Before the current Town Council put a stop to the practice, Tusayan was spending vast sums of money on the Forest Service application that would give Stilo access to Forest Service roads needed for its massive development plans.

Some of the expenses covered the cost of engineering services. The bulk of it went to a Washington DC lobbying firm Brownstein, Hyatt, Farber, and Schreck. That firm was billing Tusayan as much as $15,000 a month until Mayor Clarinda Vail and the Town Council ended the contract shortly after Vail took office.

Under terms of the Pre-annexation and Development Agreement (PADA) that Stilo signed with Tusayan, Stilo is obligated to reimburse the Town for external service providers as well as up to $1000,00 for internal staff time.

In a September 24th letter written to Stilo, the Town attorney is asked for $1,711,847.11.

The letter and a breakdown of expenses are linked here. The information was provided in response to a public records request.

Stilo has been asked to respond on or before October 8th.

In addition, Stilo is still asking the Town to sign off on a joint letter from the Town and the developer answering questions from the Forest Service in which the Forest Service asserts application process is on hold until Stilo resolves concerns related to the Tusayan Sanitary District.

Without the Forest Service road access, Stilo’s plans for nearly two million square feet of commercial space and thousands of homes to be built in Tusayan are in limbo.

In 2016, the Forest Service “returned” a similar request after receiving more than 200,000 messages opposing the idea.