Boulder City Buys Property For $4M To Block Purchase By Hunter

The City of Boulder just dropped a cool $4 million to buy a 243-acre property, because the city council wanted to make sure the other guy who wanted to buy it wouldn’t be able to run bird dogs there. No, really.

From this story in the Boulder Daily Camera:
The Boulder City Council agreed Tuesday night to purchase a 243-acre piece of land known as Windhover Ranch over the objection of a prospective private buyer, who city officials said wanted the land partly for hunting pheasants and quail. In a unanimous vote, the council agreed to spend $4 million from the Open Space and Mountain Parks budget to buy the property…
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City open space officials say the land — an open prairie field with rare white rock formations at its north end — needs protection because of its rich geology and biodiversity. They say the property is home to a pair of bald eagles that have nested at the site since 2002, tall prairie grasses and other rare species of plants and animals. The property’s would-be buyer, Mike Janeczko, of Louisville, told the council Tuesday that he would build one house on the north end of the property if he were allowed to purchase it. “One home replacing an already-existing house certainly does not constitute a housing development,” he said. Janeczko said he’s an “avid conservationist,” and he believes the land would be better protected under a private owner like himself.

But Jim Schmidt, a property agent for Open Space and Mountain Parks, said Janeczko left out in his speech to the council that he’s also an avid bird hunter who wants to establish “huntable populations of upland game birds” on the land. That would likely include releasing hunting dogs on the property, Schmidt said, which could disrupt the eagles and other wildlife._

Thoughts?