DENVER—A newly completed buffer zone outside Fort Carson is the largest of its kind in the Army and will let soldiers train without causing major headaches for civilians, the military said Thursday.
The buffer is a swath of private land roughly two miles wide and about 15 miles long on Fort Carson’s southern and eastern boundary, said Hal Alguire, Fort Carson’s director of public utilities.
The Army purchased conservation easements on the land, which keeps civilians from building homes, schools and businesses close enough to be exposed to the noise and lights of round-the-clock training.
“Inevitably what we see is homeowners would complain if you had issues in the middle of the night,” Alguire said in an interview.
About 30,000 soldiers are assigned to Fort Carson, a 200-square-mile post outside Colorado Springs. They can raise a formidable racket during training, firing everything from tanks to small arms, launching missiles from helicopters at ground targets and clanking across the brushy hills day or night.
Fort Carson said the buffer was essential because of the rapid growth of Pueblo West, a community south of the post.
The Army, working with The Nature Conservancy, purchased conservation easements from landowners. Although the easements limit what can be done with the land, the property still belongs to the civilian landowners.
The Army has been developing the Fort Carson buffer for years, spending about $36 million for easements and $4 million for leases and other agreements made before the initiative to establish the buffer, post officials said.
“The purchase of conservation easements is believed to be the least expensive way to achieve the installation’s objectives,” Alguire said in a written statement. “The installation was not trying to acquire more training lands but to buffer the training mission from future encroachment.”
Fort Carson said most of the land the Army purchased easements on is owned by a local family, the Walkers, who live in Pueblo West. The last piece fell into place last week when an easement was finalized on 7,000 acres or about 11 square miles owned by the Walkers.
Gary Walker, a member of the family, didn’t immediately return a phone message Thursday. A Fort Carson statement quoted him as saying the deal was “a winning situation for everyone.”
Conservation buffers can also help wildlife by preserving habitat, but specifics of the Fort Carson buffer’s benefit weren’t immediately available. Nature Conservancy officials involved in the deal were out of the office Thursday and didn’t immediately return a message.
Alguire said Fort Carson has more buffer land in conservation easements than any other Army facility. It isn’t likely to get more, he said.
The southern part of the post, where most of the training takes place, is partly bordered by highways. Alguire said the development that has grown up to the post’s northern boundary isn’t a problem because that’s where Fort Carson’s residences, offices, hospital and dining halls are, and little or no training is done there.
“We’re calling this pretty much done. We’re calling this a success,” he said.
