CACHE COUNTY – After much discussion, the members of the Cache County Council approved the rezone of more than 1,600 acres to make way for an expansion of the Powder Mountain Ski Resort during their regular meeting on Feb. 25.
Members of the council raised questions about affordability of the proposed resort; the cost of emergency services/fire protection; the timing of an inter-local agreement with neighboring Weber County; and, other issues during a wide-ranging discussion.
But Dirk Anderson, the county’s interim development director, explained that those issues could be ironed out in the future during the approval process of the resort’s master plan.
Council Chair Sandi Goodlander agreed, saying that council had had ample time to explore the rezone request since its last meeting on March 11 and asked council members to focus on the sole issue of the rezone.
Under Ordinance 2025-03, the council members were requested to approve rezoning 1,621 acres of land from Forest Recreation (FR40) to Resort Recreation (RR).
On a motion by council vice chair Kathryn Beus, the council members voted four to three to approve the rezone request.
Powder Mountain Ski Resort covers about 8,500 acres in Weber County, making it the largest ski area in North America. Abutting Cache County’s southern border, Powder Mountain offers about 3,000 acres of groomed trails and powder runs, plus another 5,000 acres for back-county enthusiasts.
The 1,621 acres of land in question for the rezone is privately held property in the extreme southern portion of Cache County, southwest of Davenport Road, adjacent to its border with Weber County.
Speaking for the resort on February 11, Brooke Hontz estimated that the rezoned property would contribute $40,000 to the Cache County tax base in its first year and benefits amounting to $5.4 million for the county and $7.69 million for the Cache County School District when the land is fully developed.
Despite that estimated windfall, the council’s hesitancy to approve the requested rezone on Feb. 11 sparked an e-mail campaign raising questions about the affordability and transparency of the proposed resort construction.
While acknowledging that e-mail messages she’d received appear to be a “canned” effort, council member Barbara Tidwell said those missives nevertheless raised concerns about Powder Mountain managers following through with previous master plans and similar pledges.
Goodlander said that she had asked questions about those issues during recent conversations with Weber County Commissioner Jim Harvey.
Harvey had assured her that, while there had been problems with follow-through in the past, those concerns ended when Reed Hastings acquired Powder Mountain in September of 2023.
Hastings is a co-founder of the television and movie streaming service Netflix.
The question of affordability of the resort still nagged at council member Keegan Garrity, however.
Garrity said he compared the costs of a day pass to ski at local resorts and found that Powder Mountain’s cost of $234 a day far exceeded those of local resorts like Beaver Mountain ($70), Cheery Peak ($55) and Nordic Valley ($59).
Garrity and fellow council member Nolan Gunnell also raised their previous concerns about whether the rezone needed to include the entirety of the Cache County acreage, since only about 95 acres of that land would actually be developed.
But County Executive David Zook reminded council members that designating the entire 1,621 property area would simplify its relationship with county master plans in the future.