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Committee clears narrow bill to let counties review large fencing projects on Sangre de Cristo land‑grant lands
Summary
House Bill 1023 targets an ongoing dispute in southern Colorado by giving counties an optional permitting mechanism and review standards for large, tightly woven perimeter fences that can block wildlife movement and access that residents claim is protected by historic land‑grant rights.
House Bill 1023 would create a local permitting and review process for large fencing projects on lands covered by the Sangre de Cristo land grant. Sponsors said the bill is narrowly tailored to a unique situation in Costilla County where a long, tightly woven, high fence erected in recent years has provoked litigation and community complaints that it blocks historic communal access and wildlife movement.
Representative Sergio Martinez, sponsor of the bill, opened the committee discussion with a summary of the long history of communal land‑use rights in the Sangre de Cristo grant, recounting 19th‑century confirmations and a decades‑long practice of residents’ access for grazing, firewood, hunting and cultural…
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