County stalls vote on Pinon Canyon expansion

Four southern Colorado counties lobbying against Fort Carson’s plans to expand its Piñon Canyon training area were outmaneuvered this week by El Paso County officials.

Commissioners from Baca, Las Animas, Bent and Otero counties proposed two resolutions at the National Association of Counties annual legislative conference in Washington, D.C., opposing the Army’s use of condemnation.

El Paso County commissioners, fearing the Pentagon could be sensitive to even symbolic resistance, succeeded in temporarily postponing a vote on the resolutions.

“When you have a national association adopt a position on what is a local dispute it sends the wrong message to Congress,” El Paso County Commissioner Jim Bensberg said.

NACo, a lobbying association governed by its member counties, will again take up the two resolutions in July after the Army releases its study on the proposed Piñon Canyon expansion in June.

The Army says it needs to increase the 368-square-mile Piñon Canyon site to about 1,000 square miles to accommodate 10,000 more troops being transferred to Fort Carson.

The tension between Colorado counties over establishing a formal, unified position on the issue centers on El Paso County’s dependence on Fort Carson as an economic anchor and the ranching and farming counties’ fear that property owners would be forced to give up their land for the expansion.

Acknowledging that the proposed resolutions are symbolic and may have little weight on what Congress ultimately does with Piñon Canyon, Baca County Commissioner Troy Crane said he and his neighbors believe such measures may be the only way to alert the federal government to opposition.

“I don’t know that it is going to do a lot of good, but at least they know we’re out here and we still care about our heritage,” Crane said.

The proposed expansion does not include Baca County, but Crane said the county estimates its economy could lose $1.2 million annually if the project goes through.

Bensberg said it is unfair for counties much smaller in population than El Paso County to speak on behalf of the group.

“This resolution in its current form has gotten the attention of the Department of Defense and they are keenly interested in it,” Bensberg said.

“If there is significant community resistance to Fort Carson, they may very well decide to expand elsewhere.”

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