2023 Colorado Revised Statutes › Title 32 - SPECIAL DISTRICTS (§§ 32-1-101 — 32-22-117) › SPECIAL STATUTORY DISTRICTS (§§ 32-8-101 — 32-22-117) › Article 11.5 - FOUNTAIN CREEK WATERSHED, FLOOD CONTROL, AND GREENWAY DISTRICT (§§ 32-11.5-101 — 32-11.5-704) › Part 1 - GENERAL PROVISIONS (§§ 32-11.5-101 — 32-11.5-104) › Section 32-11.5-103 - Definitions

As used in this article, unless the context otherwise requires:
(1)
"Assessable property" means any tract of land in an improvement district specially benefited by a project paid for in whole or in part by the district by the levy of assessments other than:
(a)
A tract owned by the federal government absent its consent to the assessment of the tract; or
(b)
A street, alley, highway, or other public right-of-way of a public body.
(2)
"Assessment unit" means a unit or quasi-improvement district designated by the board for the purpose of petition, remonstrance, and assessment in the case of a combination of projects in an improvement district.
(3)
"Board" means the board of directors of the district.
(4)
"Bond" means any bond, note, warrant, interim certificate, contract, or other evidence of indebtedness of the district issued or otherwise executed pursuant to this article, including, but not limited to, any obligation to the United States in connection with a loan from or guaranteed by the United States.
(5)
"Chairperson" means the presiding officer of the board or his or her successor in functions, if any.
(6)
"Citizens advisory group" means the citizens appointed by the board to represent various interests identified in this article and to consult with and offer advice to the board on managing the watershed.
(7)
"Condemnation" or "condemn" means the exercise of the power of eminent domain by the district for the purpose of acquiring property for any project, facilities, or interest therein authorized by the district pursuant to this article.
(8)
"Corporate district" means a district constituting a body corporate and politic and a political subdivision of the state, including, but not limited to, a school district, a local college district, a special district created pursuant to article
1
of this title, any other kind of district created pursuant to this title, a public improvement district, or a local improvement district; except that "corporate district" does not include the district or an improvement district.
(9)
(a)
"Corridor" means an area generally northerly to southerly along Fountain creek that consists of the portion of the one-hundred-year floodplain of Fountain Creek, as defined by the federal emergency management agency and further identified on maps promulgated by the agency, hereinafter referred to as the "FEMA one-hundred-year floodplain", consisting of floodplains in El Paso county that lie south of the municipal limits of the city of Fountain and the floodplain in Pueblo county that lies north of the municipal limits of the city of Pueblo.
(b)
Notwithstanding paragraph (a) of this subsection (9), public bodies not represented on the board, through their governing bodies, may consent to the jurisdiction of the district and add property to the corridor. The represented public bodies shall also have the option of adding additional sections of the watershed within their respective jurisdictional boundaries to the corridor and consent to the jurisdiction of the district.
(10)
"Director" means a member of the board.
(11)
"District" means the Fountain creek watershed, flood control, and greenway district created in section
32-11.5-201
, the boundary of which is defined in section
32-11.5-202
.
(12)
"Eligible elector" means an eligible elector as defined in section
32-1-103(5)
.
(13)
"Engineer" means any engineer in the permanent employ of the district, any licensed professional engineer, or any firm of professional engineers as determined by the board that:
(a)
Has skill and experience in the field of designing and preparing plans and specifications for and supervising the construction of facilities like those the district is authorized to acquire;
(b)
Is practicing engineering under the laws of the state; and
(c)
Is selected, retained, and compensated by the district as required by section
32-11.5-205(1)(h)(I)
.
(14)
"Equip" means the furnishing of all necessary or desirable, related, or appurtenant machinery, furnishings, apparatus, paraphernalia, and other gear, or any combination thereof, pertaining to any project or other property of the district, or any interest therein, authorized in this article or otherwise relating to facilities.
(15)
"Facilities" means all or any portion of the drainage, flood control, and recreational system of the district, consisting of all property owned or acquired by the district through purchase, construction, or otherwise, that is used by the district in connection with drainage, flood control, and recreation, whether situated within or outside, or both within and outside, the territory of the district, including, but not limited to, water rights for recreational or flood control uses, or both, natural and artificial watercourses for the collection, channeling, impounding, and disposition of rainfall, other surface and subsurface drainage, and storm and flood waters, including, but not limited to, ditches, ponds, dams, spillways, retarding basins, detention basins, nonpoint source water quality treatment and abatement systems, lakes, reservoirs, canals, channels, levees, revetments, dikes, walls, embankments, bridges, inlets, outlets, connections, laterals, other collection lines, intercepting sewers, outfalls, outfall sewers, trunk sewers, force mains, submains, waterlines, sluices, flumes, syphons, sewer lines, pipes, other transmission lines, culverts, pumping stations, gauging stations, stream gauges, rain gauges, engines, valves, pumps, meters, junction boxes, manholes, other inlet and outlet structures, motor vehicles, bucket machines, inlet and outlet cleaners, backhoes, draglines, graders, other equipment, apparatus, fixtures, structures, and buildings, flood warning services, and appurtenant telephone, telegraph, radio, and television apparatus, other water diversion, drainage, and flood control facilities, trails, open space, habitat for wildlife and aquatic life, and all appurtenances and incidentals necessary, useful, or desirable for any such facilities including real and other property therefor.
(16)
"Fiscal year" means the twelve months commencing on the first day of January of any calendar year and ending on the last day of December of the same calendar year.
(17)
"Fountain creek watershed" or "watershed" means the watershed officially denominated by the United States government as "watershed boundary dataset, hydraulic unit code # 11020003, Fountain creek sub-basin of the Arkansas river, Colorado".
(18)
"Fountain creek watershed management area" or "watershed management area" means that portion of the district that consists of townships within the watershed and other townships that will benefit from improvements to the watershed and that is legally described as townships 11s68w, 11s67w, 11s66w, 12s68w, 12s67w, 12s66w, 12s65w, 13s68w, 13s67w, 13s66w, 13s65w, 14s68w, 14s67w, 14s66w, 14s65w, 14s64w, 15s67w, 15s66w, 15s65w, 15s64w, 16s67w, 16s66w, 16s65w, 16s64w, 17s66w, 17s65w, 17s64w, 18s66w, 18s65w, 18s64w, 19s66w, 19s65w, 19s64w, 20s66w, 20s65w, 20s64w, 21s66w, 21s65w, 21s64w of the 6th principal meridian.
(19)
"Governing body" means a city council, board of town trustees, board of county commissioners, board of directors, or other entity in which the legislative powers of a public body are vested.
(20)
"Improvement" or "improve" means the extension, enlargement, betterment, alteration, reconstruction, replacement, or major repair of facilities, a project, infrastructure, related property, or an interest therein.
(21)
"Improvement district" means a contiguous or noncontiguous geographical area within the watershed management area that is designated and delineated by the board by an assigned number or in some other manner that separately identifies it from any other improvement district and contains facilities or a project, or an interest in facilities or a project, the cost of which is to be defrayed wholly or in part by the levy of special assessments against each tract within the area.
(22)
"Infrastructure" means one or more elements of a drainage or flood control system that is similar in kind to facilities but owned by a public body or other person other than the district.
(23)
"Mailed notice" means any designated written or printed notice addressed to the owner of record of each tract assessed or to be assessed by deposit at least fourteen days prior to the designated hearing or other time or event in the United States mail, postage prepaid, as first-class mail.
(24)
"Municipality" means an incorporated city or town.
(25)
"Newspaper" means a newspaper printed in the English language at least once each calendar week.
(26)
"Project" means any facility or related group of facilities that the board determines to authorize, construct, or acquire at one time.
(27)
"Publication" or "publish" means one publication at least fourteen days prior to the date of a hearing or event in each official newspaper designated by the district pursuant to section
32-11.5-205(1)(l)
.
(28)
(a)
"Public body" means the state of Colorado or any agency, instrumentality, or corporation thereof; any county, municipality, corporate district, authority, or state institution of higher education; or any other body corporate and politic and political subdivision of the state.
(b)
"Public body" does not include the federal government or the district.
(29)
"Represented public body" means a public body that is entitled, alone or in concert with another public body, to appoint one or more directors to the board.
(30)
"Service charges" means the fees, rates, and other charges for the use of the facilities of the district or for any related service rendered by the district.
(31)
"Small municipalities" means, collectively, the town of Green Mountain Falls, the city of Manitou Springs, the town of Monument, and the town of Palmer Lake, Colorado.
(32)
"Special assessment" means a charge levied against any tract specially benefited in an improvement district by any project that shall be made on a front-foot, zone, area, or other equitable basis as determined by the board; except that the charge shall not exceed the estimated maximum special benefits to the tract assessed as determined by the board pursuant to part 5 of this article.
(33)
"Technical advisory committee" means the advisory committee made up of technical experts appointed by the board to provide recommendations to the board regarding public policy or expenditure of funds for the benefit of the watershed.
(34)
(a)
"Tract" means any lot or other parcel of land for assessment purposes, whether platted or unplatted, regardless of lot or land lines.
(b)
Lots, plots, blocks, and other subdivisions may be designated in accordance with any recorded plat thereof, and all lands, platted and unplatted, shall be designated by a definite legal description.
L. 2009: Entire article added, (SB 09-141), ch. 194, p. 842, §1, effective April 30.