Colorado § 24-65.5-103.3 - Local government approval.

§ 24-65.5-103.3. Local government approval.

(1) A local government shall, as a condition of final approval of an application for development, require the applicant to certify:

(a) That notice has been provided to mineral estate owners pursuant to section 24-65.5-103; and

(b) With respect to qualifying surface developments, that either:

(I) No mineral estate owner has entered an appearance or filed an objection to the proposed application for development within thirty days after the initial public hearing on the application;

(II) The applicant and any mineral estate owners who have filed an objection to the proposed application for development or have otherwise filed an entry of appearance in the initial public hearing regarding such application no later than thirty days following the initial public hearing on the application have executed a surface use agreement related to the property included in the application for development, the provisions of which have been incorporated into the application for development or are evidenced by a memorandum or otherwise recorded in the records of the clerk and recorder of the county in which the property is located so as to provide notice to transferees of the applicant, who shall be bound by such surface use agreements; or

(III) The application for development provides:

(A) Access to mineral operations, surface facilities, flowlines, and pipelines in support of such operations existing when the final public hearing on the application for development is held by means of public roads sufficient to withstand trucks and drilling equipment or thirty-foot-wide access easements;

(B) An oil and gas operations area and existing wellsite locations in accordance with section 24-65.5-103.5; and

(C) That the deposit for incremental drilling costs described in section 24-65.5-103.7 has been made.

(2) A local government approval of an application for development without the certification required by subsection (1) of this section when a mineral owner has timely entered an appearance or filed an objection shall be suspended and shall not constitute a valid final approval until the required certification is provided, any required local government proceedings following notice to affected mineral estate owners are held, and the local government approval is confirmed, amended, or revoked in response to the certification.

Source: L. 2007: Entire section added, p. 2115, § 4, effective August 3.