CO HB1146

Property owners must sign a disclosure form acknowledging specific consequences and risks of creating conservation easements on their land, effective January 1, 2020, with required bold-text warnings initialed by both grantor and grantee.

County clerks must submit complete copies of recorded conservation easement agreements, amendments, and transfers to the commissioner of agriculture and county tax assessor within 30 days, along with tracking forms containing grantor/grantee names, legal descriptions, acreage, conservation purposes, and reception numbers.

The commissioner of agriculture must work with local government officials to create a statewide database of all conservation easements created since January 1, 1998, including location, acreage, holder information, conservation purposes, and tax credits claimed, with a corresponding geographic information system map updated annually and made publicly available at no charge.

Landowners whose conservation easement tax credits are disallowed may elect to either extinguish the easement with state reimbursement for all reasonable establishment costs and tax liability, or receive an equitable relief payment from the state, with the attorney general assisting in court proceedings.

The act takes effect 90 days after final adjournment of the general assembly, unless a referendum petition is filed, in which case voter approval is required for implementation.