County drawn into midvalley trail dispute

Pitkin County commissioners, drawn into a legal dispute between two midvalley landowners over use of a route to access grazing land on the Crown, on Tuesday urged both parties to settle their disagreement outside a courtroom. The conflict drew both landowners to the commissioners' meeting room Tuesday to explain their positions and, suggested assistant county attorney Chris Seldin, help commissioners decide what stand the county should take as a defendant in the lawsuit spawned by the dispute. The county's position will be determined in a closed session later, he said. Tom Waldeck, owner of Emma Farms, the former Cerise Ranch in Emma, has filed a “quiet title” action in court, claiming a prescriptive easement on about 300 yards of rough road that crosses the neighboring Happy Day Ranch. The road allows him to drive his cattle between his ranch and a grazing allotment on the Crown, a mass of land that separates El Jebel and Mount Sopris. The two ranches are located at the corner of Emma Road and Hooks Lane. Ginny Parker and her family, owners of Happy Day Ranch, say former owners of what is now Emma Farms used the route with the Parkers' permission, which would mean Waldeck has no claim to a prescriptive right to the road — one gained through more than 20 years of repeated use without the owner's consent. The county finds itself involved because its Open Space and Trails program holds a conservation easement on 25 acres of the Happy Day Ranch, as does the Aspen Valley Land Trust...more