Senate panel passes Kirkpatrick-Gosar bill to help Coconino County property owners

WASHINGTON, D.C. – November 22, 2013 – (RealEstateRama) — Today, the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources passed HR 862, legislation introduced by U.S. Reps. Ann Kirkpatrick, D-Ariz., and Paul Gosar, R-Ariz., to correct a 40-year-old land-survey error that placed private properties inside the boundaries of U.S. Forest Service property. The legislation can now be scheduled for a vote by the full Senate.

Kirkpatrick’s bill, which passed the House in June, corrects an error that’s been in place since 1960, when 25 properties were surveyed as part of the Mountainaire development near Flagstaff. Incorrect corner monuments were used in that survey, and a recent Bureau of Land Management survey found that these properties are encroaching into the Coconino National Forest.

“After years of headaches and hassles, these homeowners are closer than ever to a resolution,” Kirkpatrick said. “Congressman Gosar and I are optimistic our Senate colleagues will vote for this common-sense fix for the people of Coconino County.”

Some of the affected parcels are undeveloped, and some have portions of owners’ homes within the encroachment area. The owners have invested in and maintained these properties for years, so the discovery of the land-survey error has created economic burdens and uncertainty. HR 862 conveys ownership back to the property owners by authorizing “the conveyance of two small parcels of land within the boundaries of the Coconino National Forest containing private improvements that were developed based upon the reliance of the landowners on an erroneous survey conducted in May 1960.”