The Ridge at Fox Run

Preble's Mouse Tax

Preble's Mouse Tax

The following is an article from the February 25, 2000 issue of the Colorado Springs Gazette

Plan suggests new tax to save mouse habitat

Special district among ideas to protect species

By Pam Zubeck/The Gazette

Helping the Preble's meadow jumping mouse survive in El Paso County may become a taxing problem.

That's because a new property tax to pay for preserving the critter and its habitat is among the ideas contained in a preliminary conservation plan released this week.

Declared threatened under the Endangered Species Act in May 1998, the 3-inch-long animal is entitled to certain protections to prevent its extinction.

The mouse thrives in riparian areas, such as along Monument Creek north of Colorado Springs - one of the hottest development corridors on the Front Range and one of just a few mouse habitats in the world.

The conservation plan is a result of local efforts to save the mouse while protecting private property rights.

That's preferable, some say, to seeking permission from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which can block development, require costly habitat replacement and delay the process. It took one developer nine months and thousands of dollars to gain approval to lay 160 feet of pipe for a new supermarket on Baptist Road.

"The absolute underlying goal is to shorten and simplify the brain damage," said Randy Case, a Springs attorney who's been involved in the mouse issue for years.

Years ago, local officials, environmentalists and developers began working on a plan to protect the mouse. If the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service blesses the plan, a local agency would monitor mouse populations and oversee development that threatens the species.

The cost: About $100,000 a year for monitoring and oversight, plus a $1 million endowment to buy mouse habitat or create new habitat to replace those disrupted by development.

Money would come from developer fees, government and private grants, land contributions, property taxes from a special district encompassing mouse habitat or a portion of the city's existing open-space tax. A special-district tax would decline or disappear if the mouse population stabilizes or if the species is removed from the threatened list.

Another suggested measure: Restrict "ground disturbing" activities within habitat areas when the mouse is active from March 31 through October 31.

The report suggests the management plan be enforced by a nonprofit group set up by two environmental groups, the Trust for Public Lands and the Nature Conservancy.

Chris Pague, a Nature Conservancy spokesman, said such oversight would provide a consistent approach, but he couldn't say if his organization would take it on.

Environmentalists like Pague argue the mouse should be preserved because it represents a piece of our natural heritage. But even planning group members aren't wild about the methods of preservation outlined in the report. Some say new fees, taxes and requirements for mitigation plans will devalue land in mouse areas and increase development costs.

"Obviously it's very repulsive to me," said Jerry Novak, a Springs developer and planning group member. "But it's the world we live in now."