WENATCHEE — Six years, a lawsuit and $1 million later, Larry Scrivanich wants one thing in his quest to expand Mission Ridge Ski & Board Resort.
“We’re not asking for anything from the county or the Chelan County taxpayers,” said Scrivanich, who owns Mission Ridge under the corporate name Tamarack Saddle LLC. “Just follow the law, and follow the code. That’s all we’re asking.”
When the ski area and resort expansion was initially proposed in 2015, General Manager Josh Jorgensen figured it would be about two years before construction could begin.
“It was a little naïve,” Scrivanich said. “We learned a lot.”
The project
The expansion plan includes new lodging, restaurants, townhomes, duplexes, condominiums, more skiing trails and other new and upgraded amenities.
In total, the project would add 613 condominiums, townhomes and duplexes, combined, and 260 single-family units built in four phases over 20 years. The expansion also includes commercial space.
“It addresses the things at Mission that need to be addressed so that the ski resort can have a long life ahead of it,” Jorgensen said.
Jorgensen said expanding Mission Ridge has been discussed since its inception. Attempts in the 1980s and 1990s were unsuccessful.
“I don’t know if that’s what’s going on here today and now,” he said, “But there’s huge community support for this project and Mission Ridge.”
The proposal
The current plans began in 2015 with the formation of an advisory board, Scrivanich said, including Mike Kaputa, director of Chelan County Natural Resources. As plans took shape, Mission Ridge representatives then met with Chelan County officials.
They also hired a planner who advised front-loading as much information as possible, resulting in a nearly 5-inch-thick binder containing the Mission Ridge Expansion Master Planned Resort project application that was submitted to the county in April 2018.
Scrivanich estimates getting that far cost “hundreds of thousands of dollars.”
It was followed by another 170 pages in permit application paperwork submitted to the U.S. Forest Service. The additional step is required since portions of a road and additional ski terrain are on both Forest Service and state Department of Fish and Wildlife lands that Mission Ridge leases under a special use permit.
The county’s initial response to the application was positive, according to Scrivanich, who says he was told the county would begin to draft a mitigated determination of non-significance, meaning the project could move forward as proposed.
Instead, then-Interim Community Development Director Deanna Walter told Jorgensen and Scrivanich on March 6, 2020, that, rather than a determination of non-significance, the project would receive a determination of significance, triggering a lengthy and expensive “environmental impact statement” process.
“A determination of significance is a governmental determination that a project has not sufficiently identified mitigation or alternatives and requires further studies or plans, which then must be identified and addressed so the project can proceed,” Jorgensen said.
Scrivanich said he was told the project’s size was the reason provided for the change in determination. No other details have been forthcoming.
Jorgensen said the county’s application process has been “disjointed, exceedingly costly and time-consuming. ... It is not that Mission Ridge does not value the environmental review process — it does. It is that the process must be fair and consistent under the existing laws and statutes for us and for everyone else as well.”
Scrivanich said the confusion is partially from staff turnover in the county’s community development department. Eight county staff members have overseen the project so far.
“We are left guessing what the county wants,” Jorgensen said. “They are required to tell us what the significant impacts are prior to issuing the determination of significance. They still have not given us specific impacts that are significant even though required to do so.”
The lawsuit
The gridlocked and constantly shifting process described by Scrivanich and Jorgensen led Tamarack to file a $6.4 million lawsuit in Douglas County Superior Court against Chelan County in September. The lawsuit claims the the county has interfered with the expansion efforts. Kaputa also is listed as a defendant.
The county and Kaputa both declined to comment for this story because of the lawsuit.
Chelan County filed its response to the lawsuit Nov. 8 denying the allegations and asking for the lawsuit to be dismissed. Kaputa filed a response on Nov. 30 denying wrongdoing, and also asked for the lawsuit to be dismissed.
“When you read the narrative in the litigation, in the lawsuit — it’s pretty clear,” Jorgensen said. “Over and over and over again. It’s been like living groundhog day.”
Scrivanich said despite the lengthy permitting process and the ongoing legal challenges, Mission Ridge will move forward with the proposal.
