WASHINGTON—A Senate military funding bill will require the Army to study whether it needs to expand its Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site in southeast Colorado.
Colorado’s senators won approval Tuesday night to add the requirement in an amendment to the measure.
The full bill is expected to get a vote sometime in the next couple of weeks. It then will have to be reconciled with the House version.
The Army says it needs to increase the 368-square-mile Pinon Canyon site to about 1,000 square miles to accommodate the arrival of 10,000 more troops being transferred to Fort Carson.
But many nearby property owners are skeptical of the plans. Some fear they will be forced to give up their land.
Sens. Wayne Allard, R-Colo., and Ken Salazar, D-Colo., had planned a second amendment requiring the Army to wait a year before trying to acquire any land through condemnation, but they decided not to pursue it.
Allard said the moratorium would be premature, since the Army would have to spend six months evaluating its expansion plans anyway.
Earlier this month, the Senate narrowly approved a measure requiring the Army to wait a year before deciding whether to go ahead with the expansion.
