000
The foreclosure sale, scheduled as an auction on the steps of the Lassen County Courthouse, will not occur if the developers come up with the money first.
Grant Sedgwick, president of Dyer Mountain Associates, said he fully expects to complete refinancing for the $35 million development by Feb. 4.
"We're not quite ready to make an announcement, but we're making good progress," he said Wednesday.
The developers owe the San Francisco mortgage company $31.5 million plus interest for four notes, three of them for $10 million, Sedgwick said. The loans financed the 2005 purchase of the land from Roseburg Resources Co., which managed it for timber production.
The Dyer developers are working with a large capital group out of New York to secure $55 million, they announced recently in a newsletter to potential investors. While that still leaves them with "lots of work to do," Sedgwick, a Los Gatos real estate developer, was optimistic.
In addition to the threat of foreclosure, the Dyer development is facing litigation filed by Mountain Meadows Conservancy, Sierra Watch and the Sierra Club, all conservation groups.
Earlier this month, the plaintiffs amended their complaint to add a claim that a development agreement signed by Lassen County Board of Supervisors violates the rights of voters countywide. A 2000 ballot initiative, which approved new land-use designations to allow the Dyer development, gave the supervisors the authority to revoke the new zones if ski facilities were not constructed within seven years.
The development agreement adopted in September effectively strips the supervisors' power to reinstate the original zoning, the amended lawsuit claims.
Next month's foreclosure sale involves one of three $10 million loans made to the Dyer developers, said George Alan Yuhas, a California Mortgage and Realty attorney, who amended the September complaint, filed in San Francisco Superior Court, to include the other two loans for a total of $30 million.
Sedgwick acknowledged the gravity of the developers' debt but remained optimistic that they would repay it. Construction of ski and golf facilities could start within a year, he said.
By Jane Braxton Little
January 17, 2008
I walk to work, drive a car
I walk to work, drive a car that gets 45-50 miles per gallon, and live in a small house. I am at least 40 years ahead of the Kyoto Protocol. Lassen County has never seen such a planned development proposing "green" development and clean industry. No resort project in the history of California has unergone the CEQA process as Dyer Mountain has. Dyer Mountain will greatly enhance the area and fuel a clean economy. Where was the Sierra Club, Mountain Meadows Conservance, Sierra Watch when the prisons went in? The real environmental impacts in the area take place without planning when every tom, dick, and harry wants to divide thier property. This has a cumulative impact that the so called environmentalists ignore. Why attack the first planned green project in the history of Lassen County? The fact is that these folks (Sierra Watch) have their resorts already and get to enjoy the lifestyle, services, and economic opportunities that come with resort development. I suppose if they kill the Dyer Mountain project, I will have to move to where they live near Lake Tahoe in order to have the same opportunities that they do. Steve Robinson of Mountain Meadows Conservancy is not so concerned about the environment as he is about change, competition, and maintaining a forgotten snapshot in time. The new west mentality is a reflection of people who found a nice small town to live in at some point in the past and then they want to close the door behind them. It is ok for them to come, but please, no one else. I would ask that person if that place was different before they came and for that matter, before white man came. Change will happen. We need to plan for that change and steer it in a green direction. I am the product of 5 generations of California environmentalists. Groups like this have made environmentalist a bad word. We need to bring it back to the center where things can get done and where people can agree. At the current rate, you will continue to alienate people like me who want to do the right thing.
Joel Rathje
Post new comment