The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Issues with gate erected in 2016 still being worked out
By Cayla Vidmar
Like it or not, Gunnison County, the U.S. Forest Service and several Irwin area property owners have been drawn into the litigation over access on the Green Lake Road near Irwin Lake.
In August 2016, property owner J.W. Smith erected a gate on a road that crosses his property and leads to Green Lake, which is above Lake Irwin, a popular hiking destination. Smith has previously explained that an increase in hiking and vehicular traffic across his property has resulted in trespassing issues and degradation, which is why he installed the gate.
The Lake Irwin Coalition (LIC), a group of property owners in the area led by John Biro and David Gottorff, sued Smith to get the gate removed. They have now expanded the lawsuit to include Gunnison County, the Forest Service and nearby property owners.
According to county attorney David Baumgarten, the court “determined that the Forest Service, the County and all landowners over whom the road crosses—are ‘indispensable parties” in the issue.”
The LIC then filed an amended complaint on January 10 with the District Court to include the additional parties.
The Gunnison Board of Gunnison County Commissioners (BOCC) held an executive session Tuesday to receive legal advice from the county attorney’s office on the situation and discuss how the county should respond to that amended complaint. No decision or action was taken.
Last summer a potential solution looked like it could be materializing, at least in the short term, to allow public access to the road through a recreational easement mediated between the county and property owners. “Such an easement would restore public access in the interim while the USFS, county and the larger community works out a long-term plan for durable, sustainable public access to Green Lake…,” said U.S. Forest Service Gunnison District ranger Matt McCombs last July.
Baumgarten told the board this week that the “easement would have allowed people to cross private property to access the road and would have protected property owners from liability… We never reached a consensus.”
Though the deal did not come to fruition, following the BOCC executive session on the topic this week, Rufus Wilderson, the attorney representing Smith, stated to the commissioners, “You asked David [Baumgarten] to facilitate negotiations for this and he and his office did a stellar job… It did not work out for various reasons.”
Wilderson continued, stating that if the county should get involved in the litigation, which he hoped they would, he implored them not to “sit on the sidelines and watch things happen.”
“The problem in this instance is not that certain members of the public are using this road, and it’s not John [Smith] trying to stop public access to anything. He’s trying to protect his property because people are very rude and if they have a right to go across a road, they think they have the right to any area that happens to be open and unfenced,” Wilderson argued.
Prior to the executive session, Baumgarten explained what the county would be considering, ranging from what options the county had, and who it could work with, if the county could get out of the lawsuit, or if they would rather stay and what role they might take in the lawsuit.
The ownership of the road is in question, although it’s on a “host of maps as a Forest Service road,” Baumgarten explained. Should the county take ownership of the road, the implications of that ownership would be numerous. “You will have issues with maintenance, supervision and potentially insurance implications…,” Baumgarten concluded.
BOCC chairman Jonathan Houck said, “The goal for the executive session was for David, [deputy county attorney] Matt [Hoyt], and [county paralegal II] Rachel [Magruder] to help us understand the issue and a potential path forward. At this point, there’s no direction from the board.”
