ROARING FORK BROADCASTING COMPANY
Both sides in a land-use dispute in Missouri Heights are urging a little horse sense to resolve the issue.
Twin Acres Riding and Boarding Stable wants to establish a boarding and training facility at an old ranch in the heart of Missouri Heights on Fender Lane. Proponents contend the equestrian use is perfect for the site because it has been a longtime small boarding operation and ranch. Tommy Zordel used to operate a small boarding operation at the ranch.
Twins Acres owner and operator Annie Graber Wells applied to Eagle County for a special-use permit for a 25-stall boarding stable and a 20,000-square-foot covered riding arena.
“The covered riding arena and boarding stable are proposed to be commercial operations and open to the public on a reservation basis as space allows to accommodate horse boarding and horse riding, training and lessons for novice to professional equestrians,” the application said.
The plan has run into a buzzsaw of opposition from surrounding residents who contend the proposal would supersize the existing agricultural uses to an unacceptable level. They don’t want a 20,000 riding arena in the middle of their broader neighborhood. They also fear the effects of traffic coming and going to a commercial operation.
A grassroots activism group called Keep Missouri Heights Rural says its members' concerns include dust, noise, flies, traffic and the potential to exacerbate wildfire risk. Other foes unaffiliated with Keep Missouri Heights Rural identified limited water supply as another concern.
“It’s not the use, it’s the intensity of the use,” said Robert “Sardo” Sardinsky, who has lived directly across Fender Lane from the ranch for 25 years.
The Twin Acres dispute is particularly compelling, or tragic, because it is representative of growing pains that occur when a historic ranching area transforms into a large-lot subdivision neighborhood. Homeowners have plastered the area with signs saying “Keep Missouri Heights Rural: Say No to Twin Acres.”
While the foes are protesting against the commercial nature of the operation, there’s also a touch of irony to the signs. Missouri Heights was very rural before refugees from Aspen started gobbling up land for their own piece of the rock in the Roaring Fork Valley decades ago. And now, Missouri Heights is such a desirable address that millionaires who cannot afford the billionaire prices of Aspen are attracted to the hills above the midvalley.
The old cattle ranch that Twin Acres wants to call home was subdivided in 1997 and a portion was turned into a 24-lot subdivision, where some of the opponents live. The property was dubbed Central Ranch at that time.
The land is at the bottom of a bowl that is surrounded by large-lot residential development on the higher rides of the bowl. The site is visible from all or portions of five subdivisions which ring the upper slopes of the bowl. Keep Missouri Heights Rural contends the property is in the direct line of sight of 120 houses.
People on both sides of the issue were prepared to speak at a public hearing held by Eagle County commissioners on Tuesday but the applicants requested a delay until June 11. The commissioners soon will determine if June 11 works or if another date must be selected for the hearing.
While friends and foes won’t get their say before Eagle County next week, they have engaged in lively debate in recent days on the Nextdoor social media platform.
Gay Lewis, a 55-year rancher in the Roaring Fork Valley with 25 years at Someday Ranch in Missouri Heights, called out what she saw as the hypocrisy of the opposition.
“I find is absolutely hysterical and very disheartening that signs posted along Fender Lane professing ‘Keep Missouri Heights Rural’ are attached to the fences of the very subdivisions that have changed Missouri Heights from a ranching agricultural landscape to a mirage of subdivisions,” she wrote. “These people that posted these signs should look at themselves. It is the epitome of NIMBYism. Trying to stop an agricultural ranching entity that has been in existence far longer than any subdivision surrounding it is a crime. Traffic, water, housing, you are all to blame.”
Later in the same thread, Missouri Heights resident Bob Shettel said the supporters of the project were missing the point.
“This area of Missouri Heights is no longer primarily ranching,” he wrote. “For better or worse, it’s us subdivisions. While you supporters of this special use all want to argue that the Zordel’s ranch was here before all the subdivisions, that is not the argument we are having.”
The current ranch facilities include a nine-horse stable, a tackle and equipment storage space and office, and two outdoor riding arenas. An additional stable would accommodate 25 horses and one of the existing outdoor arenas would be covered for wintertime use.
The 101-acre property is owned by Whiskey Mountain Estates LLC, a company affiliated with longtime Aspen-area resident Jess Graber. Annie Graber Wells’s Twin Acres business would lease space for its equestrian operation, according to the application. Twin Acres would host horse shows and jumping events during summer months, with an estimated 57 participants and an equal number of spectators, according to the land use file.
Aspen Valley Land Trust holds a conservation easement on the ranch. No development can occur on slightly more than 80 acres but that land can be used for irrigated hay pasture, dry land pasture and other agricultural uses. A 20.5-acre envelope contains the existing ranch facilities, including a residence and bunk house. The proposed facilities would be built within that envelope.
The deck on the family home of Dan Gageby overlooks the ranch where Twin Acres hopes to develop. His house is among the closest, if not the closest, to Central Ranch.
“I am very pro-development, unlike most other people,” said Gageby, who has worked for years at various local equestrian operations. He wouldn’t mind seeing them run 100 cows on the property or maintain a small equine operation. But he is opposed to the plan as proposed because it is “high density,” in his view. In a pre-application conference, representatives of Central Ranch said they wanted an operation for up to 50 horses, according to Eagle County planning department records. Opponents also said various documents refer to the site hosting around 45 horses that specialize in hunter-jumper training and competition.
“I know what that is. It’s like Cozy Point or Strang Ranch,” Gageby said of the level of activity such an operation would entail. “There’s plenty of (other) barns. There’s plenty of land. Why here?”
Gageby stressed that he isn’t the typical neighbor fighting to prevent a new use in his backyard. “If they were putting low-density use on it, nobody would care,” he said.
Sardinsky said he never minded the level of activity that Zordel accommodated on the site over the years.
“He just blended in,” he said. “There’s nothing more beautiful than a horse galloping across the field.”
Most residents of the area wouldn’t mind seeing the ranch cleaned up, Sardinsky said. A few of the outbuildings are dilapidated. A classic grain bin lists to one side. But Sardinsky and Gageby are concerned about the traffic level the commercial operation would create. There will likely be large trucks delivering hay and other materials as well as hauling out tons of horse manure. Boarders and horse show attendees will regularly be driving in horse trailers. Students will regularly be attending riding lessons. Sardinsky said those vehicles will be using the narrow country road called Fender Lane as well as a ranch driveway that he views as inadequate.
A traffic study by the applicants projects roughly 12,000 vehicle trips annually, according to Sardinsky, but opponents of the plan funded their own study that projected about twice that amount. That’s one of the issues that Eagle County officials must sort out.
“The challenging buzzword is commercial,” Sardinsky said of the proposed uses.
Twin Acres will rely on a well and pipe spring water to supply its operation. While the application contends it has adequate supply, Gageby isn’t convinced. Many parts of Missouri Heights are facing shortages in dry years, he noted.
The Twin Acres application has divided longtime equestrian folks. Holly McLain, who operated Moon River Ranch in Snowmass Creek Valley for 40 years and now operates a small boarding operation at her home in Missouri Heights, said the proposed Twin Acres plan is too intensive. A rule of thumb is one horse per acre. At her operation, she has seven horses on 15 acres. Twin Acres is proposing more than one horse per acre on the 20 acres of the ranch envelope.
“In my opinion, it’s too many horses in too small of a space,” McLain said.
Other equestrian folks support Graber Wells’ efforts to relocate her business to the Missouri Heights site. Graber Wells declined comment to the Aspen Daily News but she weighed in on Nextdoor about what she called a wealth of misinformation about her plan and the ability of Central Ranch to accommodate her operation. She said she has plenty of water to grow hay and maintain grass on the ranch. The 80 acres will help accommodate the facilities on the 20 acres.
Graber Wells didn’t shy away from firing back at her foes.
“To be clear, not a single one of you keyboard warriors … has any right to tell me what I can and cannot do with my property, which is what you all have been doing for the past 3 years,” Graber Wells wrote. “You have all spent that time slandering me, my family and my business. (Keep Missouri Heights Rural) has turned into more of a cliquey bullying organization than anything else and this entire debacle in its entirety has gotten way out of hand.
“It’s not Keep Missouri Heights rural anymore. It’s turned into Keep Missouri Heights Residential,” she continued.