House Committee Strips Lease Language from Cannon Mountain Lease Bill

The House State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee today stripped SB217, the Cannon Mountain lease bill, of its lease, Franconia Notch State Park/Cannon master plan and veterans memorial sections, leaving only the original hiking corridor language intact.

It also attached unrelated legislation to the bill. The measure will face the full House on May 15.

To see the amended bill, click here.

This potentially means the end of lease talk for this legislative session. But it also might mean that the issue will be brought up again next year.

'Whistleblowers' Find Long-Established Glade at Mittersill

If you emailed Sen. Jeb Bradley about his Cannon lease bill, you probably got a reply last week that concluded, "whistleblowers have recently brought to my attention significant tree cutting for glade skiing high on the mountain. I brought this presumably unauthorized cutting to the attention of the Division of Parks, which is currently investigating."

The senator was concerned because the area in question is above 2,500 feet on former Forest Service land that's habitat for the Bicknell's thrush, a small songbird.

It turns out that the senator discovered the glade known as Bunny Slope Direct or Pony Slope Direct, which has been around for about two decades.

Did N.H. Lease Mount Sunapee for Below Fair Market Value?

A 1996 federal report found that the U.S. Forest Service wasn't getting fair market value for special use permits it grants to ski areas that lease federal land. The General Accounting Office report said that the Forest Service was getting less than 3 percent of revenue from the holders of special use permits -- such as ski area leases -- while states received between 5 and 15 percent of revenue generated for similar uses of state-owned land. 

The lease for Mount Sunapee, which came less than 18 months after the federal report was issued, includes a small annual base rent payment to the state, plus 3 percent of gross revenues. 

With other states receiving between 5 and 15 percent of revenues for leasing their property, this suggests that New Hampshire is not getting fair market value for the Mount Sunapee lease. And if that's the case, it shortchanges the state park system and Cannon Mountain while providing a sweetheart deal for the leaseholder, CNL Lifestyle Properties, which is now North America's largest owner of ski areas.

The Mount Sunapee lease payments help fund capital improvements at Cannon Mountain. The rationale for leasing Mount Sunapee was to eliminate the need for state-funded capital improvements at both mountains, while retaining the state-run Cannon as an integral part of Franconia Notch State Park. (For background on this topic, click here.)

Although this arrangement is far from perfect -- and one can question the wisdom of using one state park as an ATM for another -- it has addressed Cannon's capital needs. But SB217 puts this in jeopardy by threatening to lease Cannon and diverting Mount Sunapee lease payments for purposes not spelled out in the legislation.

House Committee Takes Critical Look at Cannon Mountain Lease Bill

The House State-Federal Relations and Veterans Affairs Committee took a very critical look at SB217, the Cannon Mountain lease bill, during its hearing yesterday. Members will vote on the bill on May 10.