Larimer County’s Natural Resources Department announced on Sept. 15 that it has secured the one piece of private land sitting inside Chimney Hollow Open Space, the 1,847-acre property southwest of Loveland the county acquired in 2004. The county is acquiring a 41-acre inholding within the open space and, in the same deal, selling a 197-acre parcel, encumbered with a conservation easement, to a conservation buyer, Oxbow Land, LLC.
‘We are pleased to have been able to work with our neighbor to secure the inholding at Chimney Hollow Open Space and perpetually conserve the southern portion of the property,’ Daylan Figgs, the department’s director, said in the county’s announcement. In the county’s words, the transaction ensures perpetual protection of the viewshed and important wildlife habitat. An inholding, as the release explains, is a parcel of private land surrounded by a publicly protected area.
What it means for people who want to visit
Not much yet. A conservation easement on the open space is held by Great Outdoors Colorado and the City of Loveland, and the county notes that development of public access facilities at Chimney Hollow Open Space is currently paused pending Northern Water’s uranium findings and mitigation recommendation and plan. So this is a story about land being locked up for wildlife and views for good, not about a new trailhead. When the county does open the property, the swap means there will be no private parcel in the middle of it.
More like this: Find the Good · Loveland · 25 shade trees at a Loveland elementary school · Boulder’s neighborhood resilience hubs
