The five-year-long battle over winter vehicle access on County Road 5 ended in the Colorado Supreme Court this August, leaving the owners of a local guide service in the cold after the court declined to hear their appeal.
TOP STORIES OF THE YEAR: END OF ROAD FOR COUNTY ROAD 5 BATTLE
The five-year-long battle over winter vehicle access on County Road 5 ended in the Colorado Supreme Court this August, leaving the owners of a local guide service in the cold after the court declined to hear their appeal.
The decision cemented a Feb. 2 Colorado Court of Appeals opinion that determined state law allows counties to restrict vehicular traffic when snow-packed conditions are present and direct non-vehicular traffic to designated trails. As a result, county officials can continue restricting vehicular access on the controversial road and entering maintenance pacts with Miller Mesa Road Association members.
Past maintenance agreements gave members exclusive vehicular access beyond a locked gate near the intersection of CR 5 and CR 5A and let them plow a 3 ½-milelong section of the road at their expense. Beginning in 2020, those who wanted winter access had to pay a onetime $15,000 membership fee and $200 in annual dues to join the association, which enters maintenance pacts with the county on behalf of its members.
Plaintiffs Kelly and Joe Ryan — who own a guide service and rental huts on U.S. Forest Service land accessed via CR 5 — argued the county couldn’t limit winter vehicular access since CR 5 is a public road. Despite the legality of road maintenance pacts between county governments and private entities, they didn’t think the county’s policies followed the spirit of the law, believing it only pertained to historically snow-covered alpine roads.
The Ryans also argued maintenance pacts between the county and the association made stretches of the road unsafe and harmed their business, San Juan Hut Systems.
During the Ouray County Board of County Commissioners’ Aug. 19 meeting, county officials said they would try to avoid “controversial” gates moving forward. Future winter maintenance agreements could allow landowners to plow public roads themselves while maintaining public access.
Such a policy would mirror those of other Colorado counties, where winter maintenance agreements typically don’t involve gates.
Not all county officials were pleased with the outcome, however. Commissioner Lynn Padgett argued the court’s decision upheld a “pay to play” arrangement on public property and that the county “should do some soul-searching.”
“I am not convinced, even despite this decision, that the county or local governments really do have the ability to give easements and access to one group separate from another. This was a settlement agreement,” Padgett said during the Aug. 29 meeting.
The legal battle started in 2018 after commissioners amended the previous year’s agreement to appease Miller Mesa Road Association members and recreationists.
Both groups were unsatisfied with the compromise, and the association sued Ouray County so members could plow the road to access their properties. In 2020, a court settlement allowed members to construct the Miller Mesa Recreation Trail which runs parallel to CR 5 in exchange for a satisfactory maintenance agreement.
The trail was intended to serve as an alternate path for recreationists to cross-country ski and snowshoe. But the Ryans filed an appeal in 2021 to either keep the road closed and unplowed or obtain a permanent court order to preserve public winter access.
The Colorado Court of Appeals sided with the county 14 months later, causing the Ryans to take the case before the Colorado Supreme Court, which declined to review the decision.