One of the initial locations that pops out to me is BLM land east of Livingston, Montana. We walked the dogs over there just a few days ago. There's no infrastructure on those slices of land, so they'll require the construction of power lines, roads, water, sewage, etc etc. That area is exposed to extreme winds, so it would be awful to try and live or move around there during large parts of the year. That likely rules it out for McMansions, which means it'd be developed for commercial use. The parcel sits on the slopes of the Absorokas and is visible from Main St, so it'd ruin the views for visitor and residents of Livingston. All for what? The town has a ton of unused or underdeveloped commercial and residential areas. Developing those would better serve residents.
There's also a slice of BLM land north of Nephi, Utah, which is one of my go-to spots to camp for a night, while roadtripping south on the 15. There's not much out there but birds and bats, but it's a great place to spend an evening sitting around a campfire and enjoying a steak, rather than a Best Western along the highway. Again, hard to understand what possible commercial use it might have.
I can speak for the part outside of Steamboat Springs, where I lived for six years. The first is this is great elk habitat, and a super fun area to hunt because of easy proximity for morning and evening hunts. Also great biking.
There is plenty of land annexed next to steamboat springs (due to an anonymous gift) that the affordable housing department, the city, voters, and developers can't, won't, and have never gotten on the same page about, so it's almost impossible to see any "affordable" housing happening on this BLM land- what would probably happen is a few private ranches would buy it and that small sliver of hunting next to town would be gone.
One of the initial locations that pops out to me is BLM land east of Livingston, Montana. We walked the dogs over there just a few days ago. There's no infrastructure on those slices of land, so they'll require the construction of power lines, roads, water, sewage, etc etc. That area is exposed to extreme winds, so it would be awful to try and live or move around there during large parts of the year. That likely rules it out for McMansions, which means it'd be developed for commercial use. The parcel sits on the slopes of the Absorokas and is visible from Main St, so it'd ruin the views for visitor and residents of Livingston. All for what? The town has a ton of unused or underdeveloped commercial and residential areas. Developing those would better serve residents.
There's also a slice of BLM land north of Nephi, Utah, which is one of my go-to spots to camp for a night, while roadtripping south on the 15. There's not much out there but birds and bats, but it's a great place to spend an evening sitting around a campfire and enjoying a steak, rather than a Best Western along the highway. Again, hard to understand what possible commercial use it might have.
I see that none of the public lands near Aspen, where the billionaires have homes, made the list of “surplus” lands to be sold off. Hmm….
I can speak for the part outside of Steamboat Springs, where I lived for six years. The first is this is great elk habitat, and a super fun area to hunt because of easy proximity for morning and evening hunts. Also great biking.
There is plenty of land annexed next to steamboat springs (due to an anonymous gift) that the affordable housing department, the city, voters, and developers can't, won't, and have never gotten on the same page about, so it's almost impossible to see any "affordable" housing happening on this BLM land- what would probably happen is a few private ranches would buy it and that small sliver of hunting next to town would be gone.
I appreciate you shedding some light on this massive, illegal proposal.
I’m really hoping they don’t get their way