Have there been environmental or zoning investigations at Zorro Ranch in recent years?

1. Investigations documented — criminal, civil and financial, not environmental

State and federal attention on Zorro Ranch in recent years has been framed around allegations of sexual abuse and accountability rather than environmental or zoning violations: New Mexico’s attorney general opened a criminal inquiry in 2019 that included interviews with survivors ^[3], and more recently officials examined the role of financial firms tied to the estate in 2023 ^[1]. Reporting from AP, Source New Mexico and others catalogs these lines of inquiry but does not describe parallel environmental impact assessments or formal zoning-enforcement actions against the property itself ^{[3] [1]}.

2. Land-use action: grazing leases voided by the State Land Commissioner

There is at least one state land–use action connected to Zorro Ranch: in 2019 New Mexico’s state Land Commissioner voided grazing leases obtained by the ranch on nearby state trust land, arguing those leases had been used to buy privacy — a land-management decision rather than a municipal zoning enforcement case ^[2]. That administrative move shows state-level scrutiny of how surrounding public land was used to afford seclusion, but the sources treat it as a trust-land contract action, not a zoning code or environmental-protection enforcement proceeding ^[2].

3. No reporting found of environmental-impact or municipal zoning investigations

Across the examined coverage — AP, local New Mexico outlets and compilations of recently released Epstein files — there is no explicit record in these sources of an environmental-protection agency probe (for example, state Environment Department reviews, EPA involvement, contamination testing) or of county/city zoning enforcement proceedings aimed at the ranch in the recent years covered by the reporting ^{[3] [4] [5]}. Wikipedia notes there was never an FBI raid on the ranch, underscoring that some forms of law-enforcement action that occurred elsewhere did not occur there ^[6], but it does not substitute for documentation of environmental or zoning inquiries.

4. Renewed political pressure could prompt investigations, but that remains prospective

Legislators in late 2025 and into 2026 proposed creating a state-level “truth commission” to investigate what occurred at Zorro Ranch, with proponents arguing that the site’s remoteness and governance gaps allowed abuses to go undetected; that proposed commission would focus on sexual and institutional oversight failures and could seek records and testimony ^{[7] [1] [3]}. While proponents mention “oversight gaps” on remote high-wealth properties ^[8], the public proposals reported focus on uncovering abuse and institutional failures rather than announcing planned environmental or zoning reviews, leaving open the possibility that such matters could be explored under a broader probe but not establishing that they have been to date ^{[8] [1]}.

5. Limits of the available record and conclusions

The reporting reviewed documents criminal, civil and administrative attention tied to Epstein’s activities and to certain land-use contracts (the grazing-lease voiding), but does not show any distinct environmental-impact assessments or formal county/city zoning enforcement actions against Zorro Ranch in the recent years covered by these sources ^{[2] [3] [1]}. This conclusion reflects the scope of the provided reporting; if local county planning records, state environmental files or other documents exist outside these outlets, they were not included in the sources supplied and therefore cannot be confirmed here.