In late November, Falcon came one step closer to having a nearby regional park. The Colorado Springs City Council took that step when they approved the purchase of 522 acres in Corral Bluffs, owned by Lindsay and Randy Case.The parcel was a subject of controversy earlier this year when the El Paso County Board of County Commissioners offered to purchase it for the exclusive use of off-road motorcyclists.The deal fell through when preliminary studies showed it was impossible to protect the area’s many living and historic resources from damage that could be caused by off-road vehicle use, as reported in the June 7 issue of The New Falcon Herald.Records of the Colorado Springs Trails, Open Space and Parks working committee meeting in early November indicated the $1 million purchase price was $2.2 million below the appraised market price and that the “Case family is interested in being recognized for the donation value.”At that meeting, TOPS administrator Chris Lieber said funding for the purchase would come from the TOPS open space fund.According to the Colorado Springs Web site, www.springsgov.com, TOPS is funded by 1/10 of a 1 percent tax on sales made within city limits. The TOPS sales tax generates about $6 million a year and is scheduled to expire in 2009.The rim of Corral Bluffs is about 5 miles directly south of Falcon, but there is no public access to it.The bottom of the bluffs can be reached from Highway 94 (although there is no public access), a route that nearly triples the drive from Falcon to the bluffs.Colorado Springs is looking at a variety of ways to access the property, Lieber said, adding that “long term, there certainly is hope that you could access the property from both above and below the bluffs.””We’ll go through a public master plan process in the next 18 to 24 months,” he said. “When it’s time to talk about where trails and trailheads might be, we’ll engage the citizens and neighbors in that public process and we’ll see what ideas they have.”TOPS working committee member Lee Milner, who spearheaded the effort to block the county’s motorcycle park plan, hopes the 522-acre purchase will lead to an expanded park system in the future.”There’s already 700 acres for Jimmy Camp Creek Park. They [the 522 acres and Jimmy Camp Creek Park] are not adjacent, but the idea is to connect the two [by trail],” Milner said.”The goal is to either buy or have easements to about 3,000 acres.” However, he added that the entire process could take five or 10 years.Phyllis Cahill, Falcon area resident and vice president of the Corral Bluffs Alliance, said CoBA is willing to lead hikes in the area. She said they had found a relatively easy trail extending from the rim to the bottom.According to CoBA’s Web site, www.savecorralbluffs.com, the group plans to resume private hikes of the Corral Bluffs area in the spring.
