North Middle Fork Ranch

North Middle Fork Ranch is principally bounded by national forest lands; two other private parcels adjoin the property’s northerly and southeasterly boundaries. The entrance to the ranch is a gently rolling complex of healthy meadows and forests extending to the southerly rim of Dry St. Vrain Creek, which runs generally west to east for more than two miles through the property. Many springs, seeps and secondary drainages flow through the property into the seasonal Dry St. Vrain, which in turn joins North St. Vrain Creek, once a candidate for Wild and Scenic River status. Numerous aspen stands throughout North Middle Fork Ranch evidence the lushness of the ground. The northwesterly portion of NMFR, near the base of Big John Mountain within the national forest, contains an exceptional identified example of a native Foothills Ponderosa Pine Savanna plant community, exemplifying the generally premier quality of NMFR as a natural landscape. That corner of the property is an oasis of tranquil aspen groves and meadows frequented by elk and other wildlife. The easterly north-south edge of the ranch traverses a series of high rock outcrops and the westerly shore of Egg Lake, a national forest feature tucked behind an outcrop with a sandy beach perfect for an end-of-ride lunch or a long afternoon read. The lake, private in feel, is a destination that’s a significant trek for anyone but the NMFR owner. It’s not uncommon to encounter elk, bear, and the occasional moose among the many wild residents of North Middle Fork Ranch. 

Ranch History and Vested Development Rights
North Middle Fork Ranch was for generations the summer unit of the historic Hall Ranch, situated within the lush grazing lands of the surrounding Roosevelt National Forest. The lower Hall Ranch headquarters, between NMFR and Lyons, is now one of Boulder County’s premier Open Space destinations for hiking, mountain biking, spectacular red rock formations, and Longs Peak and Continental Divide panoramas.
Boulder County once sought to acquire NMFR to preserve its exceptional natural areas, native plant communities, and integral role in the surrounding national forest landscape and habitat. Unwilling to sell at that time, the current owners negotiated a mutually advantageous deal with the County. The County purchased a conservation easement interest that protects the land’s outstanding natural and scenic values, as well as continued established private agriculture, riding, hunting and recreation uses. As part of that transaction, the owner negotiated enhanced and simplified development rights, and a resulting streamlined land use process, attaching permanently to the ranch.

Through a county “Subdivision Exemption” process completed simultaneously with and as part of the conservation easement sale, the owner acquired vested property rights to select for development two of four prime building envelopes created on North Middle Fork Ranch. On one selected lot, the owner may construct a private residence and related buildings totaling 15,000 square feet; on the second selected lot, the owner may construct equestrian, agricultural and other related buildings, including a caretaker’s residence of up to 2,000 square feet, totaling 35,000 square feet. Within the larger conservation area outside the four generous building envelopes, the owner may construct up to 1,000 square feet of loafing sheds, plus corrals, pasture fencing and horseback riding obstacles, and develop through riding a complex of trails, all to accommodate the permitted equestrian, agricultural and recreational uses of the ranch. The four available development lots created under the Subdivision Exemption provide the owner choice and great flexibility for locating future improvements. It is important to note that all such lots, and the entire North Middle Fork Ranch, must remain under single ownership.

The County also approved the use of existing Forest Road 186, from Spruce Drive off South St. Vrain Drive (Colorado Highway 7), for residential and related access to North Middle Fork Ranch. To secure legal access to the property over the national forest, and the right to improve the Forest Road to County driveway standards as required for the permitted NMFR improvements, the landowner obtained a Forest Road Easement from the U.S. Forest Service.

Because these comprehensive development rights are vested and granted by the County as part of the consideration for the landowner’s preserving some of the most exceptional natural features of North Middle Fork Ranch under a conservation easement, the County’s future  discretion under its land use approval processes when building applications are submitted is quite limited.

With its completed land planning,  extensive vested development rights, and legal access over the national forest, North Middle Fork Ranch presents a unique private development opportunity in the mountains of Boulder County. With minimized time and risk to obtain required approvals and building permits, a purchaser can quickly begin realizing the property’s exceptional residential and recreational potential.

Conservation Easement & Vested Development Rights
For many ranch buyers, the presence of a conservation easement raises questions and concerns. All other things being equal, the natural preference is to acquire land with the fewest potential restrictions on its future use and development. The North Middle Fork Ranch landowner took steps to change this calculation. 

It is important to emphasize the context in which the NMFR conservation easement was granted by the landowner to Boulder County. The easement was sold as part of a heavily negotiated transaction with the County that created substantial value and flexibility for the owner. The County had sought to acquire full ownership of NMFR, but the ranch was not for sale at that time. While the property was then used solely for horseback riding, hunting, hiking and other outdoor recreation, the owner understood that the land’s ultimate highest and best use – its greatest economic value – lay in the opportunity to develop a significant private high-end residential and recreational compound for one family. The owner, therefore, took advantage of the County‘s keen desire to keep NMFR intact and the bulk of the 600± acres largely in their historic condition: a conservation easement interest was sold to Boulder County for a combination of cash and enhanced rights to maximize the ranch’s private value, with minimized County discretion or control over the end product.

Boulder County is a notoriously difficult place in which to build, particularly when it comes to new homes in the mountains. The County’s typical enforcement of onerous, expensive and time-consuming land use processes on mountain properties often frustrates landowners’ goals to build what they want, where they want. Many otherwise attractive homesites in the mountains of Boulder County have been rendered practically uneconomical to develop by the County’s restrictive exercise of its regulatory powers. 

The significance of the permanently vested development rights negotiated simultaneously with and as part of the conservation easement sale to Boulder County cannot be overemphasized. These vested rights allow a future owner to plan, design, permit and build, expeditiously, what otherwise would have been virtually impossible to achieve in this location.

Rather than a burden on the landowner’s opportunity to develop and use the property as desired – the usual knock on conservation easements – the net result of Boulder County’s acquisition of a conservation easement interest in NMFR was the landowner’s right to build far more significant improvements, in some of the choicest locations on the property, and to convert what would otherwise be a typically difficult County approval and permit issuance exercise into a comparatively simple and streamlined affair.

In short, the County’s desire to acquire a conservation easement over North Middle Fork Ranch created an opportunity to gain freedom for the landowner that far outweighs the restrictions associated with the conservation easement. The highest and best, most valuable private use of the property is what the conservation easement also contemplates and allows. “Unique“ is an overly-used term, but is particularly applicable to North Middle Fork Ranch: Build the home and improvements of your choosing, essentially what and where you desire on your selection of two of four choice, generous, surveyed sites, within a private, large and lush mountain landscape in Boulder County just 45 minutes from downtown Boulder. That’s unique.

North Middle Fork Ranch is, quite simply, a unique property given its size, variety, location and development entitlements. There are 600± end-of-the-road acres within the National Forest just 45 minutes from Boulder. Vested rights to build 50,000 square feet of buildings, including a main home up to 15,000 square feet plus a “caretaker’s residence” up to 2,000 square feet, anywhere within two owner-selected building envelopes on the four choice, negotiated, and surveyed sites ranging from around 5 to 8.5 acres each.

If you want to build a truly sizable home in the mountains of Boulder County, but away from it all, this is probably your best (and perhaps only) chance.  Or, if all you’re looking for is to build a cabin or smaller getaway home, you can create and enjoy the “caretaker’s residence” and hold the permanently vested rights to construct the larger improvements as a long-term investment or exit strategy.

Like other prime, beautiful and desirable, fast-growing and high-value locations in Colorado, Boulder County seems to get more restrictive with each passing year. A property of NMFR’s size, quality, location, and attached vested development rights will become more and more rare as time goes by.