The owner of 49 Degrees North, a ski operation about 50 miles north of Spokane, plans this month to submit a master planned resort application to Stevens County that could pave the way for construction of a 2,700-living-unit, $1 billion development near the ski area.


That owner, John Eminger, says he has spent the past 10 years and up to $5 million of his own money addressing federal, state, and county regulations to reach this point with his envisioned plan, which he says will take another 15 to 20 years to complete.


Clay White, director of Stevens Countys land services department, says Emingers big proposed project was incorporated last summer into the countys new comprehensive land use plan, and within the next two weeks will be addressed in regulations the county is expected to adopt to implement that plan.


It should go pretty well once the (master planned resort) application is received, says White. Were working hard to make sure the process is smooth.


Prior to the adoption of the comprehensive plan, 18,000 notices were sent out giving Stevens County residents the opportunity to comment on the pending application for whats called a master planned resort, as well as other aspects of that planning document, White says. He says thousands of people attended public meetings on the plan and thousands of comments were returned through the mail.


There were no negative comments on that area being developed into a master planned resort, White says.


The comprehensive plan and regulatory document to implement it will allow, if the master planned resort application is adopted, for as many as 6,700 people eventually to take up residence within the designated area, which includes a total of 2,435 acres of U. S. Forest Service (USFS), Washington state Department of Natural Resources, and private land, says Eminger.


Most of that land is federally owned, and Eminger has a 40-year special-use permit to operate his ski area there, he says. He says he also has a 99-year lease on 87 acres of state-owned land thats used primarily for cross country skiing.


Eminger says he owns 320 acres in the planned resort area, and says the development would be constructed on about 250 acres of that property. That site is one mile south of the current ski operation, near where 49 Degrees North opened a new ski lift in December.


After eight years of wading through federal environmental documentation, the ski operation received approval in 2004 from the USFS to build that additional chairlift. At 4,250 feet elevation, the base of the new lift is more than 300 feet higher than that of the other four chairlifts and one rope tow, and is a mile south of the ski areas 24,000-square-foot lodge. The ski area is about 10 miles east of Chewelah.


Eminger anticipates that more than 80,000 skiers will use 49 Degrees Norths ski lifts this year, and estimates that number could jump to 180,000 or more by the year 2025.


In addition to up to 2,700 living units, the proposed development would include hotels, restaurants, grocery stores, retail outlets, a fire station, and a post office, he says. He says he has no plans to develop a school there.


Yet, the vision Eminger says he had when he bought 49 Degrees North in 1996 remains clear in his mind.


If all were to go well, within the next 20 years we could form a city and call it Chewelah Peak, Wash., he says.


White says the projects remaining hurdles include a county environmental review of whats yet to be officially proposed, essentially to document the criteria needed to approve a master planned resort; the signing of a development agreement by both the county and Eminger; and the submission of plat plans for specific pieces of what Eminger calls a project in three large geographical phases.


White, whos been working to help facilitate the project for two and a half years, says that because of the magnitude of the proposed development outside the countys urban growth management area, the project cant proceed without master planned resort approval from the county.


He says he has no idea how much work lies ahead before 49 Degrees North can get final county approval and proceed with the development of the project.


Eminger, well aware of the long list of criteria a developer must meet to get such approval, says documentation hes secured while gaining USFS approval for his environmental impact statement on the new chairlift is a huge step in the right direction. He says additional studies conducted to gain acceptance in the countys comprehensive plan and regulatory document for its implementation and other studies hes made to facilitate the project have him well prepared to meet any future obstacles.


All the big ticket items are done, asserts Eminger, who hopes to begin some preliminary design work on the proposed development this fall. He anticipates infrastructure work will begin next year, and some structures will be built in 2009, although the construction season is short at the 4,250 foot elevation.


Master planned resort


Washington state law defines a master planned resort as a self-contained and fully integrated development in a setting of significant natural amenities with primary focus on destination resort facilities and which is planned for as a whole and developed in a programmed series of steps.


Counties are given the opportunity to approve such developments, which constitute urban growth outside of urban growth areas.


White, who earlier worked on another master planned resort near Cle Elum, says there are several such resorts scattered throughout the state.


The criteria to achieve such approval from a county, which Eminger contends hes close to complying with in Stevens County, is extensive. The list of categories an applicant must comply with includes standards for water supply, sewage disposal, storm drainage, landscaping, archeological and historical resources, affordable housing, parking, three categories of roads, lighting, and many more categories.


Eminger says its too early in the process to talk in definitive numbers about the types and projected prices of homes and lots there.


His plan is to develop the infrastructure, then do a mixture of selling lots and building some of the structures. Individual single-family home lots will range in size between 8,000 and 12,000 square feet, he says.


The first structure Eminger plans to erect there is a 30-unit founders lodge, he says.


Eminger says the first phase of the work will take five years to complete and will include 285 living units, a 200-room hotel, and the members lodge.


Those living units could include four-unit structures, duplexes, single-family homes, condominiums, and multifamily units, he says.


Within the next two years to three years, a second new chairlift likely will be built near the development, giving 49 Degrees North a total of six chairlifts and a rope tow, with possibly one or two additional chairlifts built near the site of the development in the future.


A 1979 graduate of Spokanes Ferris High School and former high school history teacher at East Valley High School here, Eminger made the money he used to purchase 49 Degrees North and to finance his 10-year planned project there by developing a 320 acre piece of property he inherited adjacent to Elko, Nev., in 1992.


His educational background includes associate of arts, bachelor of arts, and masters degrees he received while attending Spokane Falls Community College, Western Washington University, and Eastern Washington University. Eminger says he spent six years in the U.S. Navy before entering SFCC in 1985, and earned $100,000 a year from 1987 to 1989 fishing off the coast of Alaska.


Contact Rocky Wilson at (509) 344-1264 or via e-mail at rockyw@spokanejournal.com.