The Beaver County Planning Commission voted 4-to-1 this week to approve a conceptual plan for the Mount Holly Club, proposed as an exclusive haven of hundreds of upscale homes and town houses at Elk Meadows Ski and Summer Resort.

Elk Meadows, located up Beaver Canyon, has not operated for several years. But the developers envision reopening the ski mountain as a winter playground for current and future resort residents. They also plan to build a Jack Nicklaus-signature, 18-hole golf course.

The resort is planned on 2,000 acres of private and school trust lands surrounded by Fishlake National Forest.

Now, developers are laboring to complete engineering work for the project and answer questions about water and access issues.

"We're happy to be moving forward," said Craig Burton, who is managing the development for an unidentified investor.

But current condominium residents and homeowners in the canyon are sad. They worry about losing access and stand determined to fight the project.

"I don't want to see it," Clay Thorton, who lives in Midvale but owns a condo in Elk Meadows, said in an interview. "It's our little piece of paradise and now we're getting fenced out."

Salt Lake City resident Alan Bradshaw, another condo owner who attended Wednesday night's meeting, told commissioners that a lease from the 1970s granted the public access to the ski resort, contrary to plans for the fenced Mount Holly Club.

"For 35 years this has been a public ski resort," Bradshaw said. "The [planned unit development] that was the directive for the resort has never changed. It's not true that anyone can do as they please within a PUD."

County Attorney Von Christiansen acknowledged that Bradshaw presented a strong case, but argued that it would be up to a court, not the Planning Commission, to decide any access issues.

Claudia Condor, water-rights administrator for Rocky Mountain Power owner PacifiCorp, worries that the proposed development could affect flows to its hydroelectric plant.

"These are large issues and we want to go on record as having concerns," Condor said.

Water and environmental issues are what worries Dennis Miller, the lone Planning Commission vote against the plan.

"They [developers] must do it right or not at all," Miller said. "We need an environmental plan, including a water study.

The Planning Commission is requiring the developers to pay for impact studies on water, wildlife, transportation, the county hospital and the Beaver airport before they could secure a final development agreement. The County Commission will have final say.

mhavnes@sltrib.com

* LOCATION: 18 miles east of Beaver up Beaver Canyon.

* DEVELOPER: CPB, LLC, Salt Lake City.

* SIZE: 1,200 houses and town homes along with a 250,000-square-foot clubhouse to be built on 2,000 acres in two phases.

* DEVELOPMENT COST: Estimated at $3.5 billion.

* BASELINE COST OF HOUSE AND LOT: About $4 million.

* COMPLETION: Project expected to take 10 years.

* AMENITIES: Private ski resort with 36 runs and an 18-hole private golf course.

* ISSUES: Water, impact on infrastructure, public access.

Mount Holly Club by the numbers