From The Aspen Times
A unique parrot sanctuary has decided to leave
the Roaring Fork Valley rather than continue
its struggle for land-use approvals from Eagle
and Pitkin counties.
Gabriel Foundation founder and president
Julie Murad decided the cages required to
reduce noise to acceptable levels for neighbors
and Eagle County officials were unacceptable
for the birds she shelters, according to Terrell
Knight, a land-use planner working for the
foundation.
Murad is looking for an alternative site
in Colorado or elsewhere in the United States
to relocate the aviary. "She is committed
to the Gabriel Foundation and the birds,"
Knight said.
Eagle County planner Cliff Simonton said
the Gabriel Foundation withdrew its application
for construction of a new 4,800-square-foot
aviary and to legalize some of its existing
facilities at 2101 Emma Road earlier this
summer. Attorneys for the foundation and county
are working on a settlement that would give
the foundation a set amount of time to vacate
its facilities.
The foundation is located on land that is
divided between Pitkin and Eagle counties.
Both counties cited the foundation for operating
facilities that weren't permitted at the site.
Murad was hounded by neighbors who complained
the parrots were a nuisance when they were
taken to outdoor cages in warm weather. They
claimed the noise dropped the value of their
property.
But the sanctuary also had hundreds of supporters
who praised its mission of adopting abandoned
birds and either placing them for adoption
or caring for them long term. Few other facilities
of the type exist in the world.
No agreement has been approved yet, but the
sanctuary likely will have until sometime
early in 2005 to vacate, according to Simonton.
The Gabriel Foundation was originally located
at a former veterinary clinic at Gerbazdale
but was ordered off the site by Pitkin County
in the late 1990s. Murad bought a home and
land in Emma and relocated there in 1999.
She was cited again for land-use violations
by both counties in June 2003.
Murad was trying to legalize the operation
on the Eagle County portion of her property,
but hearings with the planning commission
and county commissioners proved she would
have to take extensive steps to try to limit
the noise from the parrots.
"I'm extremely disappointed they didn't
work out a solution because I think one was
there," said Knight.
Scott Condon's e-mail address is scondon@aspentimes.com
