{"id":802976,"date":"2020-01-11T17:17:38","date_gmt":"2020-01-12T00:17:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/?p=377172"},"modified":"2020-01-11T17:17:38","modified_gmt":"2020-01-12T00:17:38","slug":"colorado-open-lands-previews-legal-argument-for-protecting-fiester-preserve","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/local-news\/colorado-open-lands-previews-legal-argument-for-protecting-fiester-preserve\/","title":{"rendered":"Colorado Open Lands previews legal argument for protecting Fiester Preserve"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The parcel of land known as the Fiester Preserve near Frisco is at the center of the housing development debate near the Bill\u2019s Ranch neighborhood.<\/strong>
Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

FRISCO \u2014 A legal battle looms over the fate of Fiester Preserve, a 6-acre open space parcel at the southwest corner of Highway 9 and the western entrance to Peak One Boulevard on the outskirts of the Town of Frisco.<\/p>\n

At the core of the fight to save Fiester is the legal argument to save a conservation easement placed on it decades ago \u2014 by the county itself. <\/p>\n

That argument will be put forth by the open space conservation non-profit Colorado Open Lands, who inherited the easement from the former Colorado Divide Land Trust when the two organizations merged last year.<\/p>\n

Colorado Open Lands Director President and CEO Tony Caligiuiri gave the Summit Daily a broad overview of the defense his organization will put forth if and when Summit County\u2019s Board of County Commissioners attempts to condemn and extinguish the conservation easement on its own land. Aside from the Fiester Preserve, Colorado Open Lands owns and protects just around 450 conservation easements across the state.<\/p>\n

From the outset, Caligiuiri made clear that his organization would not be voluntarily extinguish its own easement.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are obligated to defend the easement, and we are always concerned about facilitating any kind of precedent when it comes to condemnation,\u201d Caligiuiri said. \u201cIt would start eroding the integrity of easements in general.\u201d<\/p>\n

Colorado Open Lands seeks to preserve open spaces across the state for permanent conservation. For them there is no wiggle room with the word \u201cpermanent.\u201d It is meant to be land that will never be bulldozed and have buildings stacked on top of it. Natural and open, forever.<\/p>\n

Caligiuiri acknowledged that, at times, local and state government have taken pieces of conservation easements whenever a greater public need arose. As an example, he recalled how the devastating Front Range floods of 2013 ravaged infrastructure from Fort Collins to Colorado Springs, going as far as wiping out entire roads and destabilizing local geology. That created problems down the line, when roads needed to be moved around or bridges rebuilt near existing open space. <\/p>\n

Even in less dire situations, like when power lines need to be built, he said local or state governments only condemned small portions of open space easements to do so. The few feet of space taken by government did not completely wipe away the integrity of the open space. <\/p>\n

But he said that Summit County government\u2019s attempt to condemn and extinguish an entire easement, one it promised to protect permanently just 25 years ago, seems to be without precedent.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve never experienced a situation where there\u2019s been an intention to condemn an entire easement,\u201d Caligiuiri said. \u201cThis is a different case for us, where there is an attempt at total extinguishment. We are not aware that there\u2019s ever been a complete extinguishment of a conservation easement in Colorado since open space preservation efforts began here.\u201d<\/p>\n

The push to protect Colorado\u2019s open spaces began in Boulder in the late 1960\u2019s<\/a> in response to the city and state\u2019s exploding population growth. The idea of communities buying and protecting their local open spaces spread across the state like conservation wildfire, preserving over a million acres of wild land across the state and protecting it from future development.<\/p>\n

Colorado Open Lands representatives see those agreements as sacrosanct and immutable. The concept of protecting open spaces \u2014 regardless of how valuable it may be for human use \u2014 has become such a part of the Colorado way of life that undoing agreements to protect those lands is not a trivial process<\/p>\n

\u201cAn easement is a contract to not subdivide or develop a property in perpetuity, and when easement is donated, it\u2019s with the intent of preserving conservation values forever,\u201d Caligiuiri said.<\/p>\n

County Manager Scott Vargo has said that the needs of the county have changed significantly over the years, as has the natural character of the Fiester Preserve. The preserve was marred by the mountain pine beetle outbreak, and most of the trees originally standing on it have been cut down. <\/p>\n

But that argument holds no water for Caligiuri. He pointed out how after wildfires, entire forests aren\u2019t just leveled and developed when they burn down. Instead, they are allowed to recover and regrow, with the hope of a healthier, new forest growing in its place over time.<\/p>\n

In the case of Fiester Preserve, which was once verdant and green, he sees it healing itself and getting restored to its original state over time, creating a similar or perhaps even better visual buffer as it was when the conservation easement was created in the late \u201990s. Those conservation values don\u2019t just disappear because the land changes over time.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s creating a visual buffer, high scenic values, those conservation values are recognized by the IRS,\u201d Caligiuiri said. \u201cThe only time that someone can extinguish an easement, outside of condemnation, is to argue in court that the conservation values that were being protected no longer exist. But here, the original intent and values exist.\u201d <\/p>\n

Over the past few years, new pine trees have been planted, with some growth coming up to five or six feet. It is yet to be seen if those trees will survive to grow to their full potential height.<\/p>\n

Caliguri intentionally sidesteps issues concerning the county\u2019s need for senior facilities or the preservation of the character of Bill\u2019s Ranch, which will pretty much become merged with the rest of the developed county if Fiester Preserve gets razed. His organization does not want to interfere in arguments that are considered matters of local politics.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome of the other arguments for or against condemning the property are much more in the realm of political arguments, which we totally respect, but they are sort of irrelevant when it comes to the condemnation process,\u201d Caligiuiri said. \u201cAre there better places for development? Is there really a need for senior housing? Those are really arguments that exist outside the four corners of the easement.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caligiuiri said while the easement itself is being protected, it\u2019s not just what\u2019s on the easement that matters but how its place provides benefits, such as the mountain scenery beyond.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt obviously has legal conservation values as a scenic viewshed, with a public benefit to keep that view open because it\u2019s a scenic view,\u201d Caligiuri said.<\/p>\n

He used another conservation easement Colorado Open Lands owns as an example.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat easement is for a two acre parce of mowed lawn,\u201d Caligiuiri said. \u201cIt happens to be at the end of the street and provides a spectacular view. If you look at it, by itself it\u2019s just two acres of bluegrass, and you can say it\u2019s ecologically not that significant, but it provides a really important viewshed. It\u2019s not necessarily about biology or ecology, it\u2019s about the purpose of the land.\u201d<\/p>\n

Caligiuri maintains that this is also not just about these 6 acres, but the thousands of acres across Colorado currently protected and potentially condemned if the government always gets its way.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to go down the path of developing open space,\u201d Caligiuri said. \u201cIt\u2019s about maintaining the integrity of conservation easements in general. It\u2019s a promise made in perpetuity.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The parcel of land known as the Fiester Preserve near Frisco is at the center of the housing development debate near the Bill\u2019s Ranch neighborhood.Liz Copan \/ ecopan@summitdaily.com FRISCO \u2014 A legal battle looms over the fate of Fiester Preserve, a 6-acre open space parcel at the southwest corner of Highway 9 and the western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-802976","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-28 20:42:26","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=802976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/802976\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=802976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=802976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=802976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}