DENVER — The Army’s plan to expand a southeast Colorado training site is facing another obstacle now that Gov. Bill Ritter has signed a measure barring the use of state land for the project that is opposed by ranchers.
Ritter approved legislation Tuesday that prevents the state from selling or leasing land to the Army to expand the Pinon Canyon Maneuver site. About 20 percent of the land the Army wants for the site is state-owned.
The Army first announced its plans more than three years ago, saying it needed to expand the 370-square-mile site to about 525 square miles to accommodate new weapons, tactics and soldiers. But neighboring ranchers united to fight the effort, picking up support from state lawmakers and members of Congress.
They also filed a federal lawsuit accusing the Army of not carefully considering the environmental impact of the expansion on the arid, short-grass prairie landscape. Judge Richard Matsch is scheduled to hear arguments in that case in Denver on Wednesday.
Ritter said the bill was not anti-military, as Colorado’s two Republican congressmen suggested. He said it doesn’t resolve the issue but will provide farmers and ranchers with a safety net while negotiations continue with the Army.
"This legislation says to landowners that their state government is listening. It also reaffirms our commitment to work with all stakeholders to find a mutually agreeable path forward, a path that protects private property rights and allows the military to effectively train this nation’s fighting force," Ritter said.
Ritter signed another bill in 2007 aimed at stopping the Army from using eminent domain to force landowners to sell land to expand the training site.
The training site is near La Junta, about 90 miles southeast of Fort Carson in Colorado Springs. Officials at Fort Carson, whose soldiers train at Pinon Canyon, didn’t have an immediate response to the bill signing.
Abel Benavidez, a 70-year-old rancher from the town of Model, said he would continue to fight to protect a ranch that has been in his family for 60 years.
"It’s just not fair to take our land when they really don’t need it. We put a lot of sweat in that place and we’d sure like to keep it," he said.
The bill signing came on the same day the Army announced it was backing off plans to add a new combat brigade to Fort Carson as well as at Fort Stewart in Georgia and Fort Bliss in Texas. The Army had originally planned to add 48 new brigades but earlier this year Defense Secretary Robert Gates said that would be scaled back to 45 to save money.
U.S. Rep. Doug Lamborn, a Republican from Colorado Springs, said the loss of additional 3,500 soldiers means Fort Carson won’t get the $390 million in construction spending that would have accompanied them.
Lamborn and Republican Rep. Mike Coffman both said the bill signed by Ritter sends a message to the Army that it’s not welcome in the state. Lamborn said it will make it more difficult for Colorado to be picked as the new home of a brigade combat team the Army plans to move from Germany.
Former U.S. Rep. Scott McInnis, one of two Republicans who want to challenge Ritter in next year’s election, urged him to veto the bill. He said he feared the legislation would be used in Congress to demonstrate statewide opposition to the project.
His stand was criticized by some Republican and Democratic state lawmakers, who said the bill was about protecting rural private property rights in Colorado.
Associated Press Writer Steven K. Paulson contributed to this report.
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