Press Releases

For Immediate Release                                                                 Contact: Apryl Marie Fogel
February 29, 2012                                                                          AprylMarie.Fogel@mail.house.gov

Representative Gosar’s Mountainaire Relief Bill Advances to the House Floor

Measure for Coconino County homeowners is a common sense fix with bipartisan support

  Today Congressman Paul Gosar’s legislation, the Mountainaire Relief Bill (H.R. 1038), was voted out of the House Natural Resources Committee by a unanimous vote.  The legislation, which would settle a boundary problem in the Mountainaire Subdivision in Coconino County, Arizona, should be voted on next by the full House of Representatives.

“The homeowners in Mountainaire have lived with an incorrect boundary survey for decades.   This problem impacts their title and marketability, and the federal government should not continue with a situation that harms private property rights in this manner. The revised boundary, adjusted in 2007 because of an erroneous survey, literally goes through portions of people’s homes or backyards,” Congressman Gosar said.  “My legislation fixes this ridiculous situation and restores homeowner rights to property they have developed and paid taxes on for years.  I appreciate the Natural Resources Committee’s efforts and urge the House to take up this common sense, bipartisan bill immediately.”

In November 2007, the federal government determined that a privately contracted survey of the Mountainaire neighborhood, completed in 1961, misidentified several acres of United States Forest Service (USFS) land as private property.  Until then many of these residents have maintained these parcels and developed them as their own for years, and in some cases decades.

On some of those parcels, the revised boundary goes through portions of these residents’ homes.  Questions associated with the land ownership have harmed property values in the neighborhood and prevented a number of owners from selling their homes.   H.R. 1038 authorizes the Forest Service to convey all right, title and interest to approximately 2.67 acres of the Coconino National Forest to the home owners, providing much-needed relief to homeowners of the Mountainaire Subdivision. 

On December 1^st, 2011 the Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands held a hearing on H.R. 10398. Coconino County District Three Supervisor Matt Ryan and the U.S. Forest Service testified in support of the legislation, stating it presents a quick and efficient resolution to this issue.  More information on the issue can be found here.

Although an infererior version of this legislation was introduced in the 111^th Congress, that bill did not move through any part of the legislative process.  Congressman Gosar represents rural Arizona.  As a small business owner for over 25 years, Congressman Gosar has spent much of his short time in Congress as an advocate for the streamlining and repeal of burdensome regulations.  Congressman Gosar is a principled constitutionalist who supports efforts to minimize the growing bureaucracy and return to a smaller and more accountable government.

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