DENVER—A 2007 document giving the Army permission to look at acquiring more land around a southeast Colorado training site is trumped by the Army’s five-year budget plan, which includes no money for expansion, military officials said.
The Army released a statement late Wednesday saying the document doesn’t authorize expansion of the Pinon Canyon Maneuver Site, but only allows the service to study its needs and make plans to meet them.
The 370-square-mile site is used by soldiers at Fort Carson outside Colorado Springs. The Army had proposed expanding it to about 525 square miles, saying additional troops and new weapons and tactics required more space.
The plan encountered stiff opposition from neighboring ranchers and farmers, who said that would take too much land out of agricultural use.
In January, the Army said it was backing off from its expansion plan, citing budget restrictions and a decision to conduct large-scale maneuvers with live ammunition at only two sites in Louisiana and California.
This week, Army Secretary John McHugh told Colorado Democratic Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet that the military wasn’t asking for money for expansion for at least five years.
Lon Robertson, a Colorado rancher and president of the Pinon Canyon Expansion Opposition Coalition, said McHugh didn’t go far enough. Robertson said the Army should withdraw the 2007 waiver.
With the waiver, “it’s like they have the approval to go ahead any time they have the money,” Robertson said.
The Army has said the waiver was one step in an internal process, and it was unclear if any procedure existed to withdraw it.
On Wednesday, the Army said the budget is a more important signal of its intentions than the waiver.
“The waiver does not authorize land acquisition—it simply allows the Army to continue studying the requirements and plan accordingly,” the Army’s said. “Only Congress can authorize land acquisition funding.”
