Controversial Grand Canyon Gondola Grounded for a Year

7/17/14

A tourist attraction proposed for the Navajo side of the Grand Canyon has been delayed by a year, because the controversial plan didn’t make it on the Navajo Nation Council’s summer legislative agenda.

A Phoenix-based development group, the Confluence Partners, fronted the plan in 2012 to build Grand Canyon Escalade, which would occupy 420 acres near the confluence of the Colorado and Little Colorado Rivers, just east of Grand Canyon National Park. The development’s main draw would be the “Escalade” Gondola Tramway, carrying tourists to the Canyon floor. Once there, visitors could walk along an 1,100-foot elevated riverwalk, eat at a restaurant, or visit an amphitheater and terraced grass seating area overlooking the Colorado River. The development would also include a Navajo cultural center and retail and art galleries.

Lamar Whitmer, of Confluence Partners, said all the necessary approvals are in place, and the legislation was delivered to the Navajo Nation three months ago. As a next step, it would have been assigned a legislation number by the Navajo Nation Speaker’s office, but Jared Touchin, spokesman for the office, said the legislation never arrived; he suspects there were legal issues that remain to be resolved. The deadline for consideration in the legislative Summer Session was Tuesday, July 8.

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