Thursday, March 28, 2024

Adventure Park's Alpine Rollercoaster Gains Traction...Literally

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After contending with rising building costs and supply-chain issues, construction for Adventure Park's Alpine rollercoaster begins to take shape.

Adventure Park has been a highly contested topic in Leavenworth, one that  has a rich history of legal contention and pushback from Friends of Leavenworth, a group that was originally formed from the pressure Adventure Park brought to concerned Icicle Road residents.

The Adventure Park project started in October of 2017 after Larry Langston offered to sell his property, on the intersection of US-2 and Icicle Road, to D.R. Moffett and Associates. Business partners David Moffett and John Sutherland proposed what is now known as Adventure Park, appealing to the City of Leavenworth to annex Langston’s property.

The city approved the annexation and the conditional use permit, ensuing an appeal to the hearing examiner on Nov. 6, 2019 and eventually a meeting on Jan. 21, 2020 with the Chelan County Superior Court Judge Brandt. All proved to be unsuccessful in deterring the new alpine rollercoaster.

Secretary for Friends of Leavenworth Chris Clark shared that she moved out of her home on Icicle Road due to the potential increase in noise that the park would create. Clark never thought that this development would be approved by the city and was shocked when it was.

“I was heartbroken when that came up, and I didn't even think it would really come about,” Clark said.

She believes that the parking issues on Icicle Road will only get worse once Adventure Park is finished and that the consequences of the park will outweigh the benefit it may bring.

“Isn't 2 million tourists a year enough? This is a very small community physically. It is not Seattle or Portland,” Clark said. “There's a limit, you can't just keep expanding [indefinitely]. Nobody comes here for a big city atmosphere.”

John Sutherland is excited for the development and claims that he has not heard any more complaints about Adventure Park. He disclosed that he recently moved to a house close to the Alpine rollercoaster. Sutherland hopes to open Adventure Park by December 2022, or early 2023 at the very latest. Construction of the Alpine rollercoaster should wrap up by June or July of 2022.

Sutherland explained the testing process for the Alpine roller coaster would include a few runs with testing dummies, along with a thorough safety inspection.


 

Adventure Park, Alpine rollercoaster, June Issue

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