July 16th, 2008
RTD mum on land grabs
Ripping off property owners
Monday, July 7, 2008
By JESSICA PECK CORRY and KATE MELVIN
Imagine finding your business on a map. Then imagine that the map shows your business being replaced by a parking lot.
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For Longmont small business owners Butch and Bev Vernon, this is exactly what happened when they looked at a recent proposal outlining plans by the Regional Transportation District to bring a rail station here.
The problem: No one from RTD ever bothered to let the Vernons know that their property was being targeted for light rail parking. According to Bev Vernon, they learned about the plan only after the Longmont Times-Call recently printed a blueprint of RTD’s expansion plans. Before this, they’d heard that RTD wanted it for a mixed use development.
The Vernons are still waiting for a phone call from RTD.
“We were pretty surprised [by the parking lot plans] because the last concept we had seen was for high density and retail for this property,” Bev Vernon told us.
Lakewood battle
The Vernons are not alone. RTD frequently leaves property owners in the dark when developing its expansion strategies. In Lakewood, property owners are now waging a battle over another RTD map.
According to Galen Foster and Kim Snyder, RTD has been less than truthful about its proposal to turn their Lakewood small business into a large mixed-use retail and business complex. RTD defends its threats of eminent domain — or the forcible taking of private property for a public purpose — saying that the development is acceptable under state law because it will also include a parking garage for light rail commuters.
Meanwhile, the couple’s attorney, Bob Hoban, maintains that RTD is breaking the law because its primary objective is to simply turn the land over to another developer who can then turn the property into something that will generate more tax revenue.
Like the Vernons, Foster and Snyder have had little recent contact with RTD officials. Once Foster and Snyder got a lawyer, RTD was done talking.
In an ideal world, we would be able to give RTD the benefit of the doubt, hoping that it would offer just compensation to business owners who must find suitable locations if they seek to re-open their doors. However, RTD’s track record thus far indicates we have reason to suspect otherwise.
Lowballing
As RTD’s latest FasTracks expansion struggles from $2 billion in cost overruns, RTD’s behavior is also troubling property rights advocates because of the extremely aggressive lowball offers the agency is making to property owners being cleared out for rail lines.
In some cases, homeowners are being offered compensation at levels far lower than what they are currently assessed at. So while a property owner is required under law to pay the government a certain amount in property taxes based on the alleged value of the property, RTD can turn around and offer a property owner a price far lower than that espoused value.
Seeking more money
The news gets worse. As the Rocky Mountain News recently reported, RTD may go back to voters to ask for more tax money to fund expansion needs. This development comes after the Denver Regional Council of Governments — traditionally a cheerleader for FasTracks expansion — chided RTD officials for providing egregiously low cost estimates.
As Longmont property owners, including the Vernons, seek to learn more about RTD’s plans, they should do so with knowledge of RTD’s history of bad behavior.
“We’re concerned that we will think [our business] is worth more than they do,” Bev Vernon said said. “We’ve moved this business before, we know how expensive it is, and we know how traumatic it can be.”
We hope the Vernons, as well as other targeted Longmont property owners identified in last week’s Times-Call report, including Dick and Adaline Inskeep, Stan Walker, and Don and Patty Orban, are treated with the respect they deserve. RTD owes it to these families to keep them in the loop about any and all developments concerning light rail expansion.
Anything less is simply bad customer service.
Jessica Peck Corry serves as the director of the Independence Institute’s Property Rights Project (www.PropertyRightsProject.org). Kate Melvin serves as the project’s research assistant. The Independence Institute is a Colorado libertarian think tank.
