Koster obtains judgment against Indian Ridge's Shirato

Missouri Attorney General Chris Koster has obtained a judgment against Indian Ridge Resort Inc. and developer Jim Shirato.

Under the court-ordered judgment, Indian Ridge Resort and Shirato must bring the development up to code with the Missouri Clean Water Law and pay a $100,000 civil penalty, as well as $25,719 in costs already incurred by the state to investigate and clean up damage caused to Table Rock Lake. Shirato and his company also are required by the court to pay all future state costs associated with the site, according to a news release.

The judgment stems from a stall in construction at the site, which has developed erosion gullies allowing sediment and topsoil to drain in the lake, harming aquatic life and the lake's ecosystem, the attorney general said.

Shirato, a Springfield developer and owner of Indian Ridge Resort Inc., broke ground in 2005 on the Branson West development, planning a $1.6 billion, 850-acre project with homes, condos, an eight-story hotel, water park, golf course, conference center and retail space. Construction halted in August 2008 due to a funding freeze when regulators shut down the project's lender, Topeka, Kan.-based The Columbian Bank and Trust Co.

Shirato and Donald Snider - owner of Denver-based North Shore Investments LLC, which purchased a portion of the Branson West land - were sentenced in March 2012 for violating the Clean Water Act. The sentence came after a federal lawsuit charged the developers with failing to abate, control or slow erosion from the site construction and preventing storm-water runoff from pushing silt into the lake, according to Springfield Business Journal archives.

The sentence included fines of $215,000 and $100,000 for Shirato and Snider, respectively, as well as five years of probation and a compliance clause to prevent further harm to the lake.

A 25.17-acre parcel of the Branson West development sold at a court-ordered auction in July 2012 for $325,000.