Telluride voters went with their hearts on Valentine’s Day and rejected having their Town Council enter into negotiations that would have led to development of part of the open meadows at the entrance to town.
In a record turnout, residents Tuesday voted 603 to 439 to send their town officials back into the courtroom to fight for the preservation of the 560 private acres on the south side of the only highway into town.
“You can be assured the council will return to focusing on condemnation and preserving 100 percent of the south side of the valley floor,” Mayor John Pryor told a crowd of wildly cheering citizens after the votes were tallied Tuesday night.
In the highly charged debate leading up to this election, the Town Council and other proponents of the ballot question had asked voters to use their heads and vote for a compromise that offered the least risky way to preserve most of the valley floor. Opponents accused the council of selling out and urged voters to follow their hearts on what they called a raw deal for their town.
“Once the town started focusing on the details, it became evident it was a bad deal,” said Telluride real estate broker Todd Creel.
The issue has been simmering in Telluride for 25 years, since land developer and government weapons dealer Neal Blue bought the land. Citizen anger increased over the years as Blue, through his San Miguel Valley Corp., floated various ideas for developing the land, including flooding it for a marina complex, turning it into a Bavarian village, draining its wetlands to make more space for building, and annexing it to the Mountain Village above Telluride.
Telluride voters already have gone to the polls to express their opinions about this issue several times. In 1993, residents approved a measure that designated 20 percent of town revenues to be used to secure open space. In 2002, voters authorized the town to proceed with condemnation and later to permit new town debt to finance the valley- floor acquisition.
The Valentine’s Day vote came after eight months of court-ordered mediation that halted the town’s effort to condemn the land and resulted in a framework for a settlement.
The key elements of the settlement would have preserved 513 acres south of the highway through a conservation easement. The pact also would have allowed for 22 multimillion-dollar homes on 47 acres of the valley floor.
The “no” vote puts the case back on the docket and heading for a valuation hearing in February 2007.
Appraisers for the town have valued the land at about $26 million, while appraisers for Blue have set the value at $55 million.
Staff writer Nancy Lofholm can be reached at 970-256-1957 or nlofholm@denverpost.com.
