Eagle County Commissioners to decide on potential ballot item for open space tax
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Eagle County Commissioners on Tuesday will decide if they want to approve a new open space tax in the county.
In a commission meeting on June 7, the Trust for Public Land will look to jumpstart assistance to get an open space property tax into a future local election.
Since 1972, the Trust for Public Land has raised $112 billion in public funding, completed 5,504 conservation projects and has created access to four million acres of public land. In recent studies the trust has done, it has found that local support has generated the most funding, in comparison to state or federal. By approving the letter of interest, the county would allow the trust to get technical assistance authority to see where Eagle County public lands and outdoor areas need support and if a ballot is something county voters would support.
“In every phase … we’re here to just present options and the decision is yours,” said the director of the trust’s center for conservation finance research, Andrew du Molin, to the commissioners at the Monday work session. “And if it happens, try to take the guesswork out of election day.”
The Trust for Public Land’s step-by-step process includes feasibility research, public opinion, program recommendations for the county, the creation of ballot language and campaigning. Their feasibility research, the first step in the process, is something the trust has done with Eagle County in the past with other projects. Typically, the entire process is 18 months total; however, the trust is hoping to help get the ballot item in for the 2026 election if public interest points to a successful vote.
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“What we’ve found again and again and again is that people do really care about where they work, where they live and where they raise their families, and they want to make sure that they want to protect the places that they love,” said Jason Swann, the trust’s director of the intermountain west conservation finance program.
The funding generated for conservation could go towards helping parks, trails, recreation, wildfire prevention and more.
Eagle County is no stranger to conservation funding, as it has already weighed an open space ballot question and has had a program in place since 2002 that was passed with a 1.5 mill levy question. The program, which was renewed to 2018, is planned to sunset in 2040.
The program currently has a property tax revenue annual cap of $7 million, according to Marsha Gillis, the Open Space Natural Resource director. “It wasn’t until the past couple of years that we’ve reached that cap limit,” she said.
The ballot question would allow the cap to be lifted and would expand the language they currently have, as well as look beyond acquisitions and land purchases, according to Gillis.
“I think it’s an important discussion right now as the political climate is changing around public land management and our fund can help maybe support other project initiatives that have been fully supported by county commissioners,” she said. She referenced Eagle County’s Safe Passage Program, which aligns with some of the potential projects that this tax could pursue.
The discussion is not over yet as commissioners will take more public comment Tuesday and make the decision to give the trust the authority to assist the journey towards a ballot spot.
“Maybe with this expansion of the purposes of language and lifting that cap, we could do a little bit more and have more impact within the county,” Gillis said.
