Lake County commissioners approve Ski Cooper master plan edits; remove port-of-entry and accelerate ski school

Lake County commissioners approved edits to the Ski Cooper Master Development Plan (MDP) at a special meeting, adopting two changes requested by county leaders: removal of a proposed port-of-entry checkpoint from page 66 of the draft MDP and advancing the ski school project from a later phase to Phase 1 (pages 70–72).

The vote came after more than an hour of public comment and discussion among resort operators, adaptive-ski advocates and county officials about accessibility, public-land access and safety. The board approved the MDP with the two edits and directed staff to produce an editable version for timely submittal to the U.S. Forest Service for its required review and approval.

The change to the ski school timing was described during the meeting as an alignment of the written MDP with a May 8 presentation to Colorado Mountain College staff that already showed that element moved forward. Several speakers said the phase change reflects an operational priority for Ski Cooper and does not itself authorize construction without Forest Service approval. A county official noted the…