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validity of the legislation should be assiduously avoided if an alternative construction consistent <br />with legislative intent is available. "4 Perry Park Water & Sanitation Dist. v. Cordillera Corp., <br />818 P.2d 728, 732 (Colo. 1991); accord Colo. Ground Water Comm 'n v. Eagle Peak Farms, <br />Ltd., 919 P.2d 212, 221 (Colo. 1996); City of Greenwood Village v. Petitioners for Proposed <br />City of Centennial, 3 P.3d 427 at 440 (Courts "do not lightly declare a statute unconstitutional "). <br />Both the history leading up to the passage of Senate Bill 216 and the legislative history of the bill <br />establish that the General Assembly intended to place reasonable limits on the size and scope of <br />water rights for RICD purposes to prevent them from being used to tie up the entire flow of the <br />river or a substantial portion thereof for extreme recreational uses that would frustrate the <br />optimum use of water for other beneficial uses. <br />The genesis of the current controversy can be traced to this Court's 1992 decision in City <br />of Thornton v. City of Fort Collins, 830 P.2d 915 (Colo. 1992). There, this Court for the first <br />time held that controlling water in its natural course or location by a structure or device can be a <br />"diversion" within the meaning of section 37 -92- 103(4). Id. at 929 -30. Reading this decision as <br />recognition of in- channel flow rights for recreational purposes so long as the water was <br />controlled in its natural course, the communities of Golden, Vail, and Breckenridge filed <br />applications seeking_ decrees for in- channel flow rights for kayak courses. These rights were <br />granted by the water courts and eventually affirmed as a matter of law based on 3 -3 votes in this <br />Court. See State Eng. v. City of Golden, 69 P.3d 1027 (Colo. 2003); State Eng. v. Eagle River <br />Water and Sanitation Dist., 69 P.3d 1028 (Colo. 2003). <br />' This presumption in favor of constitutionality means that a party challenging a statute on constitutional <br />grounds must prove unconstitutionality "beyond a reasonable doubt." City of Greenwood Village v. Petitioners for <br />Proposed City of Centennial, 3 P.3d 427, 440 (Colo. 2000). <br />11 <br />