Army scales back Piñon Canyon expansion

The Army sounded retreat in its fight for more training land in Las Animas County.

The military shredded its request for 418,577 acres of ranchland and is now looking for 100,000 acres to add to Fort Carson's Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site.

Further sweetening the deal, the Army is trying to woo lawmakers in southeast Colorado with the promise of 100 civilian jobs at the training site and $140 million in construction that will go to improvements if the Army gets approval to buy the land.

Keith Eastin, an assistant Army secretary overseeing the deal, was in Colorado Springs on Thursday to tout the compromise, which is focused on buying land from "willing sellers" rather than seizing it through federal condemnation laws.

"If someone wants to sell it, we would like to buy," Eastin told The Gazette. "We believe there are willing sellers."

Eastin said he wants to move quickly and will look for sellers in the coming months. The Army, though, won't be able to purchase land until Congress pays for it.

The peace offerings weren't enough to budge a coalition of ranchers in the region who say the Army shouldn't add a square inch to the 235,000 acres it already owns outside Trinidad along the Purgatoire River.

"It hasn't made sense and it's still not going to make sense," said Lon Robertson, a rancher and store owner from Kim who's heading the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition.

The Army's change of heart is outlined in a report that will be sent to Congress today.

The report was requested last year by Colorado Sens. Ken Salazar and Wayne Allard to examine the impacts of expansion. It also dodges some significant questions by not considering out-ofstate training sites as alternatives.

In the report, the Army contends it still needs more than 400,000 additional acres to train the ever-growing contingent of soldiers at Fort Carson, but offers to make do with only 100,000 acres to salve local concerns.

"It will be sufficient," Eastin said, adding if the Army gets the land they won't come back for more for at least "15 or 20 years."

It's not enough, yet, to win over a key potential ally in Salazar. The freshman Democrat has carefully avoided opposing expansion entirely, but earlier this month offered a second one-year spending moratorium on land purchases for the training site. Salazar justified extending the spending ban by saying the public will need the time to review the report.

Much of the land the Army wants is owned by Denver businessman Craig Walker, who has said previously his land isn't for sale. Selling 100,000 acres to the Army, though, would still leave Walker with lots of land, according to Las Animas County Assessor's records showing Walker owns 175,000acres under various business names.

A spokesman for Walker's company said the businessman would be willing to listen to the Army's new proposal.

"We'll take a look at their proposal as other landowners will," said Doug Harris, a vice president with Walker and Associates. "The size of the original area put a lot of people off. With the new proposal we have something to talk about."

The Army doesn't have a cost estimate for the purchase of any land, which Eastin said would be based on appraisals.

Assessed values on Walker's properties in Las Animas County vary from about $100 per acre to more than $1,000 per acre.

The Army is looking to expand Piñon Canyon because it isn't large enough to meet future training needs, the military has said. The problem, Eastin said, is twofold: units spreading out to cover a larger battlefield and Fort Carson growing by 15,000 soldiers through 2013 whom it will have to train.

Critics say the Army didn't do enough in its report to find creative solutions to its need for land to train troops.

"They tactically decided to do this and not based on any soul-searching," said Bill Sulzman, a Colorado Springs peace activist who opposes the expansion.

Among the economic carrots the Army is offering are jobs and cash for merchants.

Eastin said the additional 100,000 acres would be turned into a high-tech electronic training range that would require 100 or more employees with a payroll that would top $5 million per year. Additionally, the Army says it intends to spend more money in the communities around the training range on supplies from food to gasoline.

Eastin said he's planning a series of meetings to let residents know the new plan.

"We realize we have a serious communication problem with the locals," Eastin said.

CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0240 or tom.roeder@gazette.com