The Chaffee County Board of County Commissioners voted unanimously June 9 to deny a conditional use permit for a proposed commercial campground at Pine Creek Canyon and advanced a discounted land sale to the Salida School District, while separately receiving updates on county insurance claims and a major behavioral health funding milestone at the June 8 work session.
Ramble Outdoors, a Golden-based campground developer, sought approval for a 30-site seasonal drive-in campground and RV park on 90 acres of Colorado State Land Board property along County Road 388, adjacent to the Pine Creek Trailhead north of Buena Vista. County Planner Brandon Wolff presented the staff report, recommending conditional approval with six conditions — chief among them a 500-foot setback from Pine Creek’s ordinary high water mark, a threshold recommended by Colorado Parks and Wildlife to protect wildlife, and a seasonal closure from the day after Labor Day through April 30 to guard pronghorn migration corridors.
Dieter Erdmann, representing Ramble Outdoors, pushed back on both conditions. He said the 500-foot CPW setback was boilerplate language developed for oil and gas operations, not campgrounds, and that the local CPW area wildlife manager had acknowledged it was a general rather than site-specific standard. Erdmann asked the board to consider an alternate compliance provision in the land use code and allow operations through September 30, arguing that no collar data exists for pronghorn in the corridor and that adaptive management would be more appropriate than a fixed closure date. He also said the project included an $80,000 wildfire mitigation investment and described Ramble’s operations at two other Colorado campgrounds as well-managed and conservation-minded.
Neighboring landowners who own the Pine Creek Ranch — a homestead property whose private road provides the only practical access to the Pine Creek Trail — said the project would bring unmanageable traffic, fire risk, and bear conflicts to a canyon with one way in and one way out. One resident said campers already set up tents on his lawn and drive through his yard. Another raised concerns about what would happen to the longstanding practice of allowing the public to cross their private land to reach the trailhead if campground traffic became intolerable. Pat Mercer, district ranger for the Leadville Ranger District of the Pike-San Isabel National Forests, submitted written comments and testified that a campground at the Pine Creek Trailhead would push more hikers toward the Collegiate Peaks Wilderness, where the Forest Service is tasked by law with preserving wilderness character and solitude. A retired Forest Service trail crew leader with 30 years on the Leadville District said trailhead use had already grown from very low to moderate, and a campground would accelerate a trend already straining the area.
Abe Medina, Recreation Program Manager for the Colorado State Land Board, spoke in support of the project, saying Ramble was a good partner and that managed recreational use would improve stewardship of a property that had seen uncontrolled dispersed camping, trespassing, and resource damage.
When commissioners deliberated, the divide between the applicant’s position and the community’s concerns proved unbridgeable. Commissioner Armstrong said the application did not meet the land use code standard requiring a conditional use not significantly impair surrounding properties’ existing enjoyment, and moved to deny. Commissioner Wood said he had visited the site the prior Friday and shared concerns about emergency access, the legal status of County Road 388, the wildlife setback, and the risk of the Pine Creek Ranch families ending public access across their land if campground traffic became intolerable. Commissioner Lucrezi said she supported the CPW setback and found the wildlife mitigation questions insufficiently answered, and noted that conditioning approval on the 500-foot setback would effectively require the applicant to redesign the project from scratch. The vote to deny was 3-0.
The board also voted unanimously to advance a memorandum of understanding for a potential land transfer to the Salida School District. Under the proposed terms, the county would sell 10 acres adjacent to the Chaffee County Fairgrounds in Poncha Springs at $75,000 per acre — below market value — with deed restrictions limiting use to a public school. Construction must begin within five years of conveyance and finish within 10 years, with a reversion clause allowing the county to repurchase at a declining rate if the district fails to perform. Contracted legal counsel Karl Hanlon said the agreement includes both an intergovernmental agreement governing pre-conveyance conditions and a deed restriction document covering post-transfer use requirements. Commissioners directed staff to invite the district to the following week’s meeting for formal action.
The board approved a consent agenda that included a special event permit for Colorado’s Ride cycling tour on August 10-12, the 2026-2027 Common Ground Competitive Grant Cycle Process, Board of Equalization referee appointments, a USDA Regional Food System Planning grant application, and letters of support for the AHRA Milk Run access road project and a CPW recreation planning grant with Envision Inc. The board also approved an application to a USDA Rural Business Development Grant program through the Central Mountain Small Business Development Center, with awards up to $500,000 and no required local cash match. Commissioner Wood called the food systems grant a significant step, saying it was the first regional planning roundtable program recognized by the state and aimed at ensuring the county can feed itself regardless of outside disruptions.
Two Colorado Fourteeners Initiative special event liquor permits — for the High Lonesome 100 and the Sawatch Ascent 50K — were approved without public comment, as was a liquor license renewal for American Adventure Expeditions. The board read a proclamation recognizing June as Pride Month in Chaffee County.
In commissioners’ comments, Commissioner Wood said the county faces growing financial pressure as the state and federal governments continue reducing funding while adding service requirements. He said the county operates on roughly a $62 million annual budget, with approximately $20 million coming from local taxes and the remainder from fees, grants, and outside sources, and that the finance team has done exceptional work preserving reserves through the pressure.
At the June 8 work session, the board received a quarterly update from IT Director Danny Gallegos, who reported the department was on budget and making progress on infrastructure improvements including a server upgrade for the detention center camera system and online self-service permitting. He said the county is working on an AI policy, not yet formally published, and currently uses Google’s Gemini in a limited capacity. No formal votes are taken at work sessions under Colorado law.
Tyler Adkins of CTSI presented a five-year risk analysis of the county’s insurance pools. The county incurred $246,000 in total losses in 2025, driven primarily by hail damage to vehicles and two open law enforcement liability claims. Workers’ compensation losses over five years totaled $588,000 across 67 claims, with slip, trip, and fall incidents the leading cause by both frequency and severity. Adkins said 2021 and 2022 were the worst years in the window and are about to roll off, which will significantly improve the county’s loss ratio. He offered free defensive driving training for deputies and road and bridge employees and proposed scheduling building audits to address the above-average rate of administration slip-and-fall claims.
Mandy Kaisner, CEO of Solvista Health, reported that Colorado was selected as one of ten new states for the federal Certified Community Behavioral Health Clinic demonstration program, with Solvista as one of three Colorado centers chosen to participate. The designation shifts the center to a cost-based Medicaid reimbursement model, eliminating year-end reconciliation payments and providing more stable funding. Kaisner said the change has already enabled same-day access to care, down from a six-to-eight-week waitlist three years ago, and will require the center to conduct a community needs assessment every three years. Commissioners praised the recognition and the center’s navigation of a difficult period of state-level funding upheaval.
Commissioners discussed upcoming legislative priorities, identifying rural EMS funding, wildlife crossing infrastructure, regional rural transportation, electric cooperative regulatory parity with investor-owned utilities, affordable housing, and landfill methane emissions mandates as areas where the county could push through statewide coalitions heading into the next session. Commissioner Wood noted that Chaffee County helped secure inclusion of a working lands and sustainable agriculture provision as policy position 16 in CC4CA’s statewide platform, calling it important recognition of rural land stewardship.
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