II

106TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 953

To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain land in the State

of South Dakota to the Terry Peak Ski Area.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

MAY 4, 1999

Mr. JOHNSON (for himself and Mr. DASCHLE) introduced the following bill;

which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources

A BILL

To direct the Secretary of Agriculture to convey certain

land in the State of South Dakota to the Terry Peak

Ski Area.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Terry Peak Land Con5 veyance Act of 1999’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.

7 (a) FINDINGS.—Congress finds that—

8 (1) certain land in the National Forest system

9 located in the Black Hills National Forest in Law-
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1 rence County, South Dakota, is permitted to the

2 Terry Peak Ski Area by the Secretary of Agriculture

3 under the National Forest Ski Area Permit Act of

4 1986 (16 U.S.C. 497b);

5 (2) the Forest land comprises only 10 percent

6 of the land at the Ski Area, and the remaining 90

7 percent of land at the Ski Area is owned by the Ski

8 Area operator;

9 (3) the small percentage of Forest land at the

10 Ski Area—

11 (A) is encumbered by ski lifts and trails, a

12 base lodge, a parking lot, and other privately13 owned improvements;

14 (B) serves little purpose in continued pub15 lic ownership; and

16 (C) should be conveyed to the Ski Area to

17 unify land management and eliminate permit18 ting and related administrative costs to the

19 United States;

20 (4) the Ski Area is interested in acquiring the

21 land from the United States;

22 (5) the Secretary lacks the administrative au23 thority to convey the land in a non-simultaneous

24 land exchange absent specific authorization from

25 Congress;
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1 (6) the Forest contains several small inholdings

2 of undeveloped private land with multiple land3 owners that—

4 (A) complicate the management of Forest

5 land; and

6 (B) may be acquired by the United States

7 from willing sellers if funds for the acquisition

8 of the land are made available to the Secretary;

9 (7) the proceeds from the Terry Peak convey10 ance would provide a modest, but readily available

11 and flexible source of funds that may be used by the

12 Secretary to acquire certain inholdings in the Forest

13 from willing sellers;

14 (8) due to the small and scattered nature of the

15 inholdings of private land in the Forest and the

16 number of potential sellers involved, the Secretary

17 could acquire the inholdings more quickly and effi18 ciently by purchasing them directly rather than ac19 quiring the inholdings through administrative land

20 exchanges; and

21 (9) it is in the public interest to—

22 (A) convey the Forest land at Terry Peak

23 to the Ski Area at fair market value; and
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1 (B) use the proceeds of the conveyance to

2 acquire more desirable land for addition to the

3 Forest for permanent public use and enjoyment.

4 (b) PURPOSES.—The purposes of this Act are to—

5 (1) authorize and direct the conveyance of cer6 tain Forest land at the Ski Area to the Ski Area;

7 and

8 (2) to use the proceeds of the conveyance to ac9 quire more desirable land for the United States for

10 permanent public use and enjoyment.

11 SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

12 In this Act:

13 (1) FOREST.—The term ‘‘Forest’’ means the

14 Black Hills National Forest in the State of South

15 Dakota.

16 (2) SECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means

17 the Secretary of Agriculture.

18 (3) SELECTED LAND.—The term ‘‘selected

19 land’’ means land comprising approximately 41.42

20 acres and generally depicted as Government Lots 6

21 and 11, Section 2, Township 4 North, Range 2

22 East, Black Hills Meridian, on the map entitled

23 ‘‘Terry Peak Land Conveyance’’, dated March,

24 1999.

25 (4) SKI AREA.—The term ‘‘Ski Area’’ means—
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1 (A) the Terry Peak Ski Area of the Black

2 Hills Chairlift Company, a South Dakota Cor3 poration; or

4 (B) the successors, heirs, and assigns of

5 the entity described in subparagraph (A).

6 SEC. 4. LAND CONVEYANCE.

7 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall convey the se8 lected land to the Ski Area at fair market value as deter9 mined by the Secretary under subsection (b).

10 (b) APPRAISAL.—

11 (1) IN GENERAL.—The Secretary shall deter12 mine the value of the selected land by using nation13 ally recognized appraisal standards, including, to the

14 extent appropriate—

15 (A) the uniform appraisal standards for

16 Federal land acquisitions;

17 (B) the uniform standards of professional

18 appraisal practice; and

19 (C) other applicable law.

20 (2) COSTS.—As a condition of the conveyance

21 under this section, the Ski Area shall pay all costs

22 of the appraisal.

23 (c) COMPLETION.—The conveyance under this sec24 tion shall be completed not later than 180 days after the
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1 date of enactment of this Act, unless the Secretary and

2 the Ski Area agree to postpone the completion date.

3 (d) OTHER LAW.—Prior to completing the convey4 ance under this section, the Secretary shall complete

5 standard pre-disposal analyses and obtain necessary per6 mits and clearances pertaining to—

7 (1) threatened and endangered species;

8 (2) cultural and historic resources;

9 (3) wetland and floodplains; and

10 (4) hazardous materials.

11 (e) USE OF PROCEEDS.—All funds received by the

12 Secretary under this Act shall be—

13 (1) considered to be funds received and depos14 ited under the Public Law 90–171 (16 U.S.C.

15 484a); and

16 (2) used by the Secretary to acquire replace17 ment land from willing sellers for addition to the

18 Forest.

19 (f) LAND ACQUIRED.—

20 (1) IN GENERAL.—Any land acquired under

21 subsection (e)(2) shall be added to and administered

22 as part of the Forest.

23 (2) BOUNDARY.—

24 (A) IN GENERAL.—If any land acquired

25 under subsection (e)(2) lies outside the exterior
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1 boundary of the Forest, the Secretary may

2 modify the boundary of the Forest to include

3 the acquired land.

4 (B) NO EFFECT ON OTHER LAW.—Nothing

5 in this section limits the authority of the Sec6 retary to adjust the boundaries of the Forest in

7 accordance with section 11 of the Act of March

8 1, 1911 (36 Stat. 963, chapter 186; 16 U.S.C.

9 500).

10 (g) VALID EXISTING RIGHTS; EASEMENTS.—The

11 conveyance under this section shall be subject to valid

12 rights, easements (including utility easements), rights-of13 way, and any other right, title, or interest of record on

14 the selected land existing on the date of the conveyance

15 of the selected land to the Ski Area.

Æ