A rapidly expanding ski resort town in Utah could become about 24 acres bigger, courtesy of the state’s U.S. senators and the Forest Service.
Sens. Mike Lee and John Curtis, both Republicans, are pushing legislation to give the town of Brian Head — home to a major ski area — around 24 acres from the Dixie National Forest, free of charge, for any purpose local officials deem necessary.
“Brian Head is poised to become the next great Western ski town,” Curtis said in a May news release announcing the legislation, which was supposed to receive a hearing in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee before the federal shutdown disrupted the schedule. Lee chairs the committee.
“This bill gives local officials the tools they need — free from federal red tape — to meet their community’s growing needs,” Curtis said.
The legislation, S. 1860, the “Brian Head Town Land Conveyance Act,” envisions the property being used “for a public works facility or any other uses determined to be necessary by the Town.”
Spokespersons for Lee, the bill’s primary sponsor, and Curtis didn’t immediately return messages Wednesday seeking elaboration. The town manager in Brian Head, Bret Howser, didn’t return an email and phone call seeking further details.
Lee has been a relentless proponent of selling or transferring federally owned property back to local control. His efforts to sell large swaths of federal land in the Republican-led One Big Beautiful Bill Act failed this summer amid outcry from Western Republicans and other conservatives. Lee said his effort was aimed at creating more housing.
Departure from the norm
The new proposal from Lee and Curtis differs from other land conveyance measures Congress has typically considered, which usually spell out financial compensation or land to be traded in exchange.
Most recently, the committee passed legislation, S. 909, to sell — for fair market value — about 3,400 acres of land managed by the Bureau of Land Management to La Paz County, Arizona, to be developed for solar energy.
A Democratic Senate aide close to the committee, granted anonymity to speak candidly, said the measure doesn’t seem to follow the usual protocol for transferring federal land, nor cite the relevant laws governing transfer of federal land.
In some cases, the Forest Service sells land through a law called the Townsites Act, although that law requires payment of fair market value or exchange of other land. In other cases, Congress conveys land for less than fair market value for “public purposes” such as fire houses or public parks, the aide said, but it can’t be resold or used for commercial purposes.
The Dixie National Forest covers nearly 2 million acres and includes the Brian Head Resort owned by Mountain Capital Partners. The resort, operating with a special use permit from the Forest Service, is proposing a major expansion that would add 1,651 acres of the national forest to its permit.
The expansion would take several years and is undergoing a required federal environmental impact analysis.
The expansion of the ski resort coincides with the development of a 2,000-acre connected resort and residential community called Aspen Meadows. To smooth the way for that development, officials annexed 1,800 acres from Iron County into the town of Brian Head in 2024.
‘Why are we just straight giving this away?’
Many remain wary over the earlier public land fight this summer with Lee. A group called American Hunters and Anglers Action Network said it worries Lee is still looking for ways to unload federal land — a proposition that’s sparked strong public criticism.
“Why are we just straight giving this away?” said Land Tawney, a co-founder of the hunters and anglers group. “Why is this being done in such a sneaky way?”
Tawney said the Brian Head acreage isn’t necessarily a hunting ground but that the proposal illustrates the group’s larger opposition to any whittling away of federal public lands. The organization’s website says it’s opposed to “politicians and proposals that support transferring the management of publicly owned federal lands to individual states.”
Neither of the bill’s sponsors specifically mentioned the expanding ski resort, but in the news release, Lee said, “This legislation offers a practical solution to Brian Head’s space constraints, allowing them to build the public works facilities they need without unnecessary federal roadblocks.”
Brian Head has a permanent population of 164, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, but thousands of people visit every year, the town manager’s office said in its proposed budget for 2026.
Most of the town’s tax revenue is connected to the resort, with sales taxes running a close second to property taxes. After the start of the Covid-19 pandemic, the town saw an “onslaught of visitors and guests,” according to the proposed budget.
“While the local economy had been expanding at a quick pace in recent years, it basically exploded over the past three years,” the spending proposal said.
Contact this reporter on Signal at hellmarcman.49.
