‘Buck’ Berlaimont Estates

Help us oppose the destruction of public lands for private gain. The management of our Forest Service lands should be focused on public values like wildlife, conservation, and recreation, not facilitating private luxury developments for the ultra-wealthy

“Berlaimont Estates” is a proposal to build a luxury 19-home subdivision on a 680-acre inholding surrounded by National Forest lands in Eagle County, Colorado, north of the community of Edwards. Developers want to excavate and construct large earthen switchbacks and berms and pave what is currently a dirt access road across public land to improve existing access. The public has opposed this project for more than a decade because of its harm to wildlife, recreation access, and serious safety and wildfire risks.

Residents from across Eagle County have been crystal clear about Berlaimont Estates: the impacts of a luxury estate development surrounded by sensitive Forest Service lands, and a paved road through those lands, are unacceptable.

TAKE ACTION

Email erin@wildernessworkshop.org to join the Buck Berlaimont Rapid Response Network to stay informed when the official comment period opens and for other opportunities to take action.

Bad for Eagle County: There’s no public benefit to paving public lands for billionaire real estate speculators, but the harm to our environment and communities will be substantial and extensive.

Bad for Wildfire Risk and Community Safety: Berlaimont Estates would pave the way for more mansions in the wildland-urban interface and create a need where none currently exists for local emergency services to protect residents and expensive homes when fire comes. We should not put first responders at risk to maximize profits for real estate speculators.

Bad for Wildlife: The proposed development will degrade sensitive public lands and critical wildlife habitat, including Greater sage-grouse, Colorado River cutthroat trout, lynx, and winter range and migration corridors for declining deer and elk herds. We need to protect the sensitive habitat we have left rather than paving it over and opening it up to more traffic.

Bad for Public Lands: At a time when the Forest Service is facing unprecedented staffing and funding shortfalls, and severe drought and wildfire risk, limited public resources should not be subsidizing damaging luxury developments for the ultra-wealthy. Public land managers should be focused on protecting core public values like wildlife, conservation, and recreation.

In the coming weeks, Berlaimont Estates developers are expected to apply for a variance from the Eagle County Commissioners to waive a dual-access road requirement so they can move forward with the project. Dual access ensures at least two ways in and out of a subdivision, an important safety standard in fire-prone areas. With only one access road, residents and first responders could be trapped if wildfire blocks the road.

This waiver application is especially dangerous for community and first-responder safety, as climate change and drought are making wildfires more frequent, intense, and unpredictable. Berlaimont Estates would place a high-end neighborhood deep inside a fire-prone forest with only one evacuation route on a steep and winding road.

Join us in urging Eagle County to deny the waiver because of the harm and risk the Berlaimont proposal poses to health and safety and our public lands.

Management of our public lands should be focused on public values like community safety, wildlife, conservation and recreation, not facilitating private luxury developments for the ultra-wealthy.

Raise your voice in opposition, join the rapid response network, and advocate for the protection of National Forest lands in the area.

4000+ community voices gathered in opposition.

19 new mansions on 680 acres in the middle of the White River National Forest (WRNF), north of Edwards.

“As a former wildlife manager and 54-year resident of the Eagle Valley, I’ve seen lots of damaging projects rammed through agency approval processes. Berlaimont Estates is more of the same. The severe impacts this development will create include serious wildfire risk, water quantity and quality issues, and wildlife impacts. It will result in the destruction of critical habitats and movement corridors, loss of recreational opportunities, visual blight, and increased demand for more affordable workforce housing to support the multimillion-dollar estates.”

– Bill Heicher, Eagle resident and former district wildlife manager for the State of Colorado

Photos by Jon Resnik

Photo by EcoStock