Proposed deal would more than double open space east of Colorado Springs

Jan. 4—Colorado Springs officials have worked out a deal to more than double the size of an open space that has long inspired curiosity and imagination on the city's eastern edge.

The city's parks director, Britt Haley, presented the possibility to the Trails, Open Space and Parks (TOPS) working committee on Wednesday: $7.5 million for 1,021 acres of prairie rolling south of Corral Bluffs, which has been limited to guided hikes over the years while the parks department has steadily expanded its footprint. That's also been while paleontologists have uncovered the land's worldwide significance; a documentary and the journal Science in 2019 revealed unprecedented fossils from the bluffs depicting life between the fall of dinosaurs and rise of mammals.

The potential addition would by far be the largest from TOPS' account using sales tax revenues to acquire land — the largest since Corral Bluffs' original 522 acres were set aside in 2008. The open space is now close to 970 acres.

Being referred to as Wild Horse Ranch, the 1,021 acres "may be the last property in this area that's consolidated into that kind of size," Haley told the TOPS committee, which could vote on the deal at its meeting next month. That would be followed by parks board and City Council considerations.

The committee on Wednesday sounded optimistic about the $7.5 million price tag, especially considering the land's residential zoning and potential eyed by developers. Haley said the $7,347 per acre compared with about $11,000 per acre for Fishers Canyon and $45,000 per acre bought below the Pikeview Quarry — examples of fairly recent TOPS acquisitions.

Wild Horse Ranch has been "a hot commodity," Haley said. She said she has felt the clock ticking on it.

"This summer proved that with the ebb and flow of (developer) contracts," she said. "We were in the mix, but I didn't know if we would be successful."

After two of those contracts fell apart, Haley said The Conservation Fund picked up talks with the selling family. The national organization struck a deal to buy the land and, pending the city's further review, convey it to the parks department at market value, plus a "professional service fee" of $150,000 and possible other "ownership costs," such as surveys. Similar arrangements were made with The Conservation Fund on the Fishers Canyon and Pikeview buffer purchases, allowing Haley time to work bureaucratic channels and, in the case of Fishers Canyon, pay installments as TOPS money became available.

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Haley said The Conservation Fund was aligned in the vision to protect the broader mosaic surrounding Corral Bluffs and nearby Jimmy Camp Creek Park amid plans for more Banning Lewis Ranch development in the vicinity.

"I think this is going to be an oasis amongst a concrete jungle that could be out there," TOPS committee chair Bob Falcone said of Wild Horse Ranch. "Unless we find something in there, I think this is going to be a really great acquisition."

Still to find, Haley said, was any conflict or risk with mineral rights on the land; titles have been "complicated to research" for this and previous Corral Bluffs additions, she said. A pond in a corner of Wild Horse Ranch is reminiscent of an old sand and gravel operation that she said she believed to be long dormant.

"We will conduct as much due diligence in advance of (a vote to purchase) as possible," Haley said. She added that the contract "has all the due diligence requirements in it, and it can be terminated if the city does not feel it's right to proceed."

While granting that uncertainty, longtime parks advocate Kent Obee spoke in favor of the move at Wednesday's presentation. He quoted Mark Twain: "Buy land, because they aren't making any more of it."

Bill Koerner, of the stewarding Corral Bluffs Alliance, agreed.

The fossil-embedded rock, not this grassland, is the popular image of the open space, Koerner recognized.

"But Corral Bluffs is more than just the bluffs," he said. "It includes the entire ecosystem, and we need to preserve it as much as we can."