Couple’s Colorado dream home turns to nightmare as they face having it confiscated
“Now the county government, alarmed that the couple drives their ATV up a 1.2-mile old mining road to the cabin, wants to take the Barrie’s land — and it’s doing so by claiming eminent domain. Rather than using the practice of government seizure of private property to promote economic development, the county is using it to preserve open space.
The move shocked the Barries. They have allowed hikers to travel through their property, had no plans to develop the land and were negotiating with the county at the time it moved to condemn the property.
Open space ‘is all it’s ever been’, said Mr Barrie. ‘I feel like I can’t trust my government.’
Summit County Attorney Jeff Huntley said the county had to act after the Barries insisted on being able to use motorized transport to get to the cabin. ‘People in this community are very intent on preserving the back country,’ he said.
Experts in eminent domain say it’s rare for governments to use that power to create parks or open space.
‘It’s not that you can’t do it, but they don’t do it much,’ said Dana Berliner, who was co-counsel in the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court case upholding the constitutionality of eminent domain. ‘There’s typically other ways of doing open space than just taking land.'”
Associated Press. Daily Mail Online 17 February 2014.