CALGARY — The Alberta government has conditionally approved Fortress Mountain Resort’s master development plan.The proposed all-season resort in Kananaskis Country is now one step closer to construction, but the project’s proponents still have to complete surveys on wildlife, plans for environmental management and protection, as well as Indigenous consultation, and reach an emergency services plan with the Kananaskis Improvement District (KID)..According to the CBC, the resort would also have to lower the number of daily visitors from around 10,000 to 8,300, amend design aspects such as moving a mountain-top restaurant to the base of the mountain, and remove references to motorized recreation.The approval, which was made under Alberta’s All-Season Resorts Act, states Fortress must satisfy those conditions before it can begin building.A final decision from the Alberta government would lead to a new 99-year lease if all of the conditions are met.“What we’ve done is said, ‘yeah, we’ve approved this concept, but there’s some more homework that you need to do,’” Rob Simieritsch, executive director of All-Season Resorts with the Ministry of Tourism and Sport, said..Alberta designates Castle, Fortress and Nakiska as all-season resort areas .“We felt pretty comfortable going to this decision that they have enough pieces of the puzzle together that they can go to the next step to do more detailed technical, environmental and engineering work.”Fortress Mountain spans 1,471 hectares of Crown land between Spray Valley and Peter Lougheed provincial parks.Up until the early 2000s, it was a ski area but it now currently runs only cat-skiing operations from the site.As part of the new plan, Fortress is proposing turning the former ski hill into a year-round resort with a base-area village equipped with gondolas and lifts, condos, sightseeing, shopping, skiing, mountain biking, hiking, and employee housing.The project is being led by Western Securities Ltd., in partnership with Ridge North America, while Fortress Mountain Holdings currently holds the lease.
