Tempers Flare In A Fight Over How To Live in Colorado | General Homesteading Discussion | Forums

hmm, guess I'll check Colorado off my list of homesteading friendly states

On most days, downtown San Luis is a quiet place. The town, the oldest in Colorado and seat of Costilla County, is just a short drive from the New Mexico border.

Last week though, it was anything but calm. A crowded county commission meeting that drew impassioned speeches spilled out into the street, and two groups formed. One, made up of long-time residents, chanted "we support the police." Members of another, comprised of mostly newer residents that live off the grid, shouted about constitutional rights and filmed the scene as police pushed them down the block.

 "Turn around or you're going to get tased," one officer says.

"I really don't want to jail you guys," another adds.

The scene was the public culmination of a feud over land use regulations and much more that's been simmering beneath the surface of local government in the southern reaches of the San Luis Valley.

Costilla County has seen an influx of residents who are lured by cheap and beautiful land, relatively lax land-use regulations, a desire to be left alone and, according to county officials, legal marijuana. But some long-time residents say the newcomers are stealing water from the Rio Grande River and other area waterways, taxing the county's social services and schools, and not abiding by existing land-use rules.

Those rules might be soon be tightened. The recent commissioners meeting was packed after word circulated among off-grid residents about proposed changes to the land-use code, which governs how lots can be built upon. Off-grid residents say the changes are targeted at them.

- See more at: http://www.cpr.org/n.....8Nqd7.dpuf