If all goes as planned, company officials hope to start work onthe resort sometime next year and have cabins ready to occupy in2002. But company officials, who have spent the past four yearsbattling to get approval for the resort, expect legal challengesfrom opponents concerned about MountainStar's impact on theenvironment and its effect on rural lifestyles.

When completed, the MountainStar resort--currently the largestproject of its kind in the state--is expected to feature 4,100residential units, two golf courses, a 500-room hotel, anequestrian center and 100,000 sf of retail space. The fullycompleted project, which would take approximately 30 years toconstruct, is expected to cost Trendwest Resorts in theneighborhood of $250 million.

In an effort to appease opponents, Trendwest has agreed toreserve 4,800 acres of the resort for open space, including 1,500acres along the Cle Elum River that would be set aside as aconservation trust. Before any development can take place, however,Trendwest still has to secure approval from the state Department ofEcology to transfer water rights it has bought from irrigators inthe Yakima River drainage to use at MountainStar.