City Council Agenda and Packet 1997 01 14

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interest) and to all applicable (municipal or county in which the land is located) laws, ordinances and regulations including zoning ordinances and plan- ning regulations. This joint development authority for RTD would specifically supersede the current prohibition on retail and commercial activity of CDOT property found in CDOT's statutes, but as drafted, leaves the CDOT prohibition with this specific exception in the RTD statutes, in place. No position State Patrol funding (Jan Gerstenberger) —The Colorado State Patrol has been making the case that it needs extra troopers on the road since they have fewer troopers now than in 1980 even though there are 500,000 more motorists and higher speed limits The patrol is currently receiving $46.6 million of its $49.8 million from HUTF. No position on the request to fund more troopers but oppose any increase in the currently allowed growth of off -the -top funding (6 percent) from HUTF monies to pay for them. Lottery/GOCO (Sam Mamet) —A proposed constitu- tional amendment would earmark a por- tion of GOCO and Conservation Trust Fund lottery proceeds for school capital construction needs. The proposal would redirect $32 million from GOCO to a new grant -in -aid pro- gram for school districts. The program would be administered by the State Board of Education and appropriated by the General Assembly. The way the amendment is written (to be carried by Rep. Norma Anderson, R- Lakewood, and Sen. Joan Johnson, D- Thornton) it would also cut into net proceeds accruing to state parks and to local gov- ernments. The funding measure would be placed on next year's fall ballot, which would require a two- thirds leg- islative vote for referral. Finally, the amendment would exempt the proceeds from this new grant program from cer- tain TABOR related state spending restrictions. Oppose December 6, 1996 Recreational trails' (Geoff Wilson) —Last year CML's Recreational Trails Committee recom- mended a variety of changes to the state Recreational Use Statute (33 -41 -101 C.R.S. et seq: hereafter "RUS These changes, which were proposed in HB 96 -1315, were intended to relieve some of the liability concerns of ditch compa- nies that are considering opening their ditch banks for public use as recre- ational trails. The RUS provides liability protection to private landowners who permit their property to be used, without charge, for public recreational purposes. Among its other provisions, HB 96- 1315 clarified that the RUS applies to property opened for public recreational purposes in other than "rural" areas, provided additional protection for ditch companies from "attractive nuisance" liability when children come upon the property and provided for award of attorneys' fees and costs to the pre- vailing party in any action by a recre- ational user against a private property owner. CML had a "sponsor" position with respect to HB 96 -1315. The legislation was supported by the state Division of Parks, the Colorado Farm Bureau, recre- ation districts, and numerous ditch com- panies. The provisions of the bill con- cerning attractive nuisance and attorneys' fees were opposed by the Colorado Trial Lawyers. Unfortunately, an amendment prohibiting municipali- ties from obtaining recreational ease- ments through condemnation or the sub- division approval process was added, and as a result, CML requested that the bill be killed. Sponsor (Rep. Jeannie Reeser, D- Thornton, will be the bill's prime sponsor) Electric deregulation (Ken Bueche, Sam Mamet )—Both Con- gress and the state Legislature will be considering bills next year on the sub- ject of electric deregulation. It is antici- pated that Rep. Paul Schauer, R -Lit- CML Statehouse Report 9