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Land trusts must pass muster under new easement process

By Jerd Smith, Rocky Mountain News

Published October 28, 2008 at 12:05 a.m.

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Nonprofit land trusts charged with overseeing thousands of acres of scenic lands will have to be state certified next year in order to continue accepting lands, under a new review process.

Beginning Jan. 1, the Colorado Conservation Easement Oversight Commission will begin reviewing dozens of nonprofit trusts to ensure they are qualified to monitor lands and have the financial resources to defend the easements against development or misuse.

The commission was formed by lawmakers this year after numerous abuses of the landmark easement program were uncovered.

The program was designed to offer private landowners lucrative state income tax credits in exchange for agreeing to permanently prohibit development on their lands by placing them under protective easements.

About 3,000 easements have been put in place since the program began in 2000, but hundreds have been called into question by the IRS, Colorado Department of Revenue and Colorado Division of Real Estate.

Abuses include use of inflated appraisals to boost the value of tax credits; protection of tiny parcels of land instead of the large-scale ranches and legacy landscapes the law was intended to protect; and protection of lands that also allowed for such things as oil and gas development.

More than $274 million in state income tax credits have been claimed, far more than the state initially planned.

Land trusts were supposed to function as gatekeepers, ensuring appropriate lands were being protected and fairly valued. But some were apparently formed fraudulently and others simply weren't clear on their obligations under the law and the IRS code governing donations of scenic lands.

After years of trying to fix the program, this year the legislature decided to create an oversight commission to ensure the trusts were functioning properly.

Guidelines for the certification are to be finished in December.

"We want to make sure that we can weed out some of the problems we saw this year," said Erin Toll, director of the Division of Real Estate.

The certification process will be conducted by the Colorado Division of Real Estate. Trusts that aren't certified by the end of 2009 will no longer be able to accept easements beginning in 2010, according to Hollis Glenn, conservation easement program manager at the Division of Real Estate.

Next month the new commission will hold a special meeting in southeastern Colorado to hear from dozens of landowners whose tax credits have been denied because the appraisals were deemed to high. The landowners have threatened to sue the state over the issue.

At the same time, the state is seeking millions of dollars in repayment on questionable deals.

Comments

  • February 16, 2009

    3:56 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Latgawa writes:

    REPORT OF LATGAWA TRIBAL COURT: In re Colorado Board of Real Estate Appraisers
    More than half a year ago, the Rocky Mountain News published two articles relating to conservation easements located in Jackson County, Colorado received and administered by the Confederated Tribes, a publicly supported not for profit corporation owned by the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe. The articles questioned the valuation process associated with such easements, and division associated therewith, and the status of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization and its role in administering the conservation easements. The articles made pejorative references to the identity of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe, questioned its jurisdiction, questioned the authenticity of its exempt organization, and associated it with allegations of improprieties in connection with valuation of conservation easements and land division associated with the grant of conservation easements. The articles focused on the role of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization in facilitating tax credits from Colorado that were allegedly inappropriate. The articles made further reference to the convening of a grand jury investigation of conservation easements and their valuation and the role of the Colorado Board of Appraisers in regulating the valuation of conservation easements. Despite advice from the Colorado Department of Revenue to the Rocky Mountain News to maintain confidentiality of taxpayer information, the articles contain disclosures of confidential taxpayer information in violation of federal and state civil and criminal statutes.

  • February 16, 2009

    3:57 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Latgawa writes:

    The articles had the intent to disparage all persons associated with the subject conservation easements, including the original land owner, Mr. DeAtley, the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe, and its exempt organization. They were false as to the division of property originally owned by Mr. DeAtley. They were misleading as to the appraisals of conservation easements associated with such properties because they failed to take into consideration the expensive habitat restoration program associated with the grant and acceptance of such conservation easements. References to the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe in the articles can only be understood in the context of "race bating". The information contained in the articles was false, misleading, intentionally damaging, and resulted in damage to the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe in its relations with local government in its home state, Oregon, and in damage to its carefully articulated conservation program that emphasizes not only the grant of conservation easements, their oversight, but also the restoration of degraded sites so that they provide habitat for native wildlife. Damage from the articles continues because they were and continue to be published on the internet and continue adversely to affect the relations between the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and local government in Oregon and continue to discourage conservation minded persons owning property in Colorado from using the facilities of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe's exempt organization to execute conservation easements.
    The articles were initially and have since been demonstrated to be false. The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe has been recognized by various local, state and federal agencies. Inter alia, it has been recognized as an Indian Nation by the Internal Revenue Service. It has a pending application for recognition by the United States Department of the Interior. The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe's exempt organization is current with the Internal Revenue Service as a publicly supported exempt organization qualified to receive and administer conservation easements. Statements by the articles questioning the status of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization are either false or highly misleading.

  • February 16, 2009

    3:58 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Latgawa writes:

    The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe has contractual jurisdiction over the conservation easements it administers. It understands the sensitivity of confidential taxpayer information associated with conservation easements and undertakes to protect same. While it does not commission appraisals in connection with conservation easements it receives, it considers the appraisal information to be confidential taxpayer information.
    In connection with and as a probable result of the articles published in the Rocky Mountain News, the Colorado Board of Appraisers initiated various investigations of appraisers that submitted appraisals in connection with the grant of conservation easements. The appraiser that performed certain of the appraisals on conservation easements received and accepted by the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe's exempt organization received a request for information followed by an administrative subpoena from the Colorado Board of Appraisers. The information was in the possession of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe. In response to the subpoena, the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt filed and perfected an action for injunctive relief and for a temporary restraining order against the Colorado Board of Appraisers and the appraiser prohibiting the latter from disclosing confidential taxpayer information and the former from soliciting, subpoenaing, and using same. The request for relief was filed in Latgawa Tribal Court. Orders issued pursuant thereto. Thereafter, the Attorney General for the State of Colorado agreed to cause the Colorado Board of Appraisers to withdraw the request for information and the subpoena. The Attorney General entered a stipulated partial dismissal of the action as it affected the Colorado Board of Appraisers recognizing the continuing jurisdiction over the matter by the Latgawa Tribal Court. The subpoena and request for information were withdrawn in connection with the foregoing proceeding. Not only is it not the case that the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe has not been recognized but it is the case that the Attorney General for Colorado has recognized the Latgawa Tribal Court.

  • February 16, 2009

    3:59 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Latgawa writes:

    The articles falsely imply that there is a nexus between the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt, the original landowner, or the appraiser and any legitimate ongoing investigation by the Colorado Board of Real Estate Appraisers or any grand jury. The conservation easements received by the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe's exempt organization have been duly recognized and accepted in whole without issue or adjustment by the Colorado Department of Revenue. The Colorado Board of Real Estate Appraisers has withdrawn from any investigation of any appraiser or appraisal commissioned in connection with any conservation easements accepted by the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe's exempt organization. The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe has never been directly or indirectly approached by any governmental agency, Colorado or federal, in connection with its conservation easement program. To the knowledge of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization, no person who has granted a conservation easement or has purchased a credit or claimed a deduction in connection therewith has had the credit or deduction denied. There is no legitimate basis for the scurrilous attack in the articles upon the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe or its exempt organization or upon anyone associated with it.
    The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe takes seriously their obligations to administer remediation and maintenance and protection of conservation easements entrusted to them. Acting through their governance and through persons retained thereby, it has overseen continuing activities on the conservation easements it has accepted to remediate prior environmental damage, restore wildlife, and encourage the purposes for which the United States and Colorado conservation easement programs were initiated. It takes with great seriousness false allegations by the Rocky Mountain News that call to question its role in such conservation easements.

  • February 16, 2009

    4 p.m.

    Suggest removal

    Latgawa writes:

    While the Rocky Mountain News is published in Denver, Colorado, its articles are published on the internet. They have found their way into Oregon where the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization have their headquarters. They have been used and recited by local governmental officials to undermine the reputation of the Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe before local and state government in Oregon. The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt have been damaged from the publication of the articles. Because the publication of the articles continues electronically, the damage is continuing.
    The Latgawa Native American Indian Tribe and its exempt organization are making additional inquiry into their rights that have been and continue to be violated by the Rocky Mountain News.