Mount Sunapee ski area operators are once again asking the state to expand the resort’s lease area by 175 acres to build trails, a new lift and lodge. “We feel that we need this to maintain our customer base,” Mount Sunapee Resort Marketing Director Bruce McCloy said yesterday. “This is a one-time expansion we need … with another 29 years to go on our lease.”

The ski area’s last five-year master development plan contained the same request. But Gov. John Lynch did not support it because he felt the expansion’s purpose was to allow the operators to use 230 adjacent acres of private land for a condo, hotel and townhouse development.

The ski area leases 968 acres from the state.

A suit intended to force the governor’s hand went to Merrimack County Superior Court and was dismissed earlier this year.

The plans for the private land are separate from the master development plan, McCloy noted. But the company is still hopeful the plans could go forward if the leasehold expansion is approved, he said.

A public hearing on the 2009-2014 master development plan is set for Tuesday, July 14, at 6 p.m. in the Sunapee Lodge.

The plan includes a small lodge and parking lot for the West Bowl, located in Goshen, and a high-speed detachable quad chair to connect with the rest of the trail network. There are also plans to expand an existing parking lot at the base of the ski area and upgrade the Cataract, Sun Bowl and North Peak chairs. The Spruce Peak triple chair also would be upgraded. Snowmaking would be expanded, but no new permit would be required; the ski area uses water from Lake Sunapee.

Ski area design company, SE Group of Burlington, Vt., produced the 80-page master development plan. It notes that the ski area capacity is about 5,220 skiers and snowboarders a day. That could increase to 6,850 with the additional parking spaces, lodge facilities, lifts and trails in the plan, referred to as a “full build-out scenario.”

Members of the Mount Sunapee Advisory Committee will make a recommendation on the plan to the Commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development. The commissioner can choose whether to adopt expansion plans within the existing leasehold area, but any request for additional leased land within Mount Sunapee State Park must be approved by the governor and the state’s Executive Council.

Since signing the lease and operating agreement in 1998, Tim and Diane Mueller, former owners of Okemo Mountain Resort in Ludlow, Vt., said they have invested more than $15 million into Mount Sunapee. Lease payments to the state totaling $4.6 million have gone to improvements at state-owned and operated Cannon Mountain in Franconia.

In December 2008, the Muellers sold their assets at the ski areas to CNL Income Properties.

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Tags: Sunapee, USA