PUEBLO, Colo.—Opponents of expanding an Army training site in southeast Colorado have asked the government to turn over information about landowners the Pentagon says are willing to sell property for the project.
A group called Not 1 More Acre filed a Freedom of Information Act request Thursday asking for documents, e-mails and other records about the Army’s effort to identify the landowners.
The Army says it needs to increase the 368-square-mile Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site to about 1,000 square miles to accommodate the arrival of 10,000 troops being transferred to Fort Carson.
Many nearby property owners oppose the expansion, saying the Army hasn’t proven it’s needed. Some fear they will be forced to give up their land.
The Army said in June it had been contacted by some landowners willing to sell for the expansion, but it refused to say how many people or how much property they had offered.
Lon Robertson, president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, which includes Not 1 More Acre, said the coalition doesn’t believe the Army has found any willing sellers.
“With this request, the Army will have to either show us what work they’ve been doing to identify landowners—which they don’t have budget authorization to do—or acknowledge that they don’t have any willing sellers and haven’t been telling the truth,” he said.
Army spokesman Sheldon Smith said Friday the military would act on the request as quickly as possible but said he could not comment further.
Under the Freedom of Information Act, the Army has 20 days to respond.
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Information from: The Pueblo Chieftain,
