I
104TH CONGRESS
1ST SESSION
H. R. 2824
To authorize an exchange of lands in the State of Utah at Snowbasin
Ski Area.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
DECEMBER 21, 1995
Mr. HANSEN introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
A BILL
To authorize an exchange of lands in the State of Utah
at Snowbasin Ski Area.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Snowbasin Land Ex-
change Act of 1995’’.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND DETERMINATION.
(a) FINDINGS.—The Congress finds that—
(1) in June 1995, Salt Lake City, Utah, was
selected to host the 2002 Winter Olympic Games,
and the Snowbasin Ski Resort, which is owned by
the Sun Valley Company, was identified as the site
of six Olympic events: the men’s and women’s
downhills, men’s and women’s Super-Gs, and men’s
and women’s combined downhills;
(2) in order to adequately accommodate these
events, which are traditionally among the most pop-
ular and heavily attended at the Winter Olympic
Games, major new skiing, visitor, and support facili-
ties will have to be constructed at the Snowbasin Ski
Resort on land currently administered by the United
States Forest Service;
(3) while certain of these new facilities can be
accommodated on National Forest land under tradi-
tional Forest Service permitting authorities, the base
area facilities necessary to host visitors to the ski
area and the Winter Olympics are of such a nature
that they should logically be located on private land;
(4) land exchanges have been routinely utilized
by the Forest Service to transfer base area lands to
many other ski areas, and the Forest Service and
the Sun Valley Company have concluded that a land
exchange to transfer base area lands at the
Snowbasin Ski Resort to the Sun Valley Company is
both logical and advisable;
(5) an environmental impact statement and nu-
merous resource studies have been completed by the
Forest Service and the Sun Valley Company for the
lands proposed to be transferred to the Sun Valley
Company by this Act;
(6) the Sun Valley Company has assembled
lands with outstanding environmental, recreational,
and other values to convey to the Forest Service in
return for the lands it will receive in the exchange,
and the Forest Service has identified such lands as
desirable for acquisition by the United States; and
(7) completion of a land exchange and approval
of a development plan for Olympic related facilities
at the Snowbasin Ski Resort is essential to ensure
that all necessary facilities can be constructed, test-
ed for safety and other purposes, and become fully
operational in advance of the 2002 Winter Olympics
and earlier pre-Olympic events.
(b) DETERMINATION.—The Congress has reviewed
the previous analyses and studies of the lands to be ex-
changed and developed pursuant to this Act, and has
made its own review of these lands and issues involved,
and on the basis of those reviews hereby finds and deter-
mines that a legislated land exchange and development
plan approval is necessary to meet Olympic goals and
timetables.
SEC. 3. PURPOSE AND INTENT.
The purpose of this Act is to authorize and direct
the Secretary to exchange 1,320 acres of federally-owned
land within the Cache National Forest in the State of
Utah for lands of approximately equal value owned by the
Sun Valley Company. It is the intent of Congress that this
exchange be effected without delay within the period speci-
fied by section 5.
SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.
As used in this Act—
(1) the term ‘‘Sun Valley Company’’ means the
Sun Valley Company, a division of Sinclair Oil Cor-
poration, a Wyoming Corporation, or its successors
or assigns; and
(2) the term ‘‘Secretary’’ means the Secretary
of Agriculture.
SEC. 5. EXCHANGE.
(a) FEDERAL SELECTED LANDS.—
(1) IN GENERAL.—Not later than 45 days after
the final determination of value of the Federal se-
lected lands, the Secretary shall, subject to this Act,
transfer all right, title, and interest of the United
States in and to the lands referred to in paragraph
(2) to the Sun Valley Company.
(2) LANDS DESCRIBED.—The lands referred to
in paragraph (1) are certain lands within the Cache
National Forest in the State of Utah comprising
1,320 acres, more or less, as generally depicted on
the map entitled ‘‘Snowbasin Land Exchange—Pro-
posed’’ and dated October 1995.
(b) NON-FEDERAL OFFERED LANDS.—Upon trans-
fer of the Federal selected lands under subsection (a), and
in exchange for those lands, the Sun Valley Company shall
convey to the Secretary all right, title and interest of the
Sun Valley Company in and to so much of the following
offered lands which have been previously identified by the
United States Forest Service as desirable by the United
States, or which are identified pursuant to paragraph (5),
as are of approximate equal value to the Federal selected
lands:
(1) Certain lands located within the exterior
boundaries of the Cache National Forest in Weber
County, Utah, which comprise approximately 640
acres and are generally depicted on a map entitled
‘‘Lightning Ridge Offered Lands’’, dated October
1995.
(2) Certain lands located within the Cache Na-
tional Forest in Weber County, Utah, which com-
prise approximately 635 acres and are generally de-
picted on a map entitled ‘‘Wheeler Creek Watershed
Offered Lands-Section 21’’, dated October 1995.
(3) Certain lands located within the exterior
boundaries of the Cache National Forest in Weber
County, Utah, and lying immediately adjacent to the
outskirts of the City of Ogden, Utah, which comprise
approximately 800 acres and are generally depicted
on a map entitled ‘‘Taylor Canyon Offered Lands’’,
dated October 1995.
(4) Certain lands located within the exterior
boundaries of the Cache National Forest in Weber
County, Utah, which comprise approximately 2,040
acres and are generally depicted on a map entitled
‘‘North Fork Ogden River-Devil’s Gate Valley’’,
dated October 1995.
(5) Such additional offered lands as may be
necessary to make the values of the lands exchanged
pursuant to this Act approximately equal, and which
are acceptable to the Secretary.
(c) SUBSTITUTION OF OFFERED LANDS.—If one or
more of the precise offered land parcels identified in para-
graphs (1) through (4) of subsection (b) is unable to be