(ambient music)

(bright upbeat music) - this property was originally part of the mining community, and was originally slated from idarado and was originally slated from idarado to be a tailings deposit. - i got a job from the old telluride mines when i was 16. they hired as kids 'cause they couldn't get anybody else to work in the mines. there was over 600 guys that got drafted in world war ii. - they didn't use to have tailings ponds

until sometime in the late '40s, early 50s, otherwise they'd just let it go down the river. - the miners around the turn of the century were basically dumping the waste rock into the river that was the conveyance away from the mills. crushed rock that has other heavy metals and other byproducts from the leaching process such as arsenic and the soil is very nutrient-deprived, and so the plants that are able to grow have this chlorotic look to them. - this was a mining community, it wasn't a community of conservation. i can't help but think back of the miners when they came and all these outcrops of crystals, these giant crystal outcrops that were all around these mountains, beautiful. and what did they do? they managed to use those as sites to locate, to dig in and destroy.

so for those of us who love the land, the mining was an interesting proposition because it really tore this place up terribly. (mines blasting) - the town itself was kind of a dusty museum piece - the town itself was kind of a dusty museum piece that had been set back on a shelf. the mine was still operating and that really is what had kept the community going, moving ahead, it was the economy here until 1978 when they finally decided to stop mining operations. - the mining was running down and the milling was running down and nobody could get a job if they graduated from high school and they all had to leave. (dog barking) - it was almost a ghost town. it was the crux between the old mining community that was fallen on hard times. and then the ski area started, a lot of people started coming in from other areas. - and some expatriates had moved down here,

- and some expatriates had moved down here, they thought aspen was getting too developed. so we thought we'd come down and check it out. and that was like i think that was the summer of 1970. - i discovered telluride in late summer of 1971. i'd been on a camping trip moving around through different parts of colorado that i hadn't really seen before, and like everybody, once you're in the valley you're taken with the place. - once you climb keystone hill and you've been traveling through the canyons for so long and you'd come up on this incredible vista of mountains, this blocks of canyon, it's pretty amazing. so i ended up getting attached and staying. - by some strange convergence, any number of sort of intelligent, sensitive, talented people began to find telluride on their own.

(upbeat music) - [art] they loved the place, but they also loved to party, they were fun. it was an outlaws space, i mean, everybody got, did illegal drugs, it was fun, it was a lot of really interesting energy. - we came into a mining community, they didn't want us. they didn't like us, they didn't care for us, and it wasn't just because of sex, drugs and rock and roll, it was because we were different. - because there were some people who just, if you had long hair, they didn't want anything to do with you. and other people were more receptive and you could build sort of one-on-one relationships with people, and there were a lot of nice folks here. - i got acquainted with a lot of them, and hell, they weren't any different than the miners, human beings. and i've made good friends with a lot of them.

and in fact if it is when we started to cutting ski trail, i had quite a few of them. (bright music) - and there were no women, there were no women here. - women were more than welcome here, they were advertised for. they said how many good-looking guys there were here, how well they would be treated. - this is back when there were like five guys for every girl. and it was wonderful because the women were all sort of empowered. they're only strong women that came and we all got along great. - there were more males than females in telluride, but more women than men. got women running to responsibility and men running away from responsibility, it made for a very strange mix. - my husband and son and i came here in 1975 from southern california. - i was in grad school in albuquerque. - studied communications and economics, and i promised my parents that i was on my way back to the west coast to work in a bank and get a real job. - the last year i taught, there were actually 40 days

that the air quality was so bad the kids couldn't go out to recess. - my sister was skiing in telluride with friends who lived here and she invited me to come skiing for the weekend so i did. - i'm just gonna take a couple months to ski. - and so we took off. - and that was 35 years ago. - that was 30 ski seasons ago. - that's an old story that you'll hear from a number of people. - we knew it was going to be a successful place. we could tell, i mean, the location, the skiing, the whole deal, we knew it was going to be a hot item. again, those of us who thought a little bit about what these places could be began to realize that we needed to kind of get involved, and began trying to shape the way telluride would develop. - we were all here four or five years, and the town was really run by, as it should have been, by the people who were here before, the longstanding locals,

and property owners and miners. and it didn't really gradually shift, it took a major political movement with a rousing rally at the opera house. - we formed a coalition of people here to run for town council. so we put together what was called a slate of candidates for all seven seats. - and anybody that wanted to run and be part of the slate was welcome to come to the convention and run as a group. we were speaking basic democracy, we were speaking getting back and rebuilding government of this country from the bottom up. - and there was a resolve in there, and there was an excitement in there, and there was a commitment in there, and there was a bonding. - we were successful when taking five of the seven seats on the town council. that began a kind of a real shift in some of the direction that the town began to take, and try to protect

and at the same time enhance what we felt like it was a really special place on the american landscape, and i think it remains so, i think we did a good job. - there's a lot of reasons why the valley floor is important to this community. for one thing, it's the gateway to our town. and it sets a tone of our values of environmental protection, priorities of wildlife, clean air, clean water, and just a mellow vibe kind of thing. it sets that it's not development, it's not sprawl. and that was very, very important to this community, i believe it's still is. - slowly the town started to get more wealth, but as that happened, there was a real counterbalance of people who came here, the outlaw folks, the hippie folks, some of the trust funders, and they didn't want to see this develop

in that normal fashion, the aspen fashion. and so there was a real push against any kind of development. - the valley floor had been discussed for years long before i came here as one of the top open space acquisitions that the town highly valued. the conversations were heating up. - 1993, town council proposed a 20% solution, they called it, whereby 20% of all town revenues would be set aside for open space. 20% of all town revenues, that's property taxes, sales taxes, real estate transfer taxes, business license fees, everything, 20%. - the mine closed in 1978. so they sold the property and it came under the ownership of san miguel valley corporation, which was headed by a man named neal blue, who has been making his money with industrial

who has been making his money with industrial and military accoutrement of one kind or another. - this was not a gentleman who hung out at the bars in town and dined here with his family, this was somebody who we knew as the developer of the predator drone. i mean, he wasn't a part of our community, we didn't know him. (intense music) (printer grinding) - there was a story of a fax that came into the county offices, the drawings and renderings of their development plans, which included trophy homes and a golf course and ponds, and it was an upscale high-end community. - but that fax was sent to charlie haas, president of san miguel valley corp. the county planner at the time was charlie knox. and i am absolutely certain that whoever sent the fax said,

"here, send this to charlie." and the secretary or whoever just push the button, the charlie. - and it got to the wrong charlie. (laughs) - and this fax said that the company was gonna buy the newspaper. - it talks about taking over the local newspaper and false news, creating false news, which has been in existence forever. - they were gonna change the composition of the town. they were gonna make it so their development would sail through and be able to develop this entire property. - at the time, it was such an absurd and radical proposal. the first reaction is, this is really a joke, april fool's day, it's really a joke. and i think it really was the underpinning for other proposals that came later. - the san miguel valley corporation came up

with several plans and presented them to the county planning commission, one of which we all referred to as marina del blue. he had three lakes out on the valley floor, probably a couple hundred condos surrounding it, it literally looked like marina del rey. - telluride was sort of barely making it, it was a ski resort that wasn't really happening and people were not making much money, they were kind of hand-to-mouth. so you would have thought in most places people would have welcomed this big investment, it was going to be huge. and people were like, "no way in hell." (laughs) - and it really got the people in this town up in arms, i would say, in opposition to what was going on. - virtually everyone in the community wanted the valley floor to be open space, people just didn't know how to do that. did that mean we had to compromise a little bit? would it be possible to just preserve the whole thing?

- [presenter] just following up on one of- - in the '90s, our council was ready to make a deal with the developer that would have resulted in as many as 1,000 units in this property. the owner was unwilling to negotiate with us. they tried to dissuade us, they tried to confuse us, but ultimately they had their own objectives, and unless we were going along with their objectives, they were not interested in negotiating. - and then at some point the consciousness came to the community. like i say, i don't, it was fairly late on in the process when we said, "why don't we see if we can buy it?" - for many years, the town has set aside 20% of its annual budget toward open space, and so we had an income stream and a small pot of money and it kept growing and we kept offering it, but mr. blue didn't really need money. - we were ordered into mediation.

and we found a retired judge that both parties, the landowner and the town, could agree on. and we started having discussions, not face-to-face ever with the landowner, but through the judge. as we were getting towards the end and we were not united, he was more forthcoming with the fact that this land owner is not at all interested in what you guys want to do here. - they decided they would close off access to the valley floor for recreation. we used to use the valley floor for recreation when snbc owned it. there were a holstein cows out there, but we could nordic ski, and we could ride our bikes, and we could walk and do all those things. - joan may decided we'd need some type of event to rally and to show the community, to see what kind of support there is for this. - we held the rally for the valley. we were hoping 50 people or something would show up

and hold hands and walk out to the valley floor and state our solidarity for preservation. - [hilary] but as they were planning that, a lot of doubt came up in their minds of what if like 10 people show up to this thing? we're going to look like a bunch of idiots and it could just compromise this whole thing. - lots and lots of people showed up, far more than we ever thought would. - when 1500 people walked out there hand-in-hand to make a statement that this is important to us and we do things differently here, and we're going to step up. - there was just a real feeling of celebration and unity. tellurides always had a bit of a challenge between feeling like close community and having strife. and i think that rally really helped people feel like they were all part of the same thing. - people who wanted to see the valley floor preserved decided that this company was not somebody to be trusted, not somebody to deal with, that we needed to do

whatever it is we needed to make this happen, to take it on. - and it's interesting because i started hearing the term right of eminent domain. (ambient music) - sounds horrible, eminent domain, it's mine. and it's not an easy decision. corporate life and a greeting card company does not prepare you for eminent domain. i went to denver and i took classes on eminent domain and condemnation. if you want to learn what condemnation actually means, what you're doing is not about that it's for you, it's about for this community. - condemnation, even though it has a really bad connotation

around it, it really states that you have to pay whoever's land it was a fair amount of money. it was up to us to convince the voters that we condemn the valley floor so it becomes public property. - and then there were those who he felt like private property rights trump everything else. and so i understand that point of view, i'm in real estate. private property, you can't just take someone's property, but there are instances where the public good outweighs that. - after much discussion and much consternation, we decided as a council to put the question, should we condemn this property for open space to the voters? - the town voted to condemn the valley floor. - and that was just a huge, huge issue.

(intense music) (phone ringing) - the landowner approached sponsors in the colorado legislature for a bill. people referred to it as the telluride amendment. and it purported to say that home rule municipalities or any municipality in colorado would be prohibited from using eminent domain to condemn land for open space, park, recreational purposes. and the very day that it signed into law by the governor, and by the way, it passed the colorado senate by one vote, the landowner files its brief in court asking for the court to dismiss our condemnation petition. and obviously you have to have a great amount of influence if you're going to be able to approach the colorado legislature to approve and put into law

a bill that's designed specifically to thwart a condemnation effort that you are on the receiving end of as the landowner. so those are pretty powerful players that are able to put that type of mechanism in place. (bright music) - there was a last minute attempt by the political types.

the mayor at the time did a mano a mano with the blues brothers and came up with a solution. - they announced that they were gonna come up with this compromise plan. - the owners of the land approached town council and said, "okay, okay, we get that you want open space. so we have this proposal." - they had a big meeting in the brand new palm theater, pretty much the whole community at that point showed up. - they did this big rollout of what this is going to be. and of course the way they presented it, the developers presented it in a way that made it look like it was just the best thing that could ever happen to telluride. only 10% is going to be developed, and the other 90 is going to be open space. it's not going to cost you anything, just sign right here. town council was warm to the idea. they liked the idea because people are going well, "this could be the best thing we ever get." - the political types like myself were like,

"hey, it's a win-win." when the blues brothers offered 90% of the land free and no longer develop, and they get a little bit of development, just 10%, it seems like a good deal. because in politics, you compromise, that's the way politics works. - a lot of the details weren't quite nailed down. - the devils in the details. and i'd served for my town council in basalt, and i was going, "we're going to get screwed." - i think a lot of it was a mistrust. - this is another plan on the same thing, and, yes sir? - several times in your discussions you've made reference to the fact that this might happen or that might happen if the community wants it. could you clarify what the community is that you're trying to consider in those kinds of statements? - [presenter] i wish i knew. one of the reasons this process- - we could probably help you with that. (audience laughing)

- and there's a general mistrust of government always, so it wasn't the people in the government, it was just the structure of the government. and then also a mistrust of the developer. he had shown his hand before, there had been many, many people before me that had tried to negotiate and all of those had fallen through. and the same people who were fighting for condemnation and preservation were just having a harder and harder time. they had been speaking to this issue for years, they were worn out. more and more people who i expected to be on the side of preservation were getting up and kind of accepting this idea as it was being pitched. - i'd rather see the things stay in private hands rather than the town of telluride. - we should maybe put a little housing on it. - it's way too costly. - i'm torn somewhat. - we have a housing shortage, and schools that are bursting

at the seams, and all these issues we need to address, we can deal with those, we're pretty capable. and we can pretty much do anything we put our minds to if we come together and do it. if we're divided, we're going to be arguing forever. - we were kind of heartbroken because we thought, well, done, this is the best we're going to do and it's not good enough. - today's not a time to stand down. - i was kind of an emotional wreck and i am sure there were tears shed. in the end i did stand up, i continued to fight. i think i said something to the effect of, we just can't do this, we've come so far, the land needs us to speak for it right now. who's representing the land?

they were claiming it as 90% open space, 10% development, many of us didn't see it that way, much of it was going to be private open space. so it was essentially going to be a private development. so we weren't going to have access to it, and that's a big connection from telluride to the rest of the valley. - you can look at your backyard and say it's 90% preserved, but it's not open space, it's your backyard, it's not the same thing. - and having one hotel that's cut off from the public and having a pond that the private residents can use isn't preservation. - their idea of open space is golf courses. a golf course in arizona where you have your 15 large homes and the rest of it is open space. it's manicured, planted all these invasive species, kentucky bluegrass.

that to me isn't open space, that to me isn't protecting an ecosystem protecting a habitat. - that was gonna go to a vote of the towns people, whether or not to accept this. because the valley floor was so important to everybody, the town council decided they didn't want to make the decision, they could have, but they decided not to. (upbeat music) - because they presented this alternative. the issue then had people who are for and people who were against. it threatened to tear the community apart. - so the valley floor was always a contentious issue. - i just remember it being very contentious. - very contentious. - it seemed really messy. it seemed like we were making it really difficult. - it was difficult to hold conversations in public. (ambient music)

- it was a tough time for a lot of people in town because it was a divisive topic in the community. i, like probably a lot of other people, was mixed about it. on the one hand you have a parcel adjacent to the town of telluride that's on sewer and it's on water, it's on a transportation corridor. we knew we had housing needs locally, but simultaneous to that, you had this spectacular piece of land that was in a position to be protected and preserved in its entirety, which is really unique especially in this high alpine setting. approximately 60% of the landscape is wetland area. the spruce forest that occurs out here is very common in wetland communities and the wildlife thrive in locations like this. wetlands are used by about 50% of the species in colorado.

- we needed to preserve the entire ecosystem in order to protect the river running through there, the wildlife habitat to allow for migration to happen between the public lands on either side, and to essentially offset the impact of telluride. - we are a forward-thinking, progressive, resource conscious community. we want to be low carbon, we want to preserve and protect. it's hard to say that we really do these things. every giant house built today, every house that's renovated to the tune of a couple million dollars uses enormous amounts of resources. every 20,000, 50,000 square foot house uses in an enormous amount of resources. what have we done that is genuinely in favor of resource conservation, preserving the valley floor,

and not building 17 multimillion dollar houses? - a lot of people rallied to educate for the upcoming campaign, think that was the february 14th election. and we did know that we needed to unify the community in order to get this done. so we had some time to work on talking to people. and there were all kinds of community events. we had forums, and we had debates, and we had interviews and newspaper articles and history and everything was rolled out. so we had an event at the opera house and it was basically just a community forum. anybody that has questions, anybody who has answers. sheep mountain alliance helped to organize some other groups, it was just an ad hoc thing. - people were saying, "well, i think it's a good idea to go with this compromise." and other people saying, "oh, i don't think it is, we should try for better." and gary hickok stood up, and he was not a member of the activist community at all.

and he said. - i said, "one of these days you're gonna have some grandkids. and 20, 30 years down the road, they're gonna come home for christmas vacation. they're going to bring their roommate, and they're going to come driving into the telluride valley. your grandson's roommate is going to see this valley floor and go, 'how did that happen? how is that possible that that property is open space?' and your grandson's gonna say, 'well, 20 years ago, a bunch of people got together and decided that they wanted to protect that valley and they purchased it. and my grandpa supported that and worked with them, or, well, and my grandpa was opposed to that and he really wanted to see a bunch of houses out there.' what do you want your grandson to say?" - and he said, "okay, telluride folks, this is the valley floor that we're talking about, this is the ditch we need to die in. we can't accept a compromise.