A bill sponsored by U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt, to expedite the sale of federal land in the Clifton area to Mesa County has advanced in the House of Representatives with bipartisan support.
Boebert’s CONVEY (Clifton Opportunities Now for Vibrant Economic Yields) Act was passed in the House Natural Resources Committee by unanimous bipartisan consent and will now move to consideration on the House floor.
The bill seeks to speed up the sale of about 31 acres of land, mostly south of Interstate 70 in the 32 Road area, to the county. It directs the Interior secretary to convey the parcel to the county “as soon as practicable.” The county would have to pay fair market value in the transaction, and hopes to use the land to promote economic development by incentivizing industry and business in the Clifton area.
The county has been hoping to acquire the property for more than five years. The Department of Interior in the early 1900s withdrew a parcel totaling about 40 acres from the public domain for use by the Bureau of Reclamation for building the Highline Canal, part of the Grand Valley Reclamation Project. The Grand Valley Water Users Association, Reclamation’s managing partner on the project, has determined that a portion of the land is no longer needed for the project. Reclamation plans to continue to keep 8.25 acres on the south side of the parcel for project purposes, but submitted a notice to the Bureau of Land Management in 2021 of its intent to relinquish 31.1 acres.
The BLM is supporting Boebert’s bill, Nada Wolff Culver, the BLM’s principal deputy director, said in a hearing on the bill. The BLM and Reclamation are currently going through a process, involving surveys and preparations of documents, to have the land returned to the BLM so it can be conveyed to the county. Wolff Culver said the bill would let the BLM skip the current process required to return the land to the BLM so it can be conveyed to the county. The bill requires the conveyance to the county to be made notwithstanding Interior Department secretarial orders in the early 1900s related to withdrawing it for the reclamation project.
Mesa County Commissioner Janet Rowland said in a news release from Boebert’s office, “This bill will enable us to cut through the bureaucratic red tape and finally begin incentivizing more businesses to come to Clifton, create jobs, improve Mesa County, and invest in the region for years to come.”
Rose Pugliese, a state lawmaker in El Paso County who began pursuing the land acquisition while a Mesa County commissioner, testified in support of the bill. Boebert spokesman Jake Settle told the Sentinel Thursday that “the strong coalition of local leaders engaged on this issue has helped build tremendous momentum” for the bill.
