The Pitkin County commissioners denied an effort by the county’s top planning official Wednesday to strip the “agricultural” classification from Gary Snook’s 55-acre property on the lower slopes of Mount Sopris.
In the process, the board held another in a series of spirited discussions about the low taxes paid by owners of luxury gentlemen ranches in Pitkin County.
The issue was before the commissioners because Cindy Houben, the county’s community development director, took the unusual step in April of appealing a decision by the county’s hearing officer, Jim True. True had ruled that adding a caretaker’s unit to Snook’s Hanging Valley Ranch property, where he raises hay and horses, was not enough to change the “character of the land.”
If True had ruled otherwise, Snook’s property would have been taxed as residential, rather than agricultural, property.
But the commissioners did not support Houben’s appeal yesterday during their regular meeting. And their decision left Snook, and his GSS Properties LLC, with an ag classification and a relatively low property tax bill.
Snook is the co-founder and CEO of Performance Bicycle, one of the nation’s largest bicycle equipment and clothing retailers.
State law provides that if a landowner can show they have intent to make money by raising and selling agricultural products, such as hay or livestock, then their property is entitled to an “ag” classification and a tax rate much lower than that levied on residential property.
The law provides an incentive for working ranchers and farmers in Colorado to keep their land in agricultural use. But it also provides a way for wealthy landowners in Pitkin County to lease a small portion of their land for a low price to a working rancher who then grows and cuts hay. And that is usually sufficient for an entire luxury compound to qualify as an ag property.
The county assessor has previously determined that Snook is entitled to the ag classification on his ranch because he is breeding horses and growing hay.
Snook said that he has yet to see “positive cash flow” from his investment in Icelandic horses, which he is raising for sale. He said his 100-year-old-ranch south of Carbondale, which he purchased in 1999, was once used to grow potatoes and probably didn’t do very well with that, either.
“I was told that in the 1960s, the only cash crop raised on the property was marijuana,” Snook said. As a result of the ag classification, his ranch is valued by the assessor at only $1.4 million.
The property includes a 3,100-square-foot house, a barn, a riding arena and a solar-powered irrigation and sprinkler system for approximately 50 acres of pasture. It was described by a county planner as “drop-dead gorgeous.”
“My tax bill is almost as high as Mr. Snook’s and that doesn’t seem fair,” said Commissioner Michael Owsley. “Is that because I don’t raise Icelandic ponies?”
Owsley and his wife, Ann, live on seven acres in Woody Creek in a 2,189-square-foot house. The residential property is valued by the assessor at $2.7 million and the Owsleys’ 2007 property tax bill was $5,041, according to the county assessor’s Web site.
The 2007 tax bill for Snook’s 55-acre holding was $9,266.
The case before the commissioners was initiated when Snook applied to the county for the right to purchase a “transferable development right,” or TDR, from the county. TDRs cost about $300,000 and allow a property owner the right to add up to 2,500 square feet of building space to his or her house or property.
In his effort to gain the right to build a 1,000-square-foot caretaker and/or guesthouse, a garage and a storage building, Snook applied for the TDR and the building rights that come with it.
His application was reviewed at the county’s administrative level. During that review, county planners argued that the caretaker unit would change the “primary and fundamental use” of Snook’s land from agricultural to residential. That change would in turn trigger a clause in the land-use code that would prohibit “commercial agricultural activity” on the property and prevent the county assessor from classifying Snook’s property as agricultural.
The clause in the land-use code was adopted in 2006 as a way to compel landowners to forgo the ag tax break after they obtain residential building rights.
But True, as hearing officer, did not agree that a caretaker unit would change the character of Snook’s property. Houben appealed True’s decision and the issue came before the commissioners on Wednesday.
The board did not directly consider the issue of whether Snook’s Hanging Valley Ranch would still be considered primarily agricultural or residential with the addition of a small house. They did, however, require that the new house be “primarily” used by someone actually working on the ag operations on Snook’s land.
The issue prompted local land-use attorney Herb Klein to urge the commissioners to reconsider their efforts to reduce abuse of the ag tax classification, arguing that they might be endangering what little legitimate ranching remains in Pitkin County. He called the clause in the land-use code “a blunt tool.”
Commissioner Owsley replied, “It is always going to feel like a blunt tool when someone is reaching into your wallet.”
But Klein argued that the prohibition on commercial agricultural activity on land that still has agricultural value could potentially reverse a 30-year effort by the county to protect local ranches.
“It is kind of Kafka-esque to be here arguing before this board about preserving agricultural land,” Klein said.
Commissioner Dorothea Farris defended the code amendment, saying, “The intent of the county is to maintain real agriculture.” But the commissioners did agree to hold a work session devoted to the land-use code provision.
This is not the first time Gary Snook’s property has been in the news.
In 2007, the town of Carbondale won a six-year lawsuit that prevents Snook from using pesticides on his property along Nettle Creek in a manner that could affect the quality of Carbondale’s water supply.
“I’m the only person in the valley that can’t use Scott’s Turf Builder on their land,” Snook said, when asked about the practical outcome of the lawsuit.
bgs@aspendailynews.com