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Snowbird Ski & Summer Resort is seeking approval to build a zip line to generate more nonwinter business, giving visitors the thrill of taking a 2.75-mile ride from the top of Hidden Peak to the resort base.

Save Our Canyons despises the plan, but executive director Carl Fisher acknowledged in a recent email to supporters that the conservation group may have little hope now of stopping its approval by Salt Lake County.

That's because the county planning staff has determined Snowbird's three-leg "Zip Tour" proposal is a permitted use at ski resorts and complies with the county's Foothill and Canyons Overlay Zone (FCOZ) ordinance that sets higher standards for construction in mountain environments.

So while the county's Mountainous Planning Commission has delayed a decision on the proposal until its Feb. 2 meeting, largely to let staff review a lengthy list of objections by Save Our Canyons, Fisher is putting more hope in the County Council changing the FCOZ ordinance to "limit these Disneyland-style uses" in the canyons. He has also accused Snowbird of trying to achieve a "Disneyfication of the mountains."

The council is scheduled to spend two hours Tuesday morning reviewing proposed revisions to the FCOZ, five years in the making, and the following week will spend just as much time going over provisions of a Mountain Resort Zone, the creation of which was recommended as part of the ordinance rewrite.

A public hearing is tentatively planned for Jan. 31. It's likely the council will hold a second public hearing before taking final action.

"I understand this has been a long, laborious process," said Councilman Steve DeBry, "but we have one time to do it right."

How those deliberations impact Snowbird's proposal remain to be seen.

As ski areas around the country move more and more toward becoming year-round resorts, Snowbird sees the zip line as an appropriate way to "engage the growing segment of summer and non-skiing users seeking natural recreation," Snowbird General Manager Bob Bonar told the Mountainous Planning Commission last week.

The resort's plan is for visitors to take the Tram to Hidden Peak, where they would be put into harnesses and attached to the zip line. The first leg of the ride would take them over Peruvian Gulch to an area known as the Keyhole. The proposed leg two descends to a hillside below the Tram between Lower Silver Fox and Mach Schnell runs. The final leg would deliver riders to the Gad Valley base.

While much of the terrain is managed by the U.S. Forest Service, whose approval also is required, the end terminal for the second leg and starting terminal for the third are on Snowbird's private land. That makes them subject to county approval.

Bonar said zip lines are not uncommon, noting that they already exist at Park City and Sundance ski resorts and Utah Olympic Park. He said the route will be below ridges in compliance with Forest Service guidelines to limit visual impact and that its cables will be three-quarters of an inch in diameter, much smaller than for ski lifts and The Tram, so they are unlikely to be visible at a distance.

Noise should not be a problem either because the ride is driven entirely by gravity, Bonar said, adding that cultural-resource surveys found that the project would not have a negative impact on any endangered or sensitive animal, bird or plant species, including two of concern to the Forest Service — the northern Goshawk and bats.

The resort has pledged to plant 10 trees for every one it removes and to minimize the number of trees whose tops are cut off to make room for zip-line riders.

"We've worked for years with Salt Lake County, Salt Lake City and the Forest Service to develop best management practices that protect Little Cottonwood Canyon," Bonar said. "This is a very exciting recreational opportunity for our community with few environmental impacts."

The proposal had support from Ski Utah, marketing arm of the state's 14 ski resorts, and Wasatch Adaptive Sports, a Snowbird-based nonprofit organization that provides recreational opportunities for people with disabilities, including wounded veterans.

"Physical and occupational therapists say motion is important," said Wasatch Adaptive Sports director Peter Mandler. "It's real positive for mental health and a form of therapy. … It's very life changing. For veterans and people with mental-health problems, to get into the mountains is amazing."

Added Nathan Rafferty, Ski Utah's executive director: "Tourism is an $8 billion industry in Utah [and] skiing is $1 billion of that. Snowbird represents a significant part of that and we applaud their investment in this. Summer recreation is highly competitive going up against Colorado, California and British Columbia."

Save Our Canyons' Fisher was not impressed with those arguments.

"It's no secret Save Our Canyons takes exception with amusement-park facilities in the canyons. It's inappropriate," he said. "It's not Alpine recreation, rather a ride that provides thrills, not natural-resource based recreation."

Fisher disagreed with the planning staff's analysis of the project, contending the zip line would be visible above the ridgeline from some perspectives, breaching the requirement that aesthetic qualities must be preserved.

He also questioned whether Snowbird's survey for goshawk nests looked at a broad-enough area or was confined to the vicinity of the zip line and argued that even if the ride itself is relatively quiet, the people who are taking the ridge will frequently be quite loud.

Supporting his position was Kirk Robinson, executive director of Western Wildlife Conservation.

"I've not heard anything that convinces me this operation will not have a negative impact on nesting raptors in this area," he said. "It would set a lot of minds at ease if the finding was no raptors in the area would be affected. But I don't know that and I don't think anyone else here does. Noise does have an impact on birds."

The Utah League of Women Voters also weighed in against the proposal.

"We're horrified," said League representative Ann O'Connell. "Most of us have lived here 50 years and think it's totally inappropriate."