According to Arizona Congressman Paul Gosar, the “Slide Fire” brought about new urgency for passage of the legislation because homeowners in the Mountanaire community were told that, due to the land dispute, they will not be able to rebuild their homes if they were to be destroyed by the fire.
H.R. 862 was introduced by Arizona representatives in 2013 to correct a 40-year-old land-survey error that placed private properties inside the boundaries of U.S. Forest Service property.
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, according to Gosar. Until then, many of the residents maintained the parcels and developed them as their own for years, and in some cases decades. On some of those parcels, the revised boundary now goes through portions of these residents’ homes and backyards.
The boundary discrepancy impacts 26 lots and 27 property owners in the Mountainaire Subdivision. The entire encroachment for all lots involves a total land area of 2.5 to 3 acres. The error occurred when incorrect corner monuments were used.
According to Gosar, the legislation, while affecting a small amount of land, is vital to the livelihood of resident of the Mountainaire neighborhood in Coconino County. Gosar claims that the questions associated with the land ownership have also caused property values to decline in the neighborhood and have prevented a number of owners from selling their homes.
On Sunday, officials reported that the Slide fire had consumed 16,365 acres and was only 35 percent contained.