For awhile it seemed as if one of the most potent
weapons available to local counties and towns in Colorado would be
ripped out of their hands. Conservative legislators and water
developers wanted to gut state law 1041, which allows local
communities to develop stringent land-use regulations to control
everything from water projects to airport expansions.
But after squeaking through the Senate, the bill
by State Sen. Tom Norton, R, was pulled from consideration in the
House March 11, effectively killing the measure.
“This is a great victory for local government
and conservationists,” says Mark Lewis, staff director for Clean
Water Action. “They realized they didn’t have the votes.”
Norton claimed his bill was an “anti-takings’
bill intended to protect individual property rights. But a
coalition of environmentalists and county commissioners saw it as
special-interest legislation that would leave counties with no
defenses against developers.
“If you believe in
local control, you wouldn’t vote for it,” says State Sen. Tilman
Bishop, R, who called it a potential “water grab.”
Norton introduced the bill shortly after the
courts upheld Eagle County’s right to use1041 regulations to hold
off Homestake II, a massive water-transfer project pushed by the
Front Range cities of Aurora and Colorado Springs (HCN, 12/12/94).
*Jenny Emery
This article appeared in the print edition of the magazine with the headline Score one for local control.
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