Vacant Kmart is an eyesore, but using eminent domain is worse
“On the corner of Monaco Parkway and Evans Avenue in Denver sits an absurdly expansive parking lot serving a former big-box department store building that has been vacant for years and can only now be described as an eyesore.
But it’s not the state of the commercial property that is disquieting.
It’s the potential and not-so-veiled threat that the city of Denver could condemn such a property under eminent domain laws, force a sale at market prices and give the land to someone else to redevelop. Colorado has tightened its eminent domain laws somewhat to make taking land in the name of public good — but to really do so to enable for private redevelopment — quite difficult to do.
And yet, the threat still crops up from time to time.
The city of Glendale threatened to push out owners of a rug store that stood between a private developer and prime real-estate frontage to Colorado Boulevard for a city-sponsored, 42-acre, $175 million retail and entertainment complex.
Always the champion of the curmudgeon raining on the parade — think of the protagonist in Disney’s “Up” — it’s been enjoyable to watch the rug dealer thwart the plans of a city and private developer.
…
Colorado needs to take a long, hard look at its blight laws and consider whether such a subjective designation should be tied to the ability to use eminent domain.”
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Schrader, Megan. Denver Post 9 January 2018.