a win-win strategy
for landowners and their land
The Land Trust encourages land and homeowners in the Baca to consider purchasing adjacent lots and consolidating them. We believe that consolidation will enhance the value of your own land as well as protect the overall natural beauty of the Baca Grande.
The purchase of the Baca Ranch by the Nature Conservancy and the new status of the Great Sand Dunes as a National Park make Crestone and the Baca increasingly attractive communities. With its large number of lots that are offered for sale, the Baca seems particularly vulnerable to excessive development. This moment in time is a crucial one for our community.
The original developer of the Baca Grande created more than 5600 lots, which are now owned by approximately 3300 POA (Property Owners Association) members, each of whom could build a house! Let’s face it: a full “build-out” in the Baca would be a disaster, effectively destroying the natural beauties that have drawn us here. Such high density of population would be a terrific strain on the infrastructure of our community and upon the POA.
There are many excellent features of the original design for the Baca such as underground utilities, but the platting of half-acre lots in the Chalets was a serious design flaw. Houses built on adjacent half-acre lots are simply crowded too closely for most people who came here in search of a non-urban wilderness experience.
In purely practical terms, the value of one’s house in the Chalets would probably decrease if a new house is constructed on a neighboring lot. Likewise, the re-sale value of a lot may be diminished if a house is built on adjacent land. If one has put $150,000 into a home, the cost of a neighboring lot at $5,000 to $6,000 is only about 3.5% of the total value, a mere pittance for protecting your view and acquiring some additional privacy. If you consider that lots in places like Summit County are selling for a minimum of $150,000 for a half-acre, without water, sewer, or electricity, the land in the Baca continues to be an amazing bargain.
The POA maintains a current list of lot owners. County-assessed market value is a reasonable starting point for price negotiations with adjacent lot owners. This information can be obtained from the Saguache County Treasurer at 719-655-2656.
You can do all the legwork yourself on tracking down the lot owners and negotiating with them, or you can retain the services of a local realtor. If you are the owner of a lot next to a home, you might consider trying to make a trade. Once you have purchased the lot or lots, you can obtain the consolidation forms from the County Land Use office at 717-256-2321. The consolidation forms can also be obtained from local realtors.
The financial benefits of consolidation are two-fold:
(1) a reduction of county taxes and
(2) reduction of POA dues. If you consolidate two lots, your POA dues would be reduced from $440 to $220, and, for a lot in the Chalets, you would currently save about $115 on your county taxes.
We emphasize that these savings are only general estimates and only apply to the current tax year. For more than two lots, the estimated savings to the owner, including both reduced POA dues and county taxes, are shown on the following graph.
These savings are not totally free, however. The County charges $200 plus $25 per lot for consolidation. A new survey needs to be made to show the boundaries that are vacated for the assessor’s office. Ed Evanson at Davis Engineering (719-589-3004 ext 112) will perform that survey for about $450. Scott Johnson (719-256-4622) will also survey the land.
When everything is added up, your expenses for consolidation of two lots will be paid in a little over two year. Since one survey will cover several lots, there is a significant savings if you consolidate three lots, in which case, after a little more than one year, you will have paid for the costs of consolidation.
The pay-back times for even more lots are estimated in the following graph.
The Land Trust believes that consolidation is a win-win situation for all of us, because the process preserves the natural value of our area as well as improving property values for all homeowners. As you can see from the chart, there is a real benefit in consolidation of three lots by acquiring, if you can, the two lots on either side of your home. You should act now, as the opportunities for protecting your property are only going to get slimmer in the future. |
