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.