BALSAMS SKI PLAN GIVEN CONDITIONAL APPROVAL BY BOARD
March 24, 2023
By Donna Jordan
Appearing in the Colebrook Chronicle
“The latest approval has been received for the Balsams Grand Resort Hotel re-development project in Dixville Notch.
At a Coos County Planning Board meeting held on March 15, the planning board voted to approve the site plan for the ski area expansion, with conditions. This expansion is part of the phase one portion of the major re-development project. It was explained at the planning board meeting that this approval was the last ‘big’ approval needed; there are still a few more approvals that will need to go before the planning board.
The phase one re-development project includes a New Hampshire/Dix House and the Lake Gloriette-a 250-plus rooms hotel with conference center attached. Lake Gloriette hotel is linked to the Hampshire/Dix House by underground tunnel. The Hampshire/Dix House will be a single unit. ‘The movie theater on the ground floor of the Hampshire House will be connected with the Dix part of the building, which will then be connected to the Lake Gloriette,’ property developer Les Otten told the Chronicle this week.
As part of the overall resort development, the issuance of $35 million worth of tax assessment district bonds was authorized by the county delegation and county commissioners. This bond has no taxpayer liability.
We already have the hotels, the ski area now, the alteration of terrain permits in hand or filed, the bond is now authorized and reviewed,’ said Otten. ‘So we’re narrowing down what we need. It’s the permits and the permissions that always have to come first,’ he said. ‘What’s ahead now with the planning board is mostly smaller permits and permissions; the same thing with the state. We still have some permits that need to be reissued by the Army Corps of Engineers, and we are not expecting any problems with that. We still have all our other permits that we received previously.’
Otten said that all the project funding has been ‘identified’ but none of it can be finalized until the permissions and permitting is completed. ‘But, we have gotten a lot of it done. We are happy to say we think things are moving in the right direction,’ he said.”