Springs Utilities buying Summit County real estate - to keep it natural

Colorado Springs Utilities is getting into the high-priced world of Summit County real estate, not to build anything, but to prevent it.

The city-owned utility will ask City Council on Tuesday for approval to buy three parcels, 1.6 acres in a growing area near Hoosier Pass, for $240,000, to keep residential development from encroaching on its oldest trans-mountain water line, the Blue River System.

About 10 percent of Colorado Springs’ water is diverted from the Blue River watershed and under the Continental Divide at Hoosier Pass. The system began delivering water in 1953. Utilities doesn’t own the land, but easements along the pipeline’s path.

In recent years, Utilities officials have grown concerned about development near the water system. The area is 10 miles south of Breckenridge, a booming ski-resort town, and houses and mountain subdivisions now abound in this once-rural area.

Colorado Springs Mayor Lionel Rivera in 2007 wrote a letter to Summit County commissioners, expressing concern development in the Quandary Village area could damage the pipeline and cause slope instability in the narrow mountain valley. He also asked commissioners to write new regulations to address the issues and work with Utilities on approving developments.

Two-and-a-half years later, Utilities officials now work with Summit County to review new developments, but their concerns remain. They decided buying three lots was their only option, because they determined septic systems on those properties could potentially leak into the pipeline.

“There was potential development taking place above that slope. That creates a variety of concerns when you have development directly above your pipeline and your infrastructure,” said Utilities spokesman Steve Berry.

Utilities wants to buy the land and leave it undeveloped, and has a willing seller. The three parcels were appraised at $270,000, Utilities wrote in a memo to the council. A search of real estate Web sites shows that, while homes in Quandary Village are selling in the $700,000 to $900,000 range, while half-acre vacant lots are going for up to $240,000.

Berry acknowledged that buying expensive mountain real estate is not ideal for a utility struggling with rising costs and about to embark on a major expansion of its water network, the $1.4 billion Southern Delivery System.

“The alternative would be twice as costly,” Berry said. “In the grand scheme of things, yeah, you’d like to avoid that situation but if you have to do it, there’s nothing more important than preserving the integrity of those pipes and that water.”

This is a “fairly unique situation,” he said, because in most cases, Utilities buys easements, rather than land, for its pipelines. He was not aware of another time in the recent history of the system Utilities bought land to keep development away from facilities.