NEWBURY, N.H. (AP) -The public gets a chance this week to put its 2 cents in on whether New Hampshire should allow land around Mount Sunapee to be developed.

The state will hold a hearing Thursday at the Mount Sunapee ski resort on the proposed five-year master plan for the mountain. People will each get two minutes to talk.

Tom and Diane Mueller, owners of Okemo Resort in Vermont and Crested Butte in Colorado, hold the lease on operating the state-owned Mount Sunapee ski resort. They are asking the state to expand the lease by 175 acres so they can develop 75 acres of new ski trails on the western edge of the park.

That would connect to private land where the company wants to build new lifts and 250 units of lodging – including a hotel, townhouses and private homes.

Tom Elliott, executive director of the Friends of Mount Sunapee, said the state would be “cannibalizing our state assets for a buck” if it allows the expansion.

“This is a line in the sand issue in New Hampshire,” said Elliott. “They do this, what’s next?”

Mueller argues that the privatization of Mount Sunapee has already happened.

“The state has already leased the ski area. In the long run, it has to make money on its own,” he said. “The worst that can happen is for it to revert back to the state. Skiers like new and better things and we think this is needed for it to be a business that is viable in the long run.”

Sean O’Kane, commissioner of the Department of Resources and Economic Development, said he will be listening intently to what people say Thursday.

“I want to deal with the facts,” he said. “There is tremendous passion on both sides of this issue.”

O’Kane said he will not make his decision based on emotion.

The land to be developed is primarily in Goshen – whose planning board chairman wrote O’Kane expressing concern the impact on his town could be greater than currently projected.

O’Kane said transportation and environmental issues are being studied.

O’Kane said he plans to make his decision in November.

The governor and Executive Council would have to approve an amended lease, which then would be reviewed by the National Park Service to ensure compliance with the Land and Water Conservation Fund program. The fund has been used in the he past to make improvements at the mountain.

AP-ES-08-22-04 1340EDT