Sen. Michael Bennet on Wednesday introduced legislation that would block any federal funding for a controversial road across Forest Service land to reach a proposed 19-home luxury development above Edwards.
“With Forest Service staffing at a breaking point, this amendment ensures that limited resources are spent on Coloradans’ top priorities — like critical wildfire mitigation, forest health and recreation management projects,” Bennet, Colorado’s senior U.S. senator, said in a statement. “The Trump administration has fired scores of experienced employees and let essential work to keep our communities safe and local economies running fall behind. With such limited capacity, the Forest Service should be laser-focused on the public good. Instead, this administration is diverting scarce staff time to the pet projects of the very wealthy.”
The backers of the Berlaimont Estates proposal have spent 18 years trying to develop 19 homes in a gated 680-acre neighborhood they want to build in aspen groves more than 2 miles above the Eagle River.
Florida real estate investors Petr Lukes and Jana Sobotova envision 35-acre homesites on their isolated parcel that is surrounded by Forest Service land. Homes on 35 acres do not need local approval per state law and Eagle County zoning.
The developers, who acquired the land in 2008, have spent years seeking Forest Service approval for a road across public land from the valley floor to their mountaintop property. They argued that the 1980 Alaska National Interest and Lands Conservation Act — or ANILCA, which everyone calls Uh-Nil-Cuh — requires federal land managers to provide “adequate access” for “reasonable use” of private property surrounded by public land.
The White River National Forest in 2023 granted that road access after more than 10 years of study under the National Environmental Policy Act. The review included a lawsuit filed by the developers to force a Forest Service decision, hundreds of protest letters and vehement opposition from local residents, wildlife officials and local, regional and federal elected leaders. The 2.6-mile road — which was not the route preferred by the developers who wanted a more direct stretch of pavement — winds through neighborhoods and utility rights of way and avoids winter habitat for deer as it climbs 2,000 feet from the valley floor.
The White River National Forest has approved year-round access and paving of Forest Service Road 780, a summer-only route above Edwards, to provide access to the proposed 19-home Berlaimont Estates project. (Jason Blevins, The Colorado Sun)The White River National Forest signed an access permit allowing the developers to begin site assessment work for the road in late November, five days after the 43-day shutdown of the federal government ended.
“Berlaimont is disappointed that Sen. Bennet is taking a stance contrary to the reasoned determination of U.S. Forest Service experts who have determined that a road is appropriate,” reads a statement from the developers emailed Wednesday. “The White River National Forest … determined that a road that allows Berlaimont to access its private property is appropriate and must be authorized. That decision is supported by decades of U.S. Forest Service practice and federal law that provides owners of private property with reasonable access across Forest Service lands to their private property. Numerous federal courts have upheld similar actions by the Forest Service.”
Bennet’s amendment to the Senate Interior Appropriations bill prevents any funding from the projected $14.5 billion for the Department of the Interior to be used to “open, improve, authorize, permit, construct, plan, or consider any easement, special use authorization, or other instrument allowing any utility corridor or year-round road” on the land below the Berlaimont Estates property. (The Interior appropriations bill funds the Forest Service even though the agency is not part of the Interior Department.)
The Colorado Department of Natural Resources has joined several environmental groups, local government leaders and residents opposing the Berlaimont plan. Many opponents argue the Forest Service improperly approved the road in 2023. Wilderness Workshop and Rocky Mountain Wild in 2023 sued the Forest Service over the road decision, arguing that ANILCA should not be applied outside Alaska and the law’s requirement for “adequate access” should not automatically include a paved, year-round road.
“The application of ANILCA in the Lower 48 is a question of nationwide importance and impact,” reads the 77-page lawsuit filed in D.C.’s U.S. District Court in March 2023.
Peter Hart, the head attorney at Wilderness Workshop, in a statement said Bennet’s amendment “puts a hold on implementation of the project, which makes good sense” as the group’s lawsuit awaits a federal judge’s decision that could overturn the Forest Service’s road approval.
“Spending additional taxpayer money on a road project that may be invalidated … wastes limited federal resources that should be focused on wildfire mitigation and other higher priorities,” Hart said.
Berlaimont, in its statement, said plans were moving forward to build a road that prioritizes wildlife habitat protection and safety “based on the federal decision selecting a very thoughtful, well-informed road alignment.”
Eagle County requires a variance for the road plan to access the private land. The county engineering department will review the variance. A county spokesman said the county review will include opportunity for public comment.
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