Property Rights Violated? GJ Business Says City Crossed the Line
By Brandon Leuallen | The Business Times
This article is a follow-up to “CDOT Sells Used Car Dealer a Lemon,” published June 4 in The Business Times. In that story, we reported about CDOT acquiring the GJ Auto Sales property through the threat of eminent domain for a planned mobility hub.
This expanded report traces the project’s timeline, revealing a process — jointly coordinated by CDOT, the City of Grand Junction and Mesa County’s Regional Transportation Planning Office — that began before the property owners ever found out and ended only after the property owners accepted a final offer just before condemnation proceedings could begin.
For 22 years, Mike and Amber Martinez had operated GJ Auto Sales from a downtown Grand Junction corner, building up their small family business ...