Industry News
For months, Selkirk Tangiers Heli Skiing (STHS) had been planning to rezone and turn a rural lot north of Revelstoke, British Columbia, into a massive all-season heli-ski lodge, which the company titled the Mars Creek Wilderness Lodge. But unfortunately for the company, its plans fell through after the Columbia Shuswap Regional District unanimously denied a third reading of its proposal after heavy opposition from the public. The property sits on 65 hectares located just shy of 30 miles north of downtown Revelstoke.
If approved, the company’s lodge would have been the biggest resort development between Revelstoke and the Mica Dam. The layout included 150 housing units, 12 camping spaces, a spa, wellness center, après bar and dining facilities, as well as a marina and boat launch. STHS also planned to add other activities such as biking, hiking, fishing, kayaking, and heli-tours, according to the board report.
While STHS had previously acquired the land, it needed to switch the property from a small-holdings residential space to a commercial resort lot in order to develop the lodge. It had first applied for the switch in 2023, and its first and second readings were approved in April 2025 and August 2025, respectively. But when a group of snowmobilers saw the rezoning application, they voiced their concerns to the BC Snowmobile Federation, fearing the lot’s expansion into snowmobiling lands. They quickly raised awareness on social media, and the proposal’s third reading was rejected.
At a June public hearing at the Revelstoke Community and Aquatic Centre, the rezoning of the lot became the main discussion. Dozens of concerned residents spoke, including snowmobilers, environmentalists, anglers, hunters, rural property and campground owners, and longtime locals. Residents also wrote over 40 written submissions opposing the rezoning.
“It was, since I’ve been elected, by far the biggest and most sort of heated public hearing we’ve had,” Area B director David Brooks-Hill said at the hearing. “I didn’t expect it, but I’ve never seen such a sort of united opposition to a proposal.”
One of the public’s main issues with the proposal was its scale. The lodge was planned in an area with essentially no buildings around it. Its massive size overwhelmed the landscape, and construction of the lodge would have required large crews and the potential removal of forested areas. Furthermore, it would have drawn large amounts of tourists to a quiet area that many longtime residents look to for quiet time outdoors.
“It would totally change the character of the area,” Brooks-Hill said. “There’s nothing, anything like this anywhere near there. It is kind of a tourist attraction, but also all the locals in Revelstoke and Area B around there, this is where they go to camp and sort of get away.”
In addition to its size, there was concern regarding its source of power. Despite potentially over 100 people using the lodge at once, the lodge had no defined source of power. This left many concerned it would be forced to rely on diesel, going against the STHS’s off-grid intentions for the lodge.
“This [is] a small cabin on a few acres of land,” Brooks-Hill explained. “Changing it to a massive resort like this, powered by diesel generators, is a pretty severe change, and clearly not one supported by the public.”
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Ultimately, Brooks-Hill tabled a motion to deny third reading for the zoning and official community plan amendment. Area A director Dean Trumbley and Area C director Marty Gibbons both sided with Brooks-Hill, and the third reading was denied.
“A big part of this is: is this in the public interest?” Brooks-Hill questioned. “A lot of the comments — the use of helicopters, the noise, the effect on wildlife — although we’re not directly responsible for those areas, our action will enable this, and will take it out of the community’s hands and put it into [the hands of] a provincial bureaucrat.”
With the proposal rejected, Mars Creek will remain the quiet, wilderness-surrounded space that it has been for years. The rejection also shows where the community stands on protecting its spaces from developments: leave natural spaces to nature. So for Mars Creeks’ snowmobilers, environmentalists, anglers, hunters, rural property and campground owners, and longtime locals, endless helicopter whirring will not be a problem.
