When Walt Disney Productions encountered stiff opposition from environmentalists to its proposal for a year-round resort at Mineral King in the southern Sierra Nevada, the corporation began searching for a new site. By 1972 Disney had found what it wanted: a beautiful mountain lake north of the Lake Tahoe Basin where privately owned land could be developed without affecting any wilderness areas. The site was Independence Lake. Then, in 1978, after reportedly spending over $2 million on intensive planning, the Disney corporation suddenly withdrew its application for governmental permission to construct the resort. A study of the events leading to Disney's precipitate action as well as the responses to it constitutes a case study of the environmental review process in California.
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