As Nordic Valley ski village plans edge ahead, Froerer’s involvement scrutinized
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- This map shows the proposed Nordic Valley ski village development area. The right side is north in the image and the village area is focused in the sector shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the map, with the brown markings that indicate structures.
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- This map shows the footprint of the Nordic Valley ski village development area. The right side is north in the image and the village area is focused in the sector shown in the bottom right-hand corner of the map. Nordic Valley Land Associates owns many of the parcels that would become the village, including the areas numbered 5 through 12.
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- Weber County Commissioner Gage Froerer in an undated photo
OGDEN — With Weber County officials to consider a key rezone request related to the Nordic Valley ski village proposal, an area resident is loudly decrying County Commissioner Gage Froerer’s role in the proceedings.
The Nordic Valley expansion — pursued primarily by Skyline Mountain Base, owner of the land where the Nordic Valley ski resort sits and much of the land involved in the project — has been focus of debate and deliberation since the proposal formally emerged in October 2021. It has sparked concern from some area residents, worried the proposed mix of townhomes, chalets, commercial development and more east and southeast of the existing Nordic Valley lodge will disrupt the quiet area.
Now on top of that, James O’Brien, a retired lawyer living in the Eden area, is blasting Froerer’s role. Froerer holds a 3.3% stake in Nordic Valley Land Associates, the co-applicant along with Skyline Mountain Base for the rezone and owner of a 50.5-acre swath of land that’s central in the ski village project.
“My personal view is that Froerer’s participation in all the meetings at which the Nordic Valley village project has been considered by the (County) Commission calls into question the validity of the commission’s actions regarding the project,” O’Brien charged. He’s complained to the Utah State Auditor and asked the Weber County Attorney’s Office to pressure Froerer to more publicly spell out his personal stake in the project and to stay out of deliberations on the matter.
Commissioners on Tuesday are to hold a public hearing on the rezone request and potentially take action on that question and a parallel request for approval of the proposed development agreement outlining the ski village plans. Positive action would lay the groundwork for the ambitious project to proceed, though ski village development faces additional hurdles and would likely unfold over a span of 10 to 15 years or more.
Froerer’s partial ownership stake in Nordic Valley Land Associates has been a matter of public knowledge at least since 2018, even if it hasn’t been front-and-center in the ski village discussions. Given the ownership stake, he recused himself from the Aug. 16 vote on changes to Weber County land-use code, sought by ski village developers as part of the project. That measure — a precursor to the measures up for debate on Tuesday — passed 2-0, approved by the other two commissioners, Jim Harvey and Scott Jenkins.
On Monday, Froerer said he plans to recuse himself from voting on Tuesday as well “to provide transparency.” He also noted the attention his ownership stake in Nordic Valley Land Associates has received from the Standard-Examiner in the past and his consultations with Weber County legal experts “to make sure my actions and filings are in compliance with state statutes.”
Laurent Jouffray, a member of the Skyline Mountain Base board, noted that Froerer has publicly divulged his stake in Nordic Valley Land Associates several times. “We have spoken about this in public meetings in the Valley and never hide anything. He talked about it, you reported it several times, we spoke about it — so it is public knowledge and Gage Froerer recused himself,” Jouffray said in an email to the Standard-Examiner on Monday.
Moreover, Jouffray said, discussions involving Skyline Mountain Base reps and Nordic Valley Land Associates have been with reps from Nordic Valley Land Associates’ majority partner, the Kier Corp., nor Froerer.
Froerer filed a disclosure with the Weber County Human Resources Office on Nov. 20 — supplied to the Standard-Examiner on Monday after filing a public records request — that indicates a Froerer family trust holds a 16% stake in Nordic Valley Land Associates. Froerer’s interest in the trust is 20%, he said, giving him a personal stake of about 3.3% in Nordic Valley Land Associates.
O’Brien, for his part, has pushed hard on the topic in his correspondence with the Weber County Attorney’s Office and the Utah State Auditor, supplied to the Standard-Examiner.
O’Brien had asked in an Aug. 30 letter to the County Attorney’s Office that it prod Froerer to file a statement with the county spelling out his business interests tied to the Nordic Valley ski village plans. In that letter and another to the Utah State Auditor on Oct. 24, 2022, he also argued that Froerer should refrain from participation in deliberation on the project proposal.
He should have filed a disclosure statement “months before” his Aug. 16 recusal from the earlier vote on the matter since details of the project publicly emerged in October 2021, O’Brien says.
“Commissioner Froerer also improperly limited his recusal to the vote on Aug. 16, 2022, while otherwise fully participating in public and private deliberations regarding the development project,” O’Brien wrote in his letter to the state auditor. He went on, saying Froerer’s “cavalier conflict disclosure and the (County) Commission’s failure to take all ‘appropriate actions’ to recuse him from deliberations give the appearance of bias, favoritism and backroom dealing.”
Though Froerer filed a written disclosure with the county on Nov. 20, O’Brien didn’t learn he had done so until Monday, after advised by the Standard-Examiner.
Meanwhile, County Attorney Chris Allred argues that the only requirement spelled out in state law that applies in this sort of circumstance would be a public disclosure by Froerer of the potential financial interest.
“The law anticipates that one who has made the disclosure may continue to participate in discussing and voting on the matter. Commissioners are generally expected to vote on all matters that come before them unless otherwise prohibited, although one could potentially abstain,” Allred said in an email to the Standard-Examiner on Monday.
Beyond that, Froerer noted that the Ogden Valley Planning Commission, not county commissioners, have been vetting the proposal, passing recommendations on to the County Commission “where I have recused when voting.”
The Nordic Valley proposal encompasses some 510 acres of land in all, most of it owned by Skyline Mountain Base. Nordic Valley Land Associates, however, owns 5o.5 acres of land spread over 11 parcels, east and southeast of the Nordic Valley ski resort’s main lodge.
The plans call for up to 565 dwelling units and commercial development, according to planning documents, most of it to be built on the 50.5 acres of Nordic Valley Land Associates land.
Notably, the residential density proposed in the plans is already contemplated in the Ogden Valley General Plan, the document guiding development in the area. Skyline Mountain Base proposes focusing the housing south and southeast of the main Nordic Valley ski lodge, keeping the mountainside where the Nordic Valley ski runs are located clear of development.
“This will result in the preservation of the hillside as open space for outdoor recreation and the preservation of natural landscapes and viewsheds,” reads the Weber County Planning Division staff report on the plans.
