Ritter names conservation easement oversight commissioners

Posted by egable on July 15th, 2008 filed in Land conservation

Gov. Bill Ritter today named five people to the new Conservation Easement Oversight Commission, a nine-member panel established by House Bill 08-1353 to prevent abuses of the state’s popular land-preservation tax credit program.

Daniel E. Pike of Evergreen and R. Jay Winner of Pueblo were appointed to terms expiring July 1, 2010. Since 1997, Pike has served as president of Colorado Open Lands, a 25-year-old statewide land trust responsible for protection of 180,000 acres in 29 counties. Winner is executive director of the Lower Arkansas Valley Water Conservancy District in Rocky Ford.

Martha Cochran of Glenwood Springs, Mark S. Weston of Castle Rock and Max Vezzani of Walsenberg also were appointed to terms expiring July 1, 2011.

Cochran is executive director of the Aspen Valley Land Trust, responsible for 30,000 acres, and is a member of the Colorado Coalition of Land Trusts board of directors. As vice president of the firm Hunsperger & Weston, Weston is a certified real estate appraiser and counselor. Vezzani is a cattle rancher in Huerfano County who has utilized conservation easement tax credits.

The commission will meet at least once a quarter to review applications for conservation easement holder certification and to review any other issues referred to the commission by any state entity.

Other members of the commission will be appointed by the board of Great Outdoors Colorado, the executive director of the Colorado Department of Natural Resources, and the Colorado Agriculture commissioner.

The Division of Real Estate began investigating alleged conservation easement abuse late last fall. The investigation revealed more than $100 million in suspect tax credits and resulted in license revocations for three real estate appraisers charged with overvaluing easements to increase the tax credits.

In addition to creating the oversight commission, House Bill 1353, sponsored by state Rep. Alice Madden (D) and state Sen. Jim Isgar (D), calls for several other measures to curtail abuses of the tax-credit program. Measures include:

* Increased oversight and enforcement of the tax credit program by the Division of Real Estate, Department of Insurance and other state agencies;

* Increased accountability for conservation easement appraisals;

* Certification for conservation easement holders;

* Creating a one-year holding requirement, thereby mirroring the IRS limitation on the value of a qualified conservation contribution for property held less than one year.