Ranchers and County exploring new ideas

Looking for ways to keep development clustered

Ranchers thinking of developing parts of their property could get help from the county planning department  as part of the latest draft of the Gunnison County Ranchland Initiative, aimed at preserving area open space.

The initiative would require participating ranchers to set aside the parcels being considered for development in an efficient way that could encourage clustered development and cut down on the number of homes sitting on 35-acre “ranchettes.”
“This process is not meant to be regulatory,” said Sandy Guerrieri, owner of the Mill Creek Ranch and member of the Gunnison County Stockgrowers Association. “The Gunnison Ranchland Initiative is a whole different way of looking at things. The county will help you plan for development on a few acres of your land in exchange for keeping the rest of the parcel open for agricultural uses.”
The initiative has been a collaborative effort between the Stockgrowers Association and county staff, who have been meeting nearly every week for the past eight months to devise ways of keeping ranchland open for its cultural, environmental and aesthetic qualities.
In July, the county team, comprised of Guerrieri, county attorney David Baumgarten, several members of the county planning department, wildlife coordinator Jim Cochran and county GIS manager Mike Pelletier, met with the Board of County Commissioners (BOCC) to explain their approach to the initiative.
The team would set out to conserve ranchland through educating the public on the history and importance of ranching in Gunnison County, gaining the support of the commissioners on emerging issues facing the ranching community and a “land use element.”
At a regular meeting of the BOCC on Tuesday, January 13, the land use element was presented to a meeting of ranchers who wondered how the county could help them fend off developers and help preserve their legacy for future generations.
To encourage cooperation, the county offered an expedited planning process to landowners that would allow them to subdivide small parcels of their property and hold them, with the planning process complete, until they felt the need to sell.
State statutes make it easy for land to be divided into plats of 35 acres or larger and Baumgarten said the group hoped to create a process that was more attractive to ranchers who want to continue working the land despite fluctuating beef prices and rising land values.
To do that, the group developed three options for those interested in participating in the program.
The first option would put the final developable plat dimensions and the area that will be set aside as a conservation easement in the public record. No engineering or development improvement agreement (DIA) would be required until the land is sold.
A second option would move the process along more quickly and require a greater investment from the landowner. It would require the engineering to be done, which would then be valid for five years and a DIA would be required only when the land was sold for development.
The final option would be the fast track to development, with the subdivision process taking place as normal. The engineering for the property would be required immediately and the DIA would be implemented and funded before the lots could be sold.
For a parcel to qualify for subdivision under the Ranchland Initiative it must be at least 70 acres in size and include one subdivided parcel or two or more “noncontiguous parcels” scattered across the property.
Eighty-five percent of the subdivided property would have to be conserved as productive land and no development could take place on “land constrained by floodplains, wetlands, geologic hazards, ridgelines and slopes greater than 30 percent,” according to the initiative.
To help landowners meet all of the requirements, the county team will help develop a management plan that will ensure the land in the conservation easement will stay in agricultural production.
Landowners also have the option of transferring the right to develop land to areas close to the county’s municipalities in exchange for a waiver on the maximum amount of land that can be developed.
“We can work together to develop the most valuable pieces of property as long as a proportionate amount of land is preserved elsewhere in the county,” said Guerrieri.
But the idea of locking land in a conservation easement didn’t sit well with Lee Spann, owner of Spann Ranches.
“If you are tied into hay and cattle forever, that’s a long time. I don’t know if I’d want to restrict the options of my heirs to that. To me it would be beneficial to have the option to look at it sometime down the road,” said Spann.
The template the county team used for the land use element allowed for the conservation easement to be revisited 40 years after the initial subdivision. Commissioner Hap Channell thought this idea would be worth considering.
“I mean, what about changing circumstances? Raising beef and growing hay might not be a viable option at some point and it could happen in some parcels more than others,” Channell said.
For the initiative to be an option for landowners, the commissioners would have to adopt a resolution implementing the plan, which will happen only after further discussion between the county and the ranching community. The county team is continuing their meetings
February 21.