You want to visit YOUR Belvoir Ranch? Good luck

BY RICHARD JOHNSON

“Can I be honest? I had never even heard of the Belvoir Ranch."

"It’s just 19,000 acres of land that the City purchased for no reason. I mean, there was intent, but no action.”

"Is it where Mr. Belvedere died?"

The above comments capture the general consensus of individuals when asked for their thoughts on the Belvoir Ranch.

Would it surprise you to know that you'd get similar responses from elected officials?

Probably not; I mean, this isCheyenne, after all.

Here's the Reader's Digest version of the Belvoir Ranch:

In 2003, the Board of Public Utilities and Public Works Department combined funds to purchase the Belvoir Ranch, which sits west of Cheyenne and south of I-80, for a future

Due to city inaction, the Belvoir Ranch remains out of public reach.

 landfill and expansion of the city's water supply. Nothing makes you thirstier for Cheyenne tap water more than knowing the ripe, steamy dump is next door! One man's trash is another man’s E-Coli.

After the $5.9 million purchase, the two agencies ditched both projects to the proverbial wayside since the dump and water treatment effort had $40 million price tags ... each! Imagine the trash and water bill hike to pay for that. The streets would definitely run red with blood and unused Superday bracelets.

In 2016, the Belvoir was on the ballot list of sixth-penny tax items. This time, it was pitched to voters as a recreation park, including hiking and biking trails.

Shortly thereafter, newly elected Mayor Marian Orr convinced enough councilors to re-allocate that funding to chip seal some roads. That’s right, folks. Public access to a huge piece of property that you have owned for 16 years was abandoned in order to fill some potholes. 

At least you can access the area from some nice trails in Colorado.

How does that political honeymoon feel now, councilors? The mayor definitely got you the promised funds to make things happen. Three years later and you got nothing.

With the recessions of 2008 and 2010, as well as President Barack Obama's clean energy initiatives, a wind farm was discussed in 2012 as a way to bring revenue to the city to the tune of $39 million over 30 years. You can visualize the politicians and city agencies salivating over that cash cow. That battle would be more violent than all three John Wick movies.

Too bad there are those pesky state laws about wind farms. Who would have thought wind rights could be severed and separately reserved from the surface? Prior to 2011 they could, but after 2011, nope!

Despite the 2011 law, it appears a 2014 amendment under 34-27-106 would give a party a right to reserve wind production proceeds in the event of sale only for proceeds under an existing wind agreement (in the event the city does a future land swap and tries to keep future wind proceeds for lands they are swapping away). 

So it would seem the city would want to make sure that their 2018 wind agreement would not terminate any time soon before any future land swaps. 

Will the wind farm idea actually fly, like a bald eagle into a set of spinning blades? Guess time will tell.

So what happened to the bike trails idea? Up to now, nothing. 

That pesky President Abraham Lincoln made this kick-ass deal with the railroads and the lands adjacent to their tracks. Finding a person willing to discuss rails and trails in Omaha with Union Pacific, which has to approve passage to the Belvoir, is like finding an honest politician.

The south side of the tracks that border the Belvoir beckons like the promised land. I’m sure someone brought up public access to the railroad tycoons when they were here for the golden spike run on “Big Boy.” Like I said, just go hike down in Colorado.

The stars haven’t aligned for the Belvoir Reach, but it’s not all doom and gloom. The city allows hunting on the ranch through Wyoming Game & Fish.

Game & Fish accepts applications for the Lone Tree Creek Hunter Management Area on the Belvoir and other adjacent properties, and the agency manages the entire process.  If the applicant successfully draws a hunting permit for this area, he or she prints the permission slip then brings it to city Public Works with a valid ID. Then the city will give him or her the combination to the hunters’ area lock so they may access the ranch.  

So what’s the future of Cheyenne’s unknown, yet untapped, resource? 

According to the mayor's State of the City address, big things. That’s if the wind farm doesn’t do a roundhouse kick on the city and the governing bodies don’t get bogged down in the weeds with city agencies over who gets what. 

I’m guessing in the end it will just end up being a landfill like it was originally intended. After all, that just seems like a Cheyenne thing to do.

Richard Johnson is a former City Council member from Ward 3 on Cheyenne’s east side.