July 15, 2008 — An official from Dyer Mountain Associates said the company is working with investors who may step forward in the next few weeks and save the embattled project from bankruptcy. Sara Duryea, DMA co-manager and one of the people officially in charge of the 6,700-acre, four-season resort project near Westwood, said it would be inappropriate for her to reveal any details about the new investors who are interested in the project at this time.

“We’re currently under the protection of the federal bankruptcy court,” Duryea said. “We have until the end of September to file a plan with the court to satisfy our creditors and move out of Chapter 11. We’re meeting weekly with new interested parties. We expect there will be a bright future for the project.”

According to Duryea, the new investors are in their “due diligence period” and there won’t be anything conclusive to report to the public until DMA files its financial plans with the court in mid-September.

She said DMA was still in possession of the property, and many aspects of a possible deal with the new investors remain unresolved.

When DMA filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in federal court in San Francisco on Thursday, March 27, it raised a number of issues for Lassen County.

For example, DMA owes Lassen County $200,000 in back taxes.

And litigation surrounding the proposed project continues — especially the challenge to the developer agreement filed last October by the Mountain Meadows Conservancy, Sierra Watch and the Chico-based Yahi Group of the Sierra Club.

The suit, filed in Lassen County Superior Court, claims the county did not follow California environmental law in certifying the project’s Environmental Impact Report, development agreement and tentative parcel map for the resort.

An amendment, filed on Tuesday, Jan. 8, alleges the development agreement violates the voter-approved 2000 initiative, which zoned the area around Dyer Mountain and Walker Lake as a mountain resort.

The three groups allege the initiative gave the county the option of changing the land-use designation on the project site if construction of ski facilities had not commenced within seven years.

The suit initially asked the court to set aside the Board of Supervisors’ certification of the EIR, development agreement and parcel map.

The three groups also seek an order directing the county to comply with the California Environmental Quality Act, a temporary stay and restraining order, and preliminary and permanent injunctions stopping the county and its agents from taking any action to implement the project until full compliance with CEQA.

Two-thirds of Westwood voters and almost 63 percent of voters countywide supported a November 2000 ballot initiative that amended the General Plan, Zoning Ordinance and Westwood Area Plan to allow the development of the resort.