Environmental Advocate Calls On Arizona Senators To Retract Stilo Support Letter
December 26, 2017
Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake have been actively trying to help a foreign company, Stilo, move ahead with a controversial development at the doorstep of the Grand Canyon.
The Forest Service had sent back a flawed application to use Forest Service Land to gain access to Stilo holdings. If the Forest Service had decided to play ball with the Italian investors, Stilo could proceed to initiate a project that would add three million square feet of commercial space to Tusayan and more than 1,00 homes.That didn't happen and Stilo has been trying to use some influence to turn around the situation.
Stilo successfully convinced Senator’s McCain and Flake to seek a change of heart from the Forest Service. Here is a link to that letter.
The existence of the letter was recently discovered by Dr. Robin Silver, noted environmentalist and founder of the Center for Biological Diversity.
Silver urged the two senators to retract their letter. Silver’s message states in part:
Grand Canyon National Park is already overwhelmed with visitors and inadequate and antiquated infrastructure. Stilo’s development will exponentially increase the number of people living in and visiting the area. Water for the Stilo/Tusayan development will result in reduction of flows to Havasupai Falls and the springs and seeps of Grand Canyon National Park.”
Silver said Stilo deserves no consideration just because it made a bad investment:
“Stilo refuses to recognize and admit that their development will hurt the Park. Why can’t you? Since when it is the motivation of Arizona’s Senators to advocate for foreign developers simply because that have made “significant financial investment in the project”? Stilo has made a bad investment. The Departments of Interior and Agriculture owe them nothing. Please retract your errant correspondence.”
