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Tag: Eminent Domain

Home at stake as veteran challenges LPEA easement expansion
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Rocky Mountain Voice, Local, Top Stories

Home at stake as veteran challenges LPEA easement expansion

By Shaina Cole | Contributing Writer, Rocky Mountain Voice Jack Barrett didn’t expect his retirement to look like this. The 80-year-old Navy veteran thought he, and his wife, would spend their later years quietly on the 9.6 acre property they bought outside Pagosa Springs—nearly two decades ago. Instead, Barrett is now fighting La Plata Electric Association over a transmission line upgrade that he says would force a widened utility easement closer to his home—and deeper into his property. “I served my country with honor,” Barrett said. “And I should not have this fight at this time in my life.” LPEA has filed a petition in condemnation to secure easement rights. It would be for project upgrading an existing transmission line from 69kV to 115kV. What began as a technica...
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Elbert County Pushes Back as Xcel Tries to Force Power Line Route Through Private Land
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CBS Colorado, Approved, Local

Elbert County Pushes Back as Xcel Tries to Force Power Line Route Through Private Land

By: Tori Mason, Jaimie Dodge | CBS Colorado Elbert County neighbors have spent years fighting Xcel Energy, and it's not even their utility. Residents say they're exhausted, scared, and furious as Xcel works to push ahead with a transmission project that would cut directly through their land. Residents along the proposed Power Pathway route are still battling the utility over a segment of the 550-mile transmission line that would cross Elbert County. More than 50 people spoke against the project at a public hearing on Tuesday in Kiowa. Commissioners denied Xcel's local permit in June, but the company is now appealing to the Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC), which will make the final decision. That ruling isn't expected until April 2026. READ...
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Grand Junction quietly pursued $8.45M pedestrian bridge as auto dealer faced eminent domain
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The Business Times, Approved, Local

Grand Junction quietly pursued $8.45M pedestrian bridge as auto dealer faced eminent domain

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times Why was GJ Auto Sales selected as the site for the Colorado Department of Transportation’s Downtown Grand Junction Mobility Hub when other nearby options existed, including city and county-owned land? Neither CDOT nor the City of Grand Junction has answered that question, despite multiple requests by The Business Times. However, city records, planning documents, and emails reveal a longer story, one involving years of redevelopment planning, conceptual drawings, and a vision for linking downtown to Dos Rios via a pedestrian bridge and the 2nd Street Promenade.  City Maps and Early Planning City maps appearing to date from before 2021 show the GJ Auto Sales property — the future site of the mobility hub — being converted into park...
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State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain
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Approved, Local, The Business Times

State transportation project shutters 22-year-old Grand Junction auto sales business via eminent domain

By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times For 22 years, GJ Auto Sales was a fixture in the Grand Junction community, a family-run business operated by Amber Colunga Martinez and Mike Martinez. But now, the lot at 320 S. First St. will be transformed into a state-led mobility hub, part of Colorado’s climate-focused transportation plan. Selling the property to the state of Colorado, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County due to impending eminent domain has left the couple without enough to financially open up again in a viable location. The Martinezes said they first learned of the Colorado Department of Transportation’s plans not through official communication, but by reading a story in The Daily Sentinel. “We found out about it through the Sentinel posting an article about i...
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