Dispute over county road heads to court
Source: SantaFeNewMexican.com, by Staci Matlock
July 19, 2007
Tesuque residents fight landowner’s attempts to block path to S.F. National Forest
A private landowner is battling neighbors and the U.S. Forest Service over access to a little-known road near Tesuque that leads to an isolated portion of the Santa Fe National Forest, and the fight is headed to U.S. District Court.
Griego Hill Road splits off a county road near the Tesuque Market and ends at Paul Aguilar’s property. The road continues about a quarter-mile through his property before reaching the Santa Fe National Forest. For years, the road has been a favorite path into the forest for local hikers, mountain bikers, cross-country skiers and horseback riders, according to residents.
The Forest Service claims it has an easement across Aguilar’s property that becomes Forest Road 415.
But Aguilar said the road is his. He blames some Tesuque villagers for trashing his property and creating trails crisscrossing the land, prompting him in March to close off access to the road. “We’ve hauled seven tons of trash out of there, and we’re not done,” Aguilar said of the property, where he intends to build a house. “I took out four tons of (horse) manure.”
“It’s people from the village, not from Santa Fe, going up there to dump on our property,” Aguilar added. “There was a lot of partying going on up there. I’ve cleaned up needles, syringes, condoms. My family and I have cleaned all that up. None of these people have.”
Some of his neighbors are miffed at the closure. Seven of them filed a lawsuit against him in state District Court in May. The Forest Service also cited him for blocking access to a public road. A hearing is scheduled in the case Aug. 23 in federal District Court in Albuquerque.
Aguilar said he’s tried to work out an alternate fenced-and-signed foot path across the southern portion of his property for public use, but the Forest Service isn’t willing.
“That left me no recourse but to shut it down and battle with the Forest Service until I prove I am right and they are wrong,” Aguilar said.
Aguilar’s mother, Phyllis Luchetti, and her family traded land east of Santa Fe, where the city’s water-treatment plant sits, for Santa Fe National Forest property near Tesuque back in the 1970s.
Española District Ranger Sandy Hurlocker said Tesuque village residents already accustomed to freely using the road were worried their access would be closed. The Forest Service made a road easement part of the land trade agreement. He says the Forest Service can’t simply give up its easement rights to a road that leads to national forest lands. Hurlocker said he hopes the Forest Service can work out an agreement with Aguilar to reopen the gate and still protect his property before the Aug. 23 hearing.
“What we can’t do is leave the road gated. The road is for all use, motorized and nonmotorized,” Hurlocker said.
The road issue began heating up a couple of years ago, when Aguilar first put a locked gate across the road.
Gilbert Jimenez, whose family has owned nearby property since the 1700s, said he was angry when the access was blocked. “We walk up there, get Christmas trees up there,” Jimenez said. “It was always open. I was the only one who complained to the Forest Service when the gate was locked.”
But people could still walk around the gate and use the road so no one else said much.
“The gate was to stop people from dumping trash on his property,” said a neighbor, Emily Oster. “It wasn’t an issue until Paul blocked the pedestrian access.”
Aguilar fenced off both sides of the gate in late February, blocking all access to Forest Road 415, and posted “no trespassing” signs shortly after Luchetti deeded 6.9 acres of the land to him.
“We used to walk our dogs up there twice a day,” said Oster, who rents a house in the area. “There was some general confusion around the neighborhood, people stopping me to ask what was going on.”
Aguilar said a professional survey shows the road in question isn’t the original Forest Service Road. He said the original road was abandoned long ago even by the Forest Service, and the section through his land is one he built. “The Forest Service didn’t even remember it existed. Suddenly it comes to a head when I block it off,” he said.
Aguilar said he grew tired of hauling out trash and people not using only the road to reach Forest Service property. “I have a right to post my property like everyone else in that canyon. I’m approachable. People can ask me for permission to use the road,” he said. “I’m not against the citizens in Tesuque. But I don’t want anyone and everyone going up there at all hours of the night and day.”
Since blocking off pedestrian access, Aguilar has documented numerous occasions of his fence being cut, damage to the gate and glue being put on the lock. He’s reported the incidents to the county sheriff, he said.
Hurlocker, Aguilar and Tesuque residents met Saturday to discuss the road. “Some of the things that were said were a little bit hot,” Hurlocker said.
