\n\n“Following months of increasingly contentious head-butting, officials in the mountain town of Vail, Colorado, are moving to seize a property from a local ski resort to prevent it from constructing new housing for its employees.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The property in question is a 5-acre site abutting a frontage road in the eastern part of the 5,600-person<\/a> ski town. After nearly five years of rezonings, planning, permitting, and litigation, ski resort operator Vail Resorts is ready to move ahead with the $17 million Booth Heights project that would create 165 beds for its work force.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Standing in their way is the town of Vail itself, which filed a petition<\/a> in Eagle County District Court on Friday to invoke its eminent domain powers to seize the Booth Heights site and hold it as open space”<\/p>\n\n\n\n …<\/p>\n\n\n\n “Throughout the process, Vail Resorts has maintained that its project would not harm the area’s bighorn sheep. Plack tells Reason<\/em> the company has committed to paying $100,000 for habitat restoration and would install barriers around its property to prevent residents and pets from interfering with the sheep.<\/p>\n\n\n\n An environmental impact report prepared for the project concluded that it would not harm the area’s sheep. Vail Resorts notes<\/a> in a lawsuit challenging the emergency ordinance stopping construction of its project that the town has approved several large homes within the bighorn sheep’s range.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n