U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet’s amendment to block federal funding for a road climbing to a proposed luxury home community near Vail is dead.
Bennet, Colorado’s senior senator, wanted to keep funding for the understaffed Forest Service directed toward wildlife, wildfire mitigation, forest health and recreation when he scripted a short amendment to the Senate Interior Appropriations bill. The amendment was not included in the Senate appropriations bill passed by Congress late last week and awaiting the president’s signature.
A longtime opponent of an 18-year plan to develop mansions on 35-acre parcels in a 680-acre community called Berlaimont Estates above the Edwards, Bennet’s legislation would have prevented any of the projected $14.5 billion in funding this year for the Department of the Interior to be used for planning or permitting a year-round road on the land below the proposed community.
A Bennet spokesperson, in an emailed statement on Monday, said he was disappointed his amendment did not make it into the appropriations bill but he “remains committed to moving the legislative language forward to ensure that the Forest Service uses its limited resources on the public good, not on projects that only benefit the very wealthy.”
Florida developers Petr Lukes and Jana Sabatova first acquired the private land surrounded by White River National Forest in 2008 and they have spent the years since seeking Forest Service approval for a road crossing public land to access their inholding. They argued the 1980 Alaska National Interest and Lands Conservation Act — or ANILCA, which protected 100 million acres in that state — required Forest Service officials to provide “adequate access” for “reasonable use” of private property surrounded by public land.
Conservation advocates have argued for years that ANILCA applies only to Alaska and should not be used in public lands in the Lower 48. In the Berlaimont Estates case, environmental groups contended that a seasonal road climbing more than two miles from the valley floor is adequate and “reasonable use” should not include a year-round access on a paved road.
The White River National Forest in 2023 granted the road access, after more than 10 years of study under the National Environmental Policy Act. The approval spurred a lawsuit by conservation groups, including Wilderness Workshop, which challenged the use of ANILCA outside Alaska. That case is moving through the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
The proposed development has collected hundreds of letters of opposition from local residents, governments, environmental groups and wildlife advocates who argue the road bisects winter habitat for deer and elk.
The developers have secured initial permitting for site work from the Forest Service and are moving ahead with plans to build the road to the planned community. They need a variance from Eagle County to build the road, and that process will include public comment.
“We thank the U.S. Forest Service for the work already performed over the course of a 12-year public NEPA process that included extensive environmental review resulting in the issuance of a record of decision approving year-round paved access, and then the issuance of access permits,” reads a statement from the developers of Berlaimont Estates. “We look forward to working with Sen. Bennet as well as local, state and federal officials.”