A Small Town VS Big Development

Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Telluride Valley Floor Condemnation

By Lucia Stewart, 6-03-08

The City of Telluride, Colorado is rejoicing this week after a Supreme Court 6-1 ruling found the condemnation of 572-acre Valley Floor lawful and within the city’s jurisdiction.

This stretch of red-carpet open space that leads into Telluride is a decade-old battle that shows what a little town with a large motive can do in the face of big development.

After the town condemned the open space acreage under the Colorado Constitutional right for a city municipalities use of eminent domain, the developer Neal Blue and the San Miguel Valley Corporation worked on passing the “Telluride Amendment” to HB1203 in the 2004 Colorado Legislature term that made it unlawful to allow this kind of acquisition and condemnation outside city boundaries.

The Colorado Supreme Court ruling yesterday upholds the state’s land use policy that traditionally lies in the hands of local government.

Update: Here is a link to a Denver Post column calling the Supreme Court ruling troubling and going too far by granting Telluride eminent domain beyond its city’s boundaries for open space.

Click here for a timeline of the Telluride Valley Floor.

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In theory I own my house and the land it sits on. In practice, I rent it from the city, county, school district and fire department. If I don't pay my annual rent, I lose the house.

I found out that my house is inside an urban renewal district, declared by the city council, and they have appointed themselves as the commissioners of the urban renewal district. That gives them condemnation powers at two levels. The realization that I can be legally put out of my house so that a developer can profit and the city gain taxes and fees, is no less disconcerting. It is their call, not mine.

When I was a little kid, a zillion years ago, the local banker owned farms but no house or home. He rented. His position was that you never owned the house, and never would. And, the rise in value of the house would never keep up with inflation. The same was true of farmland, but that at least could be rented and produce income. If I were a decent mathematician, I guess I could see if he was right. And, farms have always had their property tax at 30% of true value or some such subsidy.

Now the residents of Telluride get to meet some high horsepower lawyers, for the value, the selling price, has to be litigated. Appraisers are a dime a dozen, and mine will work for me and yours for you. A court will decide, and then there will be an appeal. He who has the deepest lawyers seems to win. The tyranny of the majority at work in America.

"Some of our chiefs make the claim that the land belongs to us. It is not what the Great Spirit told me. He told me that the lands belong to Him, that no people own the land ..."