Section 16 purchase deal falls through

Negotiations to purchase Section 16 broke down earlier this week and the fate of the popular west-side open space is once again in limbo.

The city of Colorado Springs, which leases the 640 acres and wants to buy it, and the Colorado State Land Board, which owns Section 16, could not resolve an impasse over how much the parcel is worth, said Chris Lieber, manager of the city’s TOPS (Trails, Open Space and Parks) program.

“We’re just too far apart,” Lieber said.

Too far, as in $2 million. An appraisal on the property — the third the two sides have commissioned — came back at $2.8 million. The land board is holding out for more than $5million, Lieber said.

Brownell Bailey, director of the land board, said he had serious problems with the appraisal.

“I reviewed the appraisal and found it grossly lacking in professionalism,” he said.

Sections 16’s sweeping views and forested hills won’t be closed to the public. The city’s lease runs through 2010, but permanently preserving the area has been a long-standing goal of open space advocates.

“I’m extremely disappointed, obviously,” said Scott Campbell, executive director of the Palmer Land Trust, a local nonprofit dedicated to preserving open space and agricultural land that had pledged to raise $640,000 toward the purchase price.

“The timing really seemed right for this to happen,” Campbell said. “We’re very, very interested in seeing that land protected.”

Bailey said the land board wants to see Section 16 continue as open space, but it has a responsibility to get a reasonable value for the property. The land board is charged in the state constitution with generating income for public education. To that end, Bailey plans to come up with a development plan to determine what the land would be worth if houses were built there.

“There’s no intention to develop it,” he said. “It’s strictly for appraisal purposes to establish its value.”

Even if the city were willing to pay more for Section 16, though, it’s counting on a $1 million grant from Great Outdoors Colorado to help with the purchase. And GOCO has a policy against paying above fair-market value, said GOCO spokeswoman Chris Leding.

“Our view is that the $2.816 million appraisal is a fair market value price,” she said.

GOCO’s grant commitment, already extended once, expires Oct. 1.

The city’s share of Section 16, if a sale ever happens, would be paid for through the dedicated Trails, Open Space and Parks tax — a 0.1 percent sales tax voters approved in 1997.

There are reasons to hope this will someday be worked out. The city wants to reopen negotiations by the middle of next year, Lieber said. Bailey said the land board also wants to reopen talks — after the current appraisals expire next month.

“The land board has held this property for 133 years,” he said. “We’ll hold it for another 10 or whatever it takes. We’ll let the appraisal die, we’ll let those wounds heal over and we’ll go at it again.”

If neither side budges, the most likely scenario is a lease extension. In 2005, the city leased Section 16 for $40,000 a year, taking over for the county, which had leased the open space since 1972.
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