Change comes slowly to the eccentric Euro-flavored Taos Ski Valley, which is part of its charm. But in early February, the managers — now driven by the next generation of Blake family members overseeing this gem of the American ski scene — released plans sketching out a series of possible projects that will significantly alter the ski valley's face over the coming decades.

For the last 55 years, the Blake family has owned and operated Taos Ski Valley. With the exception of private lands in the base areas, all of TSV is located on public land and is operated under a special-use permit from the Carson National Forest.

As part of this permit, TSV periodically submits a Master Development Plan to the Forest Service. TSV's current plan was approved in 1981. In early February, it submitted a new plan, which contains all the projects TSV's management considers undertaking in the next few decades.

Submission is the first step into the long process of having the projects reviewed under the National Environmental Policy Act.

The new development plan focuses on opening up in-bounds expert terrain by adding strategically placed lifts while maintaining the integrity of Taos' famous ridge terrain; and providing for more winter and summer activities for nonskiing guests.

The proposals include a new high-speed chairlift, the Summit Chair, running from the base to the terminus of current chairs 2 and 6; a new chair running from Kachina Basin to just below the summit of Kachina Peak; a new short chair reaching West Basin Ridge; as well as hundreds of acres of new glades, a few new runs, a new beginner's area, a new summit restaurant and a snow play zone.

"At Taos Ski Valley, we have long felt that our guest-services experience was unparalleled in the industry; however, our mountain facilities and recreational offerings did not match this," notes TSV's President Mickey Blake, son of founder Ernie Blake. "It is our goal to remain true to the vision on which TSV was founded, while maintaining the character of the natural environment."

Marketing director Adriana Blake — Ernie's granddaughter — says managers are not sure of the exact order projects will unfold, and that projects are dependent upon the review process and economic conditions. But she says they expect to tackle the simple projects first, beginning this summer with clearing of runs for a new beginner area on private land next to the Rio Hondo just up-valley from the current base area. The Burrow area will then see a new chairlift installed in the summer of 2011.

Next will probably come a "snow play" area called Adventure Center, also along the river, just down-valley from the resort's current west edge. It will include four tubing runs served by a "magic carpet" lift, snowshoe trails and a warming yurt. "We really lack things for families to do after the lifts close and for non-skiers or riders, so this is a high priority for us," she says.

Next will come a 3.8-mile trail snaking to the top of Al's Run for summer mountain biking, with an average grade of 10 percent.

Extensive thickly forested slopes on the north end of West Basin Ridge — a section called The Wild West — will be thinned, creating some excellent new gladed terrain. Other major glading projects will follow — including a section of six distinct glades called The Minnesotas located below the current bottom Loreli and Lift 7 that will end on the current backside return run (which will be moved slightly upslope to avoid the new Burrow beginner area).

The new major lifts will generate the most discussion and are also the high-dollar projects; the first will most likely take three to four years to complete once approved, Adriana Blake says. The new Summit Lift would replace the current Chair 5, and cost at least $5 million, she says. It will be a high-speed chair, most likely a four-pack, rising an impressive 2,500 vertical feet. The plan envisions a new summit restaurant at the top of this new chair, so the lift might include occasional gondola chairs to carry nonskiing passengers up the mountain for lunch or dinner, says Blake.

The lift on Kachina Peak is tagged the Main Street Chair, named after the major natural run it will run above. The fixed-grip triple will begin in some woods near the current entrance to Hunziker Bowl and will end in a mini-bowl or cup just below the summit — to protect it from wind and for visual aesthetics.

Another new, very short chair (like Lift 7) will climb to the high point of West Basin Ridge. The Main Street and West Basin chairs will allow lift-served skiing and boarding on about half of the famous Taos steeps and deeps that have formerly been accessible only to those willing to hike. But hoofers will still have all of Tresckow Ridge, and portions of Highline and West Basin to themselves, so the cry, "Earn Your Turns" won't become entirely a thing of the past at TSV, which pioneered such skiing in the United States.

All in all, it is an impressive bit of planning that appears to retain the best of this fabled place of challenge and mountain spirit.

Daniel Gibson can be reached at dbgibson@newmexico.com.