by Amanda Podmore, Grand Canyon Director
For decades, a real estate developer has dreamed of building a mega-resort on the doorstep of Grand Canyon National Park in the gateway town of Tusayan, Arizona. But since the 350 acres it plans to develop are on two islands of private land surrounded by Kaibab National Forest, the Stilo Development Group needs permission from the U.S. Forest Service to pave roads and run utilities across public lands to access the inholdings.
The forest service agreed to take an in-depth look at the company’s application for utility easements in September 2020 but has been waiting over a year for the developer to give straight answers about its plans for handling sewage from the thousands of new hotel rooms, private residences, and commercial spaces it plans to build.
A recent letter from Stilo and the town of Tusayan, the joint applicants for the mega-development, ignores the forest service’s request for more details about the development and does little to clarify its concerns.
Stilo has drawn up its plans several ways since the 1990s — all have included massive increases to the commercial and residential footprint of Tusayan. The company’s most recent sketch includes 1.8 million square feet of new commercial development — that’s nearly as large as the Scottsdale Fashion Square mall, the largest shopping mall in Arizona and one of the largest in the United States — and 194 acres of residential construction. It would increase housing in the area from 300 units to 2,200 and build the equivalent of 22 average-sized hotels.
A development of this scale could overstrain the limited groundwater resources in the region and deplete seeps, springs, and creeks on the south rim of the Grand Canyon. These are the same water sources that sustain the Havasupai people and their way of life.
Stilo says it will only use groundwater for the residential buildings and that it plans to truck in the rest. But where the estimated 45 daily truckloads of water will come from to supply the commercial development is still a mystery.
In 2016, former Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga called the Stilo development the “greatest threat to the Grand Canyon in the 96-year history of the park.”
The impacts on groundwater supply, Havasupai springs and creeks, dark skies, and the town’s limited sewage system are just the beginning of the list of concerns.
In February 2021, the Kaibab National Forest wrote Stilo requesting more information. To determine the development’s feasibility and thoroughly analyze its impacts under the National Environmental Policy Act, the agency asked Stilo to provide concrete details about the proposal, including how sewage will be treated for the massive development and proof that the developer has consulted with the Tusayan Sanitation District.
A year and a half later, in August 2022, Stilo finally responded to the forest service’s request for more details without providing any new information about the proposed development.
It’s clear that the forest service and the public don’t have enough information about the true nature of this sleeping giant, especially concerning the development’s water supply. For the good of Grand Canyon National Park, groundwater resources, and the millions of people around the world who love the canyon, the forest service should reject Stilo’s application.
The forest service rejected Stilo’s proposal once before in 2016, saying, “the Tusayan proposal is deeply controversial, is opposed by local and national communities, would stress local and Park infrastructure, and have untold impacts to the surrounding Tribal and National Park lands.”
The same holds true today, and we think the forest service should again reject Stilo’s application because it is not in the public’s interest.
If the forest service decides to push ahead, however, the next step will be a formal environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act. In that case, it’s imperative the forest service do a full environmental impact statement that addresses the development’s impact on the Grand Canyon, water resources, local communities, traffic congestion, dark skies, and more.
Should that environmental review process start, we’ll be counting on your important voice to speak up for the Grand Canyon.
Act now. You can help protect the Grand Canyon from dams, trams, uranium mines, and other threats.
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