http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/sess1999/sbills99/sb218.htm

Link to Vested Rights Bill (HB99-1280) web page:

http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/sess1999/hbills99/hb1280.htm

April 27, 1999

The Takings Bill passed out of committee today with a vote of 7 to 5. It will go to its second and third readings in front of the full House within the next few days, where it is expected to pass. At that point, both the House and Senate will need to hammer out some details, and then it goes to Governor Bill Owens who is expected to sign it.

We will provide updates on this pending legislation as we receive more information.

April 25, 1999

Slope Advisory Committee (SAC) Meeting scheduled for Monday, April 26 in a new location: 325 Broadway, NIST, Department of Commerce Building Auditorium. It is scheduled for 7:00pm to 9:00pm. The committee will hear a 45 minute presentation by Ed Russell on the subject of "Viewsheds and Visual Disturbance." For a complete agenda, point to http://co.boulder.co.us/lu/ . Also in this meeting will be 45 minutes allotted for "public comment/discussion."

The SAC rented the auditorium apparently in anticipation of a large crowd. Let's not disappoint them!

April 21, 1999
Hello all --

We write again to urge those in favor of the "Takings" Bill, SB-99-218   (formerly HB-99-1192), to take some action in the way of making phone  calls. These legislators know there are land use issues in Boulder County and need to hear from as many of us as can call. To read this bill and the Vested Rights Bill, you may go to our web site at http://landusecoalition.org, go into the legislative page and click on the desired bill.

Here's an update on both bills:

The “Takings” bill, SB-99-218, passed 2nd reading in the State Senate on Monday, and 3rd and final reading yesterday, 20 April, 1999. It has already been assigned to House State, Veteran’s and Military Affairs Committee. When
Representative Stengel introduced this bill as HB-99-1192, it passed out of
House Local Government by one vote.

No legislative activity took place today (April 21, 1999) due to the massacre at Columbine High School.

HB-99-1280 (Vested Rights) was laid over for more amending, hoping to get the support of Colorado Municipal League and Colorado Counties Inc.

We believe that the "Takings" Bill has a decent chance to pass in the House State Affairs Committee, however, the members need to hear from us (it only passed by one vote under its former name with a different committee.) Our next mission is to contact them and urge them to support SB-99-218. Tell them this bill will help to protect your dwindling property rights in Boulder County. Please call both Democrats and Republicans. We have been hearing from the Democrat members that they are not hearing from us, only from the opposition. The members are:

We are not sure when the House will hear the "Takings" Bill. It could be tomorrow or next week. Please call these representatives soon. Each has a voice mailbox, and a message can be left night or day.

If you do not want to remain on this email list, please return your mail and indicate that.

If you have questions, please email them to Judd Ptak at  jptak@eagle-access.net.

Thank you,

The Land Use Coalition
.

April 20, 1999

The Takings Bill passed its final reading today in the Senate and will now go to the House.  The Vested Rights Bill was tabled.

April 19, 1999

Update on the Takings (SB99-218) and Vested Rights (HB99-1280) Bills

Today, the Takings Bill passed in the Senate on its second reading. Senators voted 19-16 in favor of the bill, mostly along party lines. Bryan Sullivant (R) from the 13^th District was the only Republican to vote against the bill. The Vested Rights Bill was laid over until tomorrow for its second reading. Senator Lamborn did not expect it to pass and is expected to make some changes and present it for the second reading tomorrow, April 20^th.

Both Bryan Sullivant (R) and Dorothy Rupert (D), from the 18^th District spoke about attending the March 17^th LUC slopes meeting. They expressed they did not think the two bills would help Boulder County landowners with the slopes issue. Also, based on a letter from the Boulder County Commissioners, Sullivant questioned the "veracity" of the people who spoke before the local government committee in March. The LUC obtained a copy of this letter and will respond accordingly.

Opponents of both bills claim they are big-development, pro-growth bills. However, many of our LUC members have called senate and house representatives and expressed the need for the protection of the Takings and Vested Rights Bills for their individual properties, including their rights to farm, raise horses, and mine, as well as build single-family homes.

The Takings Bill is scheduled to be heard for its final reading in the Senate tomorrow, April 20. The House will need to hear and pass it three times as well (where we expect it will pass) before it goes to the Joint Committee to reconcile any differences between the House and Senate. This needs to happen all within the next few weeks. Once the Takings Bill has gone through these measures, it will go to Governor Bill Owens, who is expected to sign it.

If the Vested Rights Bill passes tomorrow, it will need to be passed a third and final time as well before it goes to the House and follows the same path as described above.

April 6, 1999
BULLETIN

Fellow Landowners:

What a day we had on Monday! Several of us went to the legislature to speak in favor of the "Takings Bill", Senate Bill 218 sponsored by Senator Norma Anderson. This is a bill which was introduced and passed the House as HB 1192 last month, but was finally killed in the Senate Local Government Committee by a close 4-3 vote.

Monday, however, it was heard again, and passed 6 to 2 with Sen. Weddig (D Aurora) voting in favor, along with the Republican members of the Committee. It now will go to the Senate floor and if it passes, will go to the House, and should become law. What this means to us as landowners is that the County will have the burden to show that any "exaction" or imposition of fees on development must have an "essential nexus" to a legitimate governmental purpose, and must be proportionate. This test is a codification of recent US Supreme Court land use decisions. If a landowner is aggrieved by a decision or conduct of a local government official, he/she may request a review, and may appeal to the District court. The prevailing party may be awarded attorney fees by the judge.

Many of our members were at the hearing today in front of the State Affairs Committee, and spoke in favor of the Bill. The County was well represented by the County Attorney and the County Planner. We believe that the passage of this bill will go a long way towards leveling the playing field between the landowner and the County when it comes to building a house, and going through site plan review. Now is the time to lobby our Senators for passage of the Bill.

Thank you all for your support and your offers to help. We are getting ready to send out another letter to all owners of vacant land in Boulder County, the first since February 6th, which means you might get one of these requests to contribute to our fund. We are in the process of forming a non profit corporation, and we are already in a position to accept contributions from you and any others who support our work for sensible land use regulation in Boulder County.

We are planning a rally in early May, and we will keep you apprised of our plans.

Ann Mygatt

April 2
Three bills which many of us are interested in are scheduled to be heard by Senate State Affairs Committee on Monday, 5 April, 1999; at 1:30 PM. First up is HB-99-1280, the "Investment Recovery Act" (better known as the "Vested Rights" bill), then SB-99-218, the "Takings Bill" reincarnated, and finally SB-99-211, Senator Sullivant's "Responsible Growth Act."

March 27
The "Takings Bill" (killed two weeks ago in the Senate Committee) may be reintroduced after Easter, although the Colorado Daily reported it might be as early as this week. If you want to encourage the Legislature to consider this bill, call Senator Ray Powers (303) 866-3342, President of the Senate and Speaker of the House Representative Russ George, 303-866-2346 and let them know where you stand.

Two other important bills of interest have been assigned to Senate State Affairs. They are HB-99-1280, Protection of Private Property Development Rights, a.k.a. the "Vested Rights" bill, by Rep Gary McPherson and Senator Doug Lamborn, and some feel that this is an important piece of legislation.

SB-99-211, Senator Bryan Sullivant's "Responsible Growth Act" has also been moved from Senate Local Government to Senate State Affairs, where the prediction is that it will die there. We have no dates for either of these bills, but will let you know as soon as we do, along with the members of that Committee.

The prediction is that these bills will all be party line votes, the Republicans in favor of the Vested Rights and Takings Bills (if reintroduced, this is probably where the Takings bill will go), and opposed to Sullivant's "Responsible Growth Act." The Dems will probably be just the opposite.

For more information email Judd Ptak, at jptak@eagle-access.net.

March 27, 1999

In response to the very strong public outcry, the Boulder County Commissioners have deferred the slopes issue until May, and have appointed a citizens advisory committee to study the need for such regulations, as well as other aspects of the current land use process which have come under fire in recent weeks. The next advisory committee meeting is scheduled for April 13, 1999 at 7:00 p.m. at the Boulder County Courthouse. The following are the members of the committee, with their phone numbers and addresses:

	Phil Stern, P.O. Box 56, Allenspark, CO 80510, 303/747-2986, phil.stern@colorado.edu;
	Audrey Godell, 135 South 8th St., Nederland, CO 80466, 303/258-7949;
	Sam Weaver, 120 Betasso Road, Boulder, CO 80302, 303/417-0458, Samw@sugarloaf.net;
	Sylvia Dane, 6149 Four Mile Canyon Drive, Boulder, CO 80302, 303/442-3652;
	Peter Brady, 173 Gold run Road, Boulder, CO 80302, 303/442-5138;
	Ed Russell, 770 Steamboat Valley Road, P.O. Box 994, Lyons, CO 80540, Home: 303/823-6194, Work: 303/444-1670, erussell@ctmap.com;
	Jimmy Kieth, 2381 County Road 68, Nederland, CO 80466, 303/441-5621, Cellular 888-2828.

---

For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at info@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.

home | top