A proposed 157-lot RV resort near Purgatory Resort will no longer be built after a contract dispute between the landowner and would-be developers ultimately killed the project.
“That contract has been terminated,” said Gary Derck, chief executive officer of Durango Mountain Holdings, the company that owns the land. “This one just died and went away.”
Derck said when the contract was terminated, both Durango Mountain Holdings and would-be developers Hearthside Luxury Motorcoach Resort signed a confidentiality agreement to not talk about the details of the dispute.
Calls to Michigan-based developers Hearthside were not returned.
Last fall, plans came to light that a 157-lot luxury RV park was planned for 54-acres along U.S. Highway 550, across from Cascade Village. The sale of the land to Hearthside was based on approval of the project from San Juan County.
However, the project drew fierce criticism from members of the public that said the development would be a detriment to the character of the mountainous and wooded landscape because of its size and density.
The proposed RV park would have also put nearly one-third of the Durango Nordic Center’s trails at risk, which could have wiped away three to five miles of the center’s 14-mile cross-country terrain, the center’s president Tom Holcomb previously said.
In April, San Juan County Commissioners approved a preliminary plan for Phase 1 of the project, which called for 61 lots on about 20 acres. A few weeks later, The Durango Herald reported a contract dispute had stalled progress on the project.
Craig Rose, a co-developer with Hearthside, said at that time he didn’t believe the dispute was “significant at this point.”
“As you get near the finish line of any project, sometimes you have delays,” he said.
When questioned about the future of that parcel of land, Derck referenced a master plan that was drafted years ago, which calls for million-dollar homes rather than an RV Park.
“We didn’t have a motorcoach village envisioned in our master plan,” Derck said.
jromeo@durangoherald.com
