Face The State Staff Report
Nearly 80 property owners and property rights activists gathered Saturday at the Lakewood Public Library to voice their frustrations to board members and an attorney representing the Regional Transportation District. The source of dispute: the agency's intent to condemn more than 150 properties as part of its westward light rail expansion.
Leading the meeting was Lakewood City Councilwoman Vicki Stack and fellow Republican, state Rep. Jim Kerr of Littleton. While the meeting was organized specifically to give Kerr an opportunity to explain 2005 legislation that created a controversial compensation formula in partial takings cases, property owners quickly pounced on the opportunity to ask specific questions and voice frustrations to RTD attorney Marla Lien.
"My home is my castle," property owner Jan Mullen told Lien. "It may not be a big castle, but it's my castle."
Land use attorney Bob Hoban encouraged people to be assertive about their assessments. "[Determining the real value of your damages] is up to you, not necessarily up to RTD," he said. "The burden is on property owners to prove your value, to prove your side of the picture. Largely, when RTD does a appraisal, it hasn't talked with you."
According to Hoban, the meeting brought at least one positive development. "RTD was honest in acknowledging that it is required to pay for a landowner's appraisal costs regardless of the value of the property soon to be acquired," he said. "This is different from their previous inaccurate position that it was not required to reimburse property owners for an appraisal for property worth less than $5,000."
Lien was adamant that RTD has no intention to cheat land owners out of the value of their property. "Our goal is to be as fair with you as we can," she said, adding that state statute allows for full attorney's fees to be granted to any property owner who is awarded in court a value 130 percent of RTD's offer. "That is a big deterrent."
But many in attendance remained unpersuaded. "So what happens if we're only awarded 129 percent?" shouted out one property owner.
While questions were cut off after an hour and a half, many mulled around afterward, consoling each other or planning for the future. "I did not feel that the questions were answered in a layman's term whereby most people could understand them," said Tom Wambolt, a longtime leader of the Colorado Property Rights Coalition. "There were a lot of angry people there that wanted more answers that could not be addressed in [such a short time]."
According to CPRC member Dave Minshall, his organization plans to post names and contact information for reliable appraisers on its Web site.