ESSAY: Issues Hover Around a Proposed Terry Robinson Road Helipad, Part Two

PHOTO: The view from a Terry Robinson Road property, October 2023.  Courtesy Kim Elzinga.

Read Part One

After meeting on Wednesday, October 11, with a small group of motivated neighbors on Terry Robinson Road, I got a good sense of why this proposed helipad project is so important to them.

Currently, the resident who applied for the permit — Baudouin d’Aumeries — has withdrawn his initial application, perhaps with intent to build on a different spot on his property. Wherever he decides to build, use of a helipad would affect the community several miles in all directions.

Here’s what these concerned neighbors said about the helipad plan submitted to the County government.

Adrienne Panter:
I live within a half mile of where the proposed heliport site is. I’ve owned my property since 2002. My concerns are obviously for my own personal property values, soundscape, the natural landscape, but really it does apply to everybody in the county because this will set a precedent. It sets a precedent that if any person who comes to the county is able to refer to this approved project — in spite of being in violation of existing land use codes and noise ordinances — it’s going to happen elsewhere in the county. It’s just a matter of time.

While I have very strong feelings about the heliport being within a half mile from my property adjacent to the national forest at the end of a private five mile road, the broader implications are for everybody living in the county. I think it’s really important that this issue needs to have greater public awareness.

Ross Barable:
I’ve lived here with my wife on Terry Robinson Road for 30 years. We moved here with the intention of creating a lifestyle that nourished and supported our work as artists and just our need for living in an environment that was embedded with nature and had peace and tranquility as part of the lifestyle. We’ve lived all over the United States and that was our intention to move here.

With this new resident moving here within the last 2 1/2 years, wanting to create a heliport, it’s in total violation of the values of the local community — all those who are full time residents are vehemently opposed to this agenda. To allow this project to go through would set a precedent, and even though [County Community Development Director] Pamela Flowers says that each case is considered on an individual basis, you cannot ignore that when you allow this to happen, you set a precedent. Other people are going to use that and leverage it for their own purposes.

This whole deal is in direct violation of two statutes that we brought up to them three times now. The Planning Commission has ample information to absolutely put a full stop on this application.

They’ve chosen not to do it and we as a group are very concerned… So, we’re galvanized to prevent this from happening in our neighborhood, not only for ourselves but for the whole of Pagosa Springs community residents who have moved here for the same values and the same reasons that we have.

Richard Brown:
I retired about 10 years ago from the oil and gas industry and bought a place here in 2015 with the express interest of the wildlife and natural environment that this valley supports. My concern has been the precedent that is being set here, and the fact that the noise level of a helicopter can be pretty extreme.

The other issue is that we do have a year-long permanent elk herd here. Just adding this noise level and disruption may cause that herd to move on or deteriorate.

Those are certainly my issues.

Doug Schwartz:
My wife and I purchased a place here in Archuleta County eight years ago. We had been eyeballing this area for several years, and I convinced my wife that we needed to purchase a place here. When we drive to our house, we see elk, deer, and all the wildlife that this area has to offer. We sit on our porch and hear the birds, the occasional elk bugle, and the wildlife — and that’s it.

We do not want to sit on our porch and hear a helicopter coming back and forth over top of us from time to time. It just doesn’t seem right. God didn’t put this country here for that. I want to reiterate that if it is allowed to happen here, it will happen elsewhere in the county. It is just a matter of time.

Joseph Yoklavich:
I’m not as fortunate as the people who are here today, who live in an area that allows you to enjoy this place.  Actually, I live only about 500 yards away from Hwy 84, and I’m into this, at first, because I do see elk come across from Echo Lake over into the valley because my house sits on a ridge. My wife and I will sit there, sipping wine or whatever, and we have deer and a lot of different wildlife that we watch. We even saw an eagle on our property.

It evolved more into a frustration of the lack of respect for our zoning regulations, to the sound abatement. As I kept getting into it deeper and deeper, I kept on asking, why are the Archuleta County officials not stopping this whole process now, based upon the foundation of the rules and regulations in our area?

The logical component here is that the reason why Stevens Field is where it is, is that it allows Archuleta County to control all of the components of the air traffic that comes in and out of Archuleta County based upon FAA regulations. We have an individual who feels that he is above all of that, and that he is able to bring a helicopter in and out. So I’m doing this more now to help my neighbors than I am to help myself. It will disrupt me, but I’m looking at my community. We’ve all talked together and have given each one of us a task to figure out how we can stop this process.

So my objective is pretty much to help my neighbors and help them give the Archuleta County Planning Commission, the County Commissioners, the Archuleta County Planning Service Groups including Pamela Flowers to realize that this process needs to stop, and it needs to stop now.

There is nothing in between. Absolutely nothing. And that’s about it.