The Army is not giving up plans to expand its Piñon Canyon training site, but it now hopes to sign long-term leases instead of buying Colorado ranchland.
Keith Eastin, assistant secretary of the Army for installations and environment, said Friday that the Army has “taken eminent domain and condemnation off the table” and is “concentrating on leasing portions of the land” south of its existing site.
He said the leases would need to be long-term — more than 20 years and less than 99 years — in order to amortize the military construction costs on the expanded training site.
Eastin emphasized that no agreement is imminent.
“We’re talking with a number of landowners,” he said, but “there is no deal. We’re nowhere close to a deal.”
The Army has been trying for years to enlarge the Piñon Canyon Maneuver Site, about 100 miles southeast of Fort Carson. But its plans have drawn fire from ranchers, farmers and the state’s congressional delegation, who have questioned the need for the expansion and its potential effect on the local agricultural economy.
In response, the Army scaled back its proposed acquisition last year, from 418,000 acres to 100,000 acres. When reports of the lease plan surfaced this week, members of the Colorado delegation again objected, noting that Congress had placed a moratorium on the Army spending money for the expansion.
Eastin said that leasing land instead of buying it would help maintain the local property-tax base. He also said the Army is talking with the Colorado delegation and will make “no significant move without consulting with them.”
The training-site expansion would “add significantly to the economic base” with about $140 million in military construction, he said, and “will bring jobs to Las Animas County.”
Rancher Lon Robertson, president of the Piñon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, accused Eastin of proceeding with land-acquisition plans in defiance of Colorado’s elected representatives.
He also said that leasing land was not an acceptable alternative.
“If you lease land and somebody fires weapons on it, it’s acquired. Cows will never graze it again,” he said.
