Colorado § 38-1-201 - Legislative declaration.

§ 38-1-201. Legislative declaration.

(1) The general assembly hereby finds and declares that:

(a) The power of eminent domain allows the federal government, the state, counties, cities and counties, municipalities, and various other types of governmental entities to condemn property when necessary for public use and allows individual property owners and corporations to condemn property in certain circumstances when condemnation is necessary to create a private way of necessity or to allow beneficial use of private property.

(b) Although both the state constitution and state statutes require the payment of just compensation to any person whose property is condemned, the exercise of the power of eminent domain nonetheless substantially impacts fundamental property rights.

(c) Because of this substantial impact, it is necessary and appropriate to ensure that Coloradans can easily determine which governmental entities, corporations, and other persons may exercise the power of eminent domain and to further ensure that Coloradans can easily identify the procedural requirements that entities, corporations, and other persons must follow when exercising the power of eminent domain.

(2) The general assembly further finds and declares that:

(a) In addition to counties, cities and counties, and municipalities that serve as general units of government in the state, the governmental structure of the state includes a wide variety of special districts, authorities, and other governmental entities that serve limited governmental purposes, some of which may exercise the power of eminent domain.

(b) Although many of the provisions of state law that authorize governmental entities, individuals, and corporations to exercise the power of eminent domain and prescribe procedures that govern the exercise of that power are concentrated in this article and in articles 2 to 7 of this title, the proliferation throughout the history of the state of special districts, authorities, and other governmental entities that serve limited governmental purposes, together with other historical factors that have necessitated grants of eminent domain powers to certain types of corporations and persons, have resulted in the codification in other parts of the Colorado Revised Statutes of many other provisions that authorize the exercise of the power of eminent domain.

(c) The codification of provisions of state law that authorize eminent domain in parts of the Colorado Revised Statutes other than this article and articles 2 to 7 of this title makes it difficult in many cases for Coloradans to easily determine, with respect to any given governmental entity, corporation, or person:

(I) Whether the governmental entity, corporation, or person may exercise the power of eminent domain; and

(II) The procedural requirements that the governmental entity, corporation, or person must comply with in order to exercise the power of eminent domain.

(d) In order to help Coloradans to more easily determine whether any given governmental entity, corporation, or person may exercise the power of eminent domain and identify the procedural requirements that the entity, corporation, or person must follow in exercising the power of eminent domain, it is necessary, appropriate, and in the best interests of the state to list in this part 2 all of the governmental entities, corporations, and persons that may exercise the power of eminent domain pursuant to provisions of state law and to clarify that the procedural requirements specified in this article and articles 2 to 7 of this title apply to all eminent domain proceedings.

(e) In enacting this part 2, it is not the intent of the general assembly to:

(I) Repeal, limit, or otherwise modify the authority of any governmental entity, corporation, or person to exercise the power of eminent domain;

(II) Grant new eminent domain authority to any governmental entity, individual, or corporation; or

(III) Infringe upon the home rule power of any home rule municipality or county.

Source: L. 2006: Entire part added, p. 351, § 1, effective August 7.