Once again the Navajo Nation Council wants to talk about the Grand Canyon Escalade project.

A hearing on the $1 billion development proposed by Confluence Partners, LLC is scheduled for October 10 at the Twin Arrows Casino and Resort in Flagstaff.

Council Delegate Benjamin Bennett (Fort Defiance/Sawmill) introduced legislation on August 29 to put the controversial project back on the table.

The Grand Canyon Escalade development would see private developers build a tourist destination with hotels, food courts and a variety of shops on an undeveloped section of the rim and continue to the floor of the Grand Canyon where the Colorado and Little Colorado rivers converge.

In addition to the retail businesses, the project would include a gondola that tourists could ride thousands of feet down to the canyon’s floor, to a place previously accessible only by launching a major expedition and guiding a rubber raft or wooden dory through 62 miles of whitewater.

On the floor of the Grand Canyon tourists would find yet another swanky restaurant and a “river walk.”

The project has supporters and detractors.

The developers said the project could bring thousands of jobs, including temporary construction work, to a region that has long struggled with poverty. They estimate that 850 employees will be needed to run operations, including the Navajoland Discovery Center, and an additional 1,200 to 1,300 jobs will be created by the hotels, RV park and convenience store, according to documents filed with the council.

The Navajo Nation will receive eight percent to 18 percent of the revenue from the Escalade operations, depending on how many tourists visit the attraction each year.

If any fewer than 800,000 people visit annually, the Nation would receive eight percent of the revenue. For the Nation to receive 18 percent of the revenue, more than two million people would need to visit within one year — an average of almost 5,500 people per day, according to documents filed by Confluence Partners.

The project will bring economic benefits to the reservation, said former Navajo Nation president Albert Hale, who is a spokesman for Confluence Partners.

But environmental groups and traditional Navajo and Hopi tribal members staunchly oppose the project that would be built near the confluence where the Hopi people are said to have emerged into this world.