For non-subscribers (shame, shame, you're erroding democracy) I wrote a front-page story in Sunday's Gazette detailing how revenue generation threatens to sidetrack the state park system.Heres the top
A park’s two paths
By DAVE PHILIPPS, THE GAZETTE
April 15, 2007 - 12:49PM
If you had $3 million to spend on Cheyenne Mountain State Park, what would you buy: (A) 20 campsites and an amphitheater, or (B) Cheyenne Mountain? Before you decide, consider a few details. - The new, 1,680-acre park includes foothills but not the mountain itself. It already has 40 campsites, and studies suggest the vast majority of visitors to our state parks do not stay overnight. - Cheyenne Mountain is worth an estimated $12 million, but the owners are offering a 75 percent discount because they want to preserve land homesteaded almost a century ago by their grandfather. - The deal won’t last much longer. The owners have been negotiating with the state for eight years and “are at the end of their rope,” according to their attorney, P.J. Anderson. “We have a bank loan due Aug. 31,” he said. “That’s the drop-dead deadline. If we don’t have a deal by then, we’ll list it.” Some would say it’s a no-brainer — buy the land, while it’s available, and add campsites later. But this spring, when park officials applied for state grants, they picked the campsites over the mountain.
By DAVE PHILIPPS, THE GAZETTE
April 15, 2007 - 12:49PM
If you had $3 million to spend on Cheyenne Mountain State Park, what would you buy: (A) 20 campsites and an amphitheater, or (B) Cheyenne Mountain? Before you decide, consider a few details. - The new, 1,680-acre park includes foothills but not the mountain itself. It already has 40 campsites, and studies suggest the vast majority of visitors to our state parks do not stay overnight. - Cheyenne Mountain is worth an estimated $12 million, but the owners are offering a 75 percent discount because they want to preserve land homesteaded almost a century ago by their grandfather. - The deal won’t last much longer. The owners have been negotiating with the state for eight years and “are at the end of their rope,” according to their attorney, P.J. Anderson. “We have a bank loan due Aug. 31,” he said. “That’s the drop-dead deadline. If we don’t have a deal by then, we’ll list it.” Some would say it’s a no-brainer — buy the land, while it’s available, and add campsites later. But this spring, when park officials applied for state grants, they picked the campsites over the mountain.
For the rest, click here.
3 comments:
They have been trying to sell the city that land for years and threatening to sell it to build houses up there. That is a long shot at best, they need to donate it and take the tax deduction.
There gold up in them thar hills!!!!!!!!
Great reporting, Dave! This is the kind of thing the community needs to be aware of.
Post a Comment