Opinions on site's value are at crux of debate

A proposed county-owned but privately managed motorcycle park has some open-space advocates and neighbors crying foul, while its leading proponent says it could be a model for a state wrestling with the impacts and popularity of offroad vehicle recreation.

The debate over the proposed park in the Corral Bluffs area along Highway 94 east of Colorado Springs, while largely confined to a few players, has highlighted a contentious issue in the West: What kind of recreation should be allowed on public lands?

“It’s maybe the right idea 20 years too late,” said Lee Milner, a longtime open-space advocate. “The city is moving out that way. We’re going to have so many people out there, and we have to stop treating it like a dumping area.”

El Paso County Commissioner Jim Bensberg, an avid motorcyclist and a champion of the park, disagreed. He said the park is the right idea at the right time in the right location.

“We looked everywhere for suitable riding land and couldn’t find it,” he said. “If I

thought this was environmentally damaging, I wouldn’t have anything to do with it.”

Opposition rallies

Milner, a real estate agent and member of Colorado Springs’ Trails, Open Space and Parks advisory committee, has been rallying opposition to the park. He has raised a host of concerns about the proposal and how it was presented to the public.

Milner and a few critics who have appeared before the TOPS advisory board have questioned whether commissioners have thought through the environmental, financial and legal implications of the private-public partnership.

They charge that the county commissioners played dirty pool by not informing nearby property owners of the plan and stealthily approving in late November an application for a $320,000 state off-road vehicle (OHV) grant that would partially pay for the parkland.

The 522 acres, owned by longtime developers the Case family, are under contract with the county for a tentative purchase price of $750,000.

“It was partially snuck through, partially rammed through,” Milner said of the commissioners’ action.

Bensberg denied that, saying the county’s public notice process was followed. He said some property owners, perhaps most, weren’t contacted in advance because the county wanted to avoid a bidding war on the Case property.

He said the landowner most directly affected by the proposed project was approached about selling his land, and briefings were given to city parks staff, the head of the private Trails and Open Space Coalition and even Milner’s openspace advisory committee.

Bensberg said it was no secret he was instrumental in amending the county’s park master plan two years ago to indicate Corral Bluffs was the preferred site for a motorcycle park.

A matter of values

Key to the debate are the disparate views of the aesthetic and practical value of the 522 acres the county wants to buy.

Milner, who has a master’s degree in geography, said a topographical map shows steep slopes, sheer rock bands and big changes in elevation, leading him to question whether the county could actually create the trails it envisions.

“Are they really familiar with the kind of land it is?” Milner asked. “Can they really do what they want to do?”

Besides, Milner said, Corral Bluffs is important enough aesthetically and culturally to preserve. He calls its rocky bluffs, arroyos and canyons the “last hurrah of the Rocky Mountains.”

He said motorcycles would damage the ecosystem, disrupt wildlife, impact neighbors and derail a vision some have of creating a 3,000-acre open-space area stretching from the nearby Banning Lewis development eastward.

Howard Kunstle, who coowns 200 acres north of the proposed park, said the sweeping view of the Front Range from atop Corral Bluffs is “as close as you’re going to get to the face of God.”

Kunstle said it would be “unconscionable” for the county to turn motorcycles loose on the land, especially since most nearby property owners weren’t asked their opinion.

Bensberg acknowledged that some portions of the land are too steep for riding and other areas are worthy of protection.

He said if the county gets the state grant to help buy the land, it would identify environmentally sensitive areas. He said at that time, neighbors would be asked to share their thoughts.

He also said trails and open space would be created for the “Birkenstock crowd.”

He dismissed the notion that the entire area is suitable only for open space. He said the waterless land is bordered on the east by a massive — and ever-growing — Waste Management landfill.

He said adjoining privately owned parcels have been used for years for occasional offroad vehicle events; the land directly south of the proposed park is used as a motocross track; and parcels along both sides of Highway 94 are dotted with salvage yards.

“If OHV recreation is not suitable for this area, where is it suitable?” Bensberg asked.

Riders pay tax, too

Milner said if he were Bensberg, he probably would have picked the Corral Bluffs area, too, especially since the county doesn’t want to manage the park, and the owners of the nearby Aztec Family Raceway, a motocross park, were eager to do so.

But he says he’s concerned about providing open space for east-side residents and Corral Bluffs would be just the ticket.

As a member of the TOPS advisory board, he fired his first salvo against the bike park by co-authoring a successful resolution in mid-December in which the advisory board calls on the county to abandon its pursuit of the OHV grant. Instead, the resolution says, the county should hold public meetings to gather residents’ views before proceeding.

That resolution, which the TOPS board passed against the advice of the city’s professional park staff, will be considered this week by the park advisory board, which will make a recommendation to the City Council.

Bensberg said he doesn’t think the City Council will want to pick a fight with the county by telling it what to do.

He said neither he nor other commissioners is willing to modify the plan for the city, at least until the state decides this spring on the grant.

Bensberg said he’s confident the park will be created — if only because it’s fair.

He said motorcycle enthusiasts have shared in paying a sales tax that has purchased thousands of acres of open space in the city and county, from which they are banned.

He said riders should have a place to play, just as hikers, bikers and horse riders do. He said 1,500 motorcyclists signed a petition supporting the park’s creation. “It has much more support than detractors,” he said.

Milner won’t concede that. But he agrees the debate involves some weighty issues.

“I just hope that it turns out to be nonmotorized open space so that future generations can enjoy it in decent solitude . . .” he said.

“It really is a values debate.”

PARK DETAILS

COST: $1.1 million to $1.59 million

SOURCE OF FUNDS: $320,000 grant from the state off-road vehicle program; $275,000 for regional park fees paid by developers; $275,000 of conservation trust fund money from lottery proceeds; $240,000 investment by Aztec Family Raceway (which will retain ownership of its approximate 65 acres at the south end of the park); $50,000 in inkind donations of a lease and trail easement by Waste Management; $20,000 in individual contributions. No county general fund money would be used.

ACREAGE: About 700 acres, not 900 as first reported in county documents. Most of the park, 522 acres, would be purchased by the county at a cost of $750,000; 118 acres would be leased from Waste Management; 65 acres owned by Aztec Family Raceway.

TRAILS: About 20 miles of single-track dirt trails designed by a professional consultant and constructed to minimize erosion.

MANAGEMENT: Park would be owned by the county but managed by Aztec, which would assume liability and would pay the county an undetermined fee.

FEES: Fees have yet to be set, but county officials envision riders paying a daily or yearly fee.

LEARN MORE

- Send comments on the proposed park to trails@state.co.us by 5 p.m. Saturday.

- View the county’s OHV grant application at www.parks.state.co.us/ohvsandsnowmobiles/ohvprogram/grants.

- The Colorado State Parks’ offroad vehicle subcommittee will hear the county’s grant application Feb. 6 and 7 and make a recommendation to the state trails committee. That board is scheduled to review it at its Feb. 19 meeting. A decision on the grant is expected in the spring.