Land?

Whoa.

"Own a piece of legendary land," "Stake your claim to the ideal lifestyle," and "experience the Wild West as it once was."

These and other tags have successfully marketed the B.B. Brooks Ranch and other 40-acre-plus spreads to people worldwide who want their own piece of Wyoming.

But the new land rush hasn't sat well with county and state officials, conservationists and some ranchers alarmed about the strain on government services, environmental effects, and the fracturing of the wide open spaces.

All sides, though, agree on one thing.

After all, what's a Wild West experience without a fight over land?

The current fracas began in 1975 when the Legislature passed a law that seemed like a good idea at the time: Allow ranchers to set aside parcels larger than 35 acres - exempt from county oversight - so their children could get a head start.

That exemption meant ranching families didn't need permits to creating subdivisions with the necessary county requirements about roads, access, utilities and other infrastructure.

That same exemption 30 years later enabled companies to buy ranches, subdivide them, forego county regulations, and market their product nationwide.

Several companies have done this, but the Scottsdale-based Brooks Realty and Advisory Group has garnered the most attention recently.

The group bought - and subdivided into approximately 40-acre lots for between $1,000 and $2,400 an acre - the historic 64-square-mile B.B. Brooks Ranch north of Casper, the Wild Horse Ranch west of Laramie, and the Diamond B and Remington ranches near Cheyenne.

But county officials in Goshen, Natrona, Laramie and Albany counties have encountered angry people who buy property, sometimes over the Internet sight unseen, and discover real Wyoming living the hard way: Lots may not have water without drilling for it; may not have electricity without running a line costing thousands of dollars; may not have paved roads; and may not have sewage disposal without installing a septic tank.

They've also encountered angry people who otherwise wouldn't have anything to do with each other.

In April, B.B. Brooks Ranch neighbor Doug Cooper - an outspoken conservative Republican and owner of the 7L Livestock Co. - joined with the Laramie-based Biodiversity Conservation Alliance and a landowner near Centennial to criticize BRAG.

The Biodiversity Conservation Alliance asserted the subdivisions will fuel land speculation, damage the environment, disrupt wildlife migratory routes and cause other problems.

In 2006 and 2007, Cooper testified before the Joint Corporations, Elections and Political Subdivisions Interim Committee, saying the subdivisions damage with roads constructed on strict north-south/east-west axes without regard to the contours of the land, and that the small parcels cannot sustain grazing.

In 2006, the committee approved a draft bill to allow counties to require permits for subdivisions between 35 acres and 80 acres, but the bill died in committee in the 2007 Legislature.

So in 2007, the committee drafted a similar bill for introduction in the 2008 budget session.

Cooper said Monday the new bill offers both consumer protection by notifying prospective buyers of the lack of amenities, and it helps the counties guide development as the subdivisions will demand more services.

"It's a good start," he said. "It's not going to change what's already there."

Committee co-chairman Rep. Pete Illoway, R-Cheyenne, said the bill isn't intended to thwart growth. "I'm not try to stop them; it ought to be done correctly."

Prospective buyers outside the West may not understand what rural living entails, Illoway added.

Legislators are sensitive to property rights and don't want to interfere with ranchers' abilities to subdivide land for their families, he said.

However, defenders of the existing system have questioned whether counties should have more authority to regulate land use; have pointed out smaller landowners will have more difficulty selling their land than large operations; and have asserted changes will diminish property rights.

In April, BRAG spokesman Rick Anderson defended his company's practices as among the best of large land subdividers, and said he hasn't seen evidence of habitat erosion or other problems cited by Cooper and the Biodiversity Conservation Alliance.

BRAG approves of provisions in the proposed bill requiring sellers to state their properties may not have utility connections and public road maintenance, he said.

But it errs when it allows county-by-county decisions on land exemptions instead of uniform statewide requirements, Anderson said. "It's not only costly for us, but costly for the county."

New Mexico, Arizona and Colorado have statewide methods of handling these subdivisions, which avoids problems when a ranch crosses county lines, he said.

Anderson and other representatives of BRAG plan to attend the 2008 Legislature and voice their concerns about the new proposed bill and its effects on his company and those who want to buy land, he said.

"This legislation could really hobble someone," Anderson said.

Reach Tom Morton at (307) 266-0592, or at Tom.Morton@casperstartribune.net.