Arkansas Hills Open Space Purchased

In the last couple years the Salida City Council, and city staff, have been working hard to preserve our view corridors and open spaces. The purchase outlined below is a tribute to their ability to work together, and think progressively on some common sense projects.

Watching for potential development of adjacent property, and assessing its impact on the city, then acting on it is what we would expect from high paid planners —but to get this effort from essentially a volunteer mix of progressives and conservatives, as well as city staff, is something that future generations will appreciate.

It was a long process, so thank’s to the Everett family for their patience and vital partnership.

This came to us as a press release from Dara McDonald, Salida Community Development Director. As some of you may have noticed, we post these as “articles” now and again if they are newsworthy. However, as we are doing here, we will let you know if these are press releases and/or announcements.

From all of us at the Citizen, Thanks. – bd

Last Wednesday the City of Salida completed purchase of 26.8 acres of vacant land from Everett Land and Cattle.  The purchase was made with the assistance of funds provided by Great Outdoors Colorado (GOCO).   Following the purchase, the parcel was immediately placed in a conservation easement held by the Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas (LTUA).

Mayor Rose had this to say, “The purchase of this parcel is another example of a local collaborative effort for the benefit of the entire community.  This is the second transaction between Salida and the Everetts.  The combined acreage now owned by the City of Salida around Tenderfoot Mountain for public use is 164 acres thanks to the Everetts.”

The parcel straddles County Road 177 as it climbs from the Hillside Subdivision adjacent to the railroad tracks up to the water tank at the intersection of CR 177 and CR 176.  The land is highly visible from the rail yard and downtown Salida and adjacent to both Bureau of Land Management Lands and City of Salida open space.  It is for these reasons that the City chose to pursue the purchase.

Community Development Director, Dara MacDonald stated, “With the recent acquisition of the face of Tenderfoot Mountain combined with this purchase, the City has made great strides to ensure access to surrounding public lands and protect the scenic backdrop of downtown.”

Many members of the community, recreation organizations, local government and the Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas contributed to the completion of this purchase.  Salida Mountain Trails members Kent and Mary Ann Davidson drafted the grant application to GOCO which supplied $ 145,360 of the $ 194,000 project.  They were assisted by Donna Rhoads of Salida-area Parks, Open Space and Trails (SPOT) and city staff.

The purchase price for the land was $174,000.  The remainder of the project funds were used for required appraisals, assessments, drafting the conservation easement and environmental documentation.

The Board of County Commissioners of Chaffee County contributed $ 10,000 of Conservation Trust Funds towards the project.  Other generous financial partners include SPOT, Quiet Use Coalition, Salida Mountain Trails, Chaffee County Running Club and Mary Roberts.  The City of Salida used $ 30,612 of Conservation Trust Funds for the project.

The Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas provided substantial staff support and reduced fees in order to help the project budget.  “This is the kind of community project for which Land Trust of the Upper Arkansas is proud to be a contributor; we look forward to working with the City on other projects in the future.” Stated Andrew Mackie, Executive Director of LTUA.

Jack Lewis, City Administrator commented, “The broad base of community support caught the attention of GOCO and helped us to secure lottery funds amounting to 75% of the project cost.  The ability to leverage funds with other partners allows us to keep moving forward with important projects in these difficult economic times.”

The land will remain vacant in perpetuity with only non-motorized trails planned for the future.