Press Releases

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 1, 2011

CONTACT: Apryl Marie Fogel, (202) 595-4946

Gosar Mountainaire Relief Bill Receives Broad Support, Gosar Calls for Swift Action

Measure for Coconino County Homeowners shown to be a common sense fix with bipartisan support

The Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held a legislative hearing Friday, December 2 on H.R. 1038, legislation introduced by U.S. Congressman Paul Gosar (AZ-01).  This bill, once enacted into law, would settle a boundary dispute in the Mountainaire Subdivision in Coconino County, Arizona.  This legislation was introduced because in November 2007, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) completed a land survey in the subdivision and found that a previous survey completed in 1960 incorrectly identified United States Forest Service (USFS) property as private property.  H.R. 1038 would authorize the sale of the land to the homeowners to firmly establish these homeowners’ rights to property they have developed and paid taxes on for years.

During the hearing, Congressman Gosar highlighted through written and video testimony the troublesome effects that this simple boundary mistake has had financially and emotionally on the 27 property owners affected by the mistake. He applauded the work of Coconino County Supervisor Matt Ryan and each of the homeowners in coming together to fashion a mutually agreeable, sensible, and workable solution to this problem.

“I am so proud of my friends and constituents in the Mountainaire area who are affected by this surveying error. They mobilized, worked cohesively together, proposed a common sense solution, accounted for all parties’ views and got total buy in. Then they put together a video, highlighting four of their neighbors’ situations, that we were able to show members of Congress to put real faces to the situation and have people personally telling their stories. This is real teamwork and should be a template for everyone to follow. Empowering people is the key to solutions,” said Congressman Gosar.

In addition, the Forest Service came and testified in support of H.R. 1038’s common sense approach to resolving this conflict, saying that “although the Forest Service has authority under the Small Tracts Act to sell this land to the homeowners, H.R. 1038 would more quickly and efficiently resolve the issue with all property owners at the same time….the Department [of Agriculture] supports this bill.”

Coconino County Supervisor Matt Ryan, who testified in support of the bill for his community, said, "This is a critical step to resolving a very unfortunate and disheartening issue for this group of homeowners. I, the affected homeowners and the citizens of Coconino County are grateful for Rep. Gosar and his staff for helping us to move forward to resolve this issue."

Although a version of this legislation was introduced in the 111^th, today marks the first legislative action taken on this matter.

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