B.B. Brooks Ranch responds to criticisms
TOM MORTON Star-Tribune staff writer | Posted: Friday, January 11, 2008 12:00 am
Growth has engulfed Wyoming and the rest of the West, creating challenges and opportunities for states, counties, ranchers, environmentalists, community planners, businesses, and those who want the good life of open spaces, speakers told conference participants on Thursday.
"We have much to protect and enjoy," said Luther Propst, executive director of the Tucson, Ariz.-based Sonoran Institute.
Much of that protection centers on land use, Propst said at the "Building the Wyoming We Want" conference, which ends today at the Krampert Theatre at Casper College.
"At the top of the list is the division of working ranches into ranchettes," he said.
And at the top of his list, referring to a Power Point presentation, were photos and maps of the B.B. Brooks ranch north of Casper, which is managed by the Scottsdale, Ariz.-based Brooks Realty and Advisory Group.
The group bought - and subdivided into approximately 40-acre lots for between $1,000 and $2,400 an acre - that historic 64-square-mile ranch north of Casper, the Wild Horse Ranch west of Laramie, and the Diamond B and Remington ranches near Cheyenne.
A bill to change this exemption to allow counties to regulate larger plots and require full disclosure about services such as electricity and water will be proposed to the 2008 session of the Legislature.
For its part, the Brooks Realty and Advisory Group already discloses what is or is not available for buyers of its lots, spokesman Rick Anderson said in a telephone interview.
The B.B. Brooks Ranch, by virtue of its signs, is up-front about its activities and that makes it an easy target. "We're not trying to sneak around," Anderson said.
While land development is important, Propst and other speakers were careful to note it intersects with water use, maintaining infrastructure such as roads and water lines, wildlife, state and county services, paying for those services, energy, agriculture, and tourism.
They also told the approximately 400 conference participants that Wyoming isn't alone.
Gov. Dave Freudenthal said most of the growth in Wyoming for the past 6 1/2 years has been in rural areas.
When he was growing up on his family's ranch outside Thermopolis, Freudenthal said the Wyoming landscape consisted of either working ranches or people who lived in town.
The idea that people would live in the country for the fun of it, like the current trend of "hobby ranches" owned by wealthy people, was a foreign concept, he said.
Bob Budd, executive director of the Wyoming Wildlife and Natural Resource Trust, had his own take on the subdivision of ranches.
His father, a rancher, wanted to develop an area for trumpeter swans and asked his son how to do it, Budd said.
Budd told him he would need to deal with a battery of federal and state agencies, hire a surveyor, and show he could fund, maintain and monitor the new home for the swans. "That's before asking my committee for any money," he said.
Even tougher are the permitting processes for mining, oil and gas development, and water development, Budd said. "Interestingly, we can carve a ranch into 40-acre plots almost overnight."
This subdivision issue in Wyoming began when the Legislature in 1975 passed a law allowing ranchers to set aside parcels larger than 35 acres - exempt from county oversight - so their children could get a head start in establishing their own operations.
That exemption meant ranching families - and eventually land developers - didn't need permits to create subdivisions with the necessary county requirements for infrastructure.
Propst, who co-founded the Sonoran Institute in 1990, said his organization has worked with counties to guide their growth and save money without losing respect for property rights and community values.
He's not opposed to subdivisions and growth, he said later.
But developments such as the B.B. Brooks Ranch, he said, don't pay for all the costs and potential problems associated with rural living.
"It's a business model that externalizes significant costs to the taxpayers of the county and the state," Propst said.
However, Anderson of Brooks Realty said that statement assumes all lots on a development such as B.B. Brooks are occupied.
Meanwhile, the owners of those unoccupied lots are paying taxes without requiring government services, he said.
"If it (full occupation) does happen, it's a long, long time away," Anderson said.
Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@trib.com.