RTD land grab raises hackles

Owners riled by idea of seizures for development

By Kevin Flynn, Rocky Mountain News (Contact)

Originally published 12:30 a.m., December 3, 2007
Updated 11:57 a.m., December 3, 2007

Galen Foster's home and business of 23 years is supposed to make way for parking for the Wadsworth Boulevard light-rail station in Lakewood.

But what chaps Foster's hide is that there already are conceptual plans showing his property being used not for transit parking, but for a five-story commercial office building.

While government's right of condemnation, more politely called eminent domain, has been recognized for centuries, the Regional Transportation District is entering an untested area that includes economic development in its efforts to build the FasTracks West Corridor line.

While there is little room to challenge RTD's acquisition of land for tracks, stations and parking lots, the policy of "transit-oriented development" could put a new property-rights law to the test.

Foster and his wife, Kim Snyder, are among property owners along the West Corridor who are organizing to battle RTD over that point.

RTD, which is scheduled to begin construction on the West Corridor next summer, has notified 16 property owners that it needs all of their land for the project.

Most are for the big light-rail stations planned at Wadsworth and Sheridan boulevards. The others are near the South Platte River, where a large bridge will be built and streets realigned.

RTD will later issue notices to an additional 110 or so owners from whom it needs only part of their land.

Under federal law, RTD must pay owners at least fair market value for their property and also pay for certain relocation costs and services.

RTD and Lakewood officials have developed several alternate plans that would bring in commercial, retail and residential development on land RTD is restricted to condemning for transit purposes only.

"We want them to build light rail only wide enough for what's necessary," said Tom Wambolt of the Colorado Property Rights Coalition. "If it's strictly for RTD use, like the parking garage, and nothing else is built around it, then it's transit.

"But if only half the block is for parking and the rest of it is for retail, office or other development, we would be opposed to that."

Guidelines tightened

At Sheridan, RTD wants all the property from the gas station at 10th Avenue north to the apartment complex at 11th Avenue, and west past Ames Street, including several private homes.

At Wadsworth, RTD has notified seven property owners along the east side from 13th to 14th avenues, and eastward halfway to Vance Street.

Longtime plans have targeted that block for a 1,000-car park-n-Ride garage. If that's all that's built, then there's no beef.

But planning concepts developed by Lakewood, working with RTD, aim to diversify the land uses near the station. The idea is to spread out the parking on several blocks and attract developers to put up high-density residential buildings, retail plazas and office buildings.

While the city can pursue that strategy for land off the RTD site, the transit agency is more limited.

The law allows RTD to include only small-scale commercial and retail facilities at stations, catering to the needs of transit riders. RTD cannot build retail for a general customer base.

That means a coffee shop or newsstand is all right. But a five-story office building, stores, apartments? Maybe not.

Last year, the legislature adopted even tighter guidelines to exclude economic development from the "public purposes" for which governments can use eminent domain.

"The intent was to prevent stuff like this," said the sponsor, Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D- Thornton. "If RTD is just using eminent domain for FasTracks, that's one thing, but if it's for private development, that could be another."

Early next year, RTD will seek developers to build the Sheridan and Wadsworth park- n-Rides. The proposals will address the right to include commercial development on those blocks.

Foster's Pro Tint window- tinting business has been on Wadsworth at 14th Avenue for 23 years. He and Snyder also have their home there.

"We already know what they want this site for," said Foster, while he put a clear bra on the hood of an SUV in his shop. "They want a five-story office building here.

"If it ultimately comes down to that, Kim and I would redevelop all this ourselves. This is hers and my gold mine, no one else's. I pity the first person who tries to come onto this property."

RTD acknowledges the limitations.

"We have to operate under the assumption that we're getting the land for transit with the potential for someone to add something that is incidental to it," said Bill Sirois, RTD's transit-oriented development manager. "All of the properties we acquire need to have a transit purpose to them."

If some of the land isn't used for transit, RTD can't simply sell it to a developer, he said.

"If we take it for transit purposes and figure out we don't need a portion of it, the first person we would discuss it with is the former owner," Sirois said.

But RTD is supporting a move to add housing to allowable uses at transit stations in the next legislative session. That signals that the agency believes "transit-related use" means more than a coffee shop and a newsstand.

'Flexibility' foreseen

Lakewood takes an even broader view, that wrapping RTD's parking garage with a commercial or residential structure is legitimate even with the prohibition on using eminent domain for economic development.

"I think it depends on how the parking structure can be used," said Rebecca Clark, Lakewood's planning director. "RTD will use that whole block for parking, but we have some flexibility on how that gets developed."

She said the city wants to attract developers who will work with the community and not use eminent domain. The plan showing offices and residences is simply a concept, and no actual project exists at the moment, Clark said.

Bob Hoban, attorney for Foster and another property owner, helped Tochtrop write last year's legislation. He says if Lakewood and RTD want the area redeveloped, they should work with current owners.

"This is their first land acquisition over 12 years of FasTracks and they shouldn't get off on the wrong foot," he said. "If they want something done commercially, let us do it. Just take the brain damage out of this thing. We'll build whatever they'd like to see there."