Residents on the Eagle County side of Missouri Heights are up in arms about a new equestrian center proposed for a 20-acre parcel just off of Fender Lane. All that was missing were torches and pitchforks at an afternoon site visit last week when more than 60 locals, organized by citizen group Keep Missouri Heights Rural (KMHR), showed up to let Eagle County commissioners know that the business proposal for the Twin Acres Riding Stable and Boarding Stable is not welcome.
The crowd largely kept within the requirements for a site visit — no questions to the commissioners or to the applicant. But the size of the crowd and the signs they carried, like “Keep Missouri Heights Rural: Say No to Twin Acres,” conveyed the message.
The proposed plan is for Annie Graber Wells to lease the property for her equestrian center from landowner Jess Graber/Whiskey Mountain Estates. Current zoning is agricultural/rural and the special use permit is for a commercial operation.
Concerns include water use and wildfire danger due to high winds that are a Missouri Heights trademark. But Susan Sullivan, a KMHR board member who lives just above the proposed development, told The Sopris Sun about other potential problems.
“This whole area here is kind of like a stadium,” she explained. “So I think of myself as an unwilling spectator of all things Twin Acres.” Including, she said, manure, flies and fugitive light at night. “I have worked all of my life for this type of lifestyle in my beautiful home and I feel like this could take some of that away from me.”
KMHR helped put the kibosh on a 2021 proposal from Ascendigo Autism Services for a camp and activities center on the Garfield County side of Missouri Heights. “With Ascendigo, we were concerned about the safety of the children,” said Sullivan. “Here, we’re concerned about the safety of the neighborhood.”
The 101 acres is in a drainage, rimmed by several subdivisions. Some houses look down on the old ranch. Hence Sullivan’s “stadium” comparison.
Dan Gageby lives just north of the site. “I’m closest in proximity. My deck’s about 65 feet off the fence line and 500 feet from the center of the barn,” he told The Sopris Sun. “So, our whole entire house is oriented to the proposed operation.”
The area was subdivided in the late ‘90s as Central Ranch. Aspen Valley Land Trust (AVLT) brokered a conservation easement on 101 acres in 1998. The easement allows some development on the 20-acre Ranch Headquarters Parcel where longtime Roaring Fork Valley resident Tommie Zordel ran a small boarding operation and where Twin Acres wants to set up shop. But the remaining 80-acre agricultural parcel, according to a letter from AVLT, “is intended for continued use as a managed irrigated and agricultural open space”.
Existing buildings include a nine-horse stable, tack/equipment storage and an office plus two outdoor riding arenas. Old ranch houses near the entrance would likely be removed if the development is approved.
Gageby manages a ranch and said he understands what goes into an operation like Twin Acres. “We have side-by-sides, we have equipment, we deal with hay, we deal with moving stuff around and it’s loud,” he explained. He’s also concerned about diesel fumes, traffic and more. “It’s a densely populated area. Water is thin, fire danger is high,” he said. “Adding a commercial operation in the middle of five HOAs really doesn’t make any sense.”
That’s the rub for KMHR: size and density. Twin Acres would transform the 20-acre parcel into a commercial operation complete with a new 7,860-square-foot, 25-stall boarding stable and a 20,000-square-foot covered riding stable. Up to 50 horses could eventually be housed on the property. Granted, the covered stable would use the footprint of an existing building but residents are worried that the operation is just too big for 20 acres.
“I would say ‘shoehorning’ is a good word for it,” said Robert “Sardo” Sardinsky, who has lived across the road from the ranch entrance for 25 years. He said horses have been part of the historic use of the area. “When you had two people in the bunkhouse and Tommie Zordel, the ranch guy, and six horses, that’s manageable,” he said. “But not when you’ve got an industrial-strength operation there.”
Sardo’s concerns include where to store manure from 50 horses before it’s hauled away, air quality, trucks and vehicles negotiating the driveway, hay storage, wildlife, wildfire and water. The application was changed to get rid of events and the evacuation route that would have threatened conservation values on the 80-acre parcel. That means the evacuation route consists of Fender Lane and nearby roads.
“It’s not about people. It’s not even about horses. It’s about compatibility and land use and commercialization in a fairly fragile, delicate, exposed space.”
Robert Sardinsky
The applicant has irrigation and water rights but Sardo said that’s not enough. “We think right now they need almost three times more water than they’ve secured the legal rights to,” he said.
Sardo said the complaints are based on facts. “It’s not about people. It’s not even about horses,” he said. “It’s about compatibility and land use and commercialization in a fairly fragile, delicate, exposed space.”
After the site visit, an hours-long meeting at the Eagle County Annex in El Jebel included presentations by the applicant and county staff plus comments from about 40 residents. Due to time constraints, Commissioner Mike Scherr said the board will continue the discussion and make a decision on July 23. Until then, commissioners are unable to comment.
For more from Keep Missouri Heights Rural, visit www.keepmohrural.com
To view the June 18 commissioner meeting, visit www.tinyurl.com/TwinAcres
Editor’s note: Photojournalist Will Sardinsky is the son of Robert Sardinsky who is quoted in this article.