Open Space Advisory Board Agenda and Packet 2015 04 08

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Open Space Advisory Board Minutes March 11th 2015 Page 2 of 8 in conservation easement. Some of the land has been donated, but the majority has been purchased. —Sarah Parmar (Director of Conservation for Colorado Open Lands). Colorado Open Lands is a non - for - profit, founded in 1981, tasked with the purchase of Colorado Open space. It is directed by a 26 member steering board. The organization has 12 staff, 4 working in acquisitions. They maintain 295 conservation easements (265,000 acres total). Colorado Open Lands doesn't own much property; conservation easements are their primary tool. One of their obligations is to do an annual site visit of every property under easement. 80% of the easements are donated, 20% are purchased via fundraisers. They do a lot of work with outreach, but often the initial contact comes from the side of the landowners. There is another land trust (Colorado Cattlemen's Association) that maintains a similar operation, specifically targeting conservation of grazing land. Colorado Open Lands also works with local governments to help them fundraise for acquisition or conservation easements, if they lack the capacity or expertise to do so on their own. The Colorado Open Lands will sometimes hold an easement as public land for a local government. How is pubic land acquisition different from private land sales? Joy addressed this question first. In Jefferson County, the process starts with a proposal form, which can be submitted by anyone, including citizens, internal staff, landowners, etc. That proposal is brought to Planning, who evaluates the proposal against a master plan. Once staff has evaluated the proposal, they bring in the relevant staff to be an internal review team. The team visits the property, and presents to the directors. Then the decision is made whether to pursue or to reject the proposal, or to get more information. If the decision is to pursue acquisition, then the proposal is handed off to the real estate team (where Joy is based). They decide whether a purchase or an easement is more appropriate. If they are successful, then they have a "one step" process, where the real estate group can take a proposal straight to the Director and the County advisory board, and go to the board of County Commissioners. Christopher asked if the advisory board is usually involved before the final step. Joy answered that the board is given a quarterly update slideshow, where the real estate team present a quick snapshot of all acquisition projects, active and inactive. So while the advisory board only hears the final terms of a project, they are kept abreast of the project's status over time. Christopher asked whether at the public meeting with the advisory board, the property is already under contract. Joy said no, the specific terms of the property (price, size etc.) are made public at the time, but the next step is to finalize that transaction. She pointed out that in a private sale, there is a period where a project is "under contract," but not here. The land changes hands immediately. Jeff asked whether the quarterly update document that makes all the land information public, has ever caused a problem. Janis pointed out that this disclosure is actually mandatory under open records laws. Joy explained that a staff member sits with the advisory committee to assure that they act properly as to their role in making recommendations. This assures that the advisory committee is not taken by surprise. Janis commented that Boulder County does things slightly differently. They don't have a formal proposal form at the initial step. They get input from the county's member 3