Board backs converting Bartlett development‑rights agreement to conservation easement and recommends city buy remaining oil and gas interests

The Open Space Board of Trustees voted unanimously to recommend that City Council convert the Bartlett development‑rights agreement (DRA) over a 7.04‑acre property near Arapahoe Road to a conservation easement, and to recommend that the city acquire the remaining oil and gas interests from current owners Zach and Kelsey Nassar.

The conversion and mineral‑interest acquisition were presented by Bethany Collins, OSMP senior manager of real estate services, and Sarah Kramer, a property agent who manages the department’s conservation easement program. Kramer told trustees the proposed conservation easement establishes a one‑acre building envelope, clarifies reserved and restricted rights, encumbers a one‑third share of the Marshallville (Marshable) ditch to preserve irrigation water for agriculture, and will transfer remaining oil and gas interests to the city if Council approves the acquisition.

Why this matters: staff said the DRA recorded in 1987 uses older, often ambiguous language intended only…