Can one Colorado city claim land belonging to another? State appeals court hears arguments in Lafayette-Erie dispute

The arguments before the three-judge panel came after Lafayette failed in its effort last year to convince a judge that it should be allowed to condemn 22 acres at the southeast corner of U.S. 287 and Arapahoe Road — inside Erie’s borders — for the purpose of creating an open space separation between its Beacon Hill neighborhood and a planned retail development at that corner.

The district judge ruled that Lafayette had not proven that the condemnation, which the city put into motion in the summer of 2016 through a lawsuit, was for a proper public purpose — as is required by the state’s eminent domain laws. The case was dismissed, prompting Lafayette’s appeal.

“Lafayette is trying to create some space,” Stephanie Ceccato, an attorney for the city of nearly 30,000 people 11 miles east of Boulder, told the appeals court Tuesday.

Ceccato said Lafayette has already amassed 1,300 acres of open space on its borders to provide a natural buffer between the city and neighboring communities — to create a “sense of separation, a sense of place.”

“All they are doing is continuing with that,” she said of Lafayette city leaders, who nearly two years ago passed an ordinance authorizing condemnation of the property owned by Erie’s urban renewal authority.