THE LONG ROAD TO NOWHERE
If your vacant home site is not on a main road, you may be in trouble. Boulder County often prohibits access to private building sites in order to prevent landowners from building their homes, rendering those home sites worthless. This is a manipulation that converts private land into Open Space since the County can then make an offer that a desperate property owner can’t refuse. The County accomplishes this in several ways: by prohibiting the use and maintenance of an already existing road, by preventing the construction of a driveway, by supporting an adjoining neighbor who wants to deny access – or by filing lawsuits against innocent landowners to enforce the County’s “no-access” decisions. Frustrated landowners find themselves going broke – watching helplessly as the equity in their land is devoured by the expense of fighting for their property rights. Landowners may even have to abandon their projects, selling their land to the County at a discounted price -- in effect, making a non-deductible contribution to Boulder County’s Open Space program.
Important Note: The facts in the story you are about to read were obtained from public records (including 94CV845 and 97CV872, Boulder County District Court and Boulder County Open Space files.) In addition, friends and acquaintances of Mark and Laurie Stanton shared their observations with us. The writers of this story were unable to interview the Stantons because the County required them to sign a nondisclosure agreement that prohibits them from ever complaining publicly about the terms of the deal.
THE STANTON STORY
In 1993, Mark and Laurie Stanton were living in a crowded mobile home with their three small children. Mark was head of maintenance at Avista Hospital and Laurie was a part-time hospital worker who was also home-schooling the kids. Money was in short supply, so they were understandably thrilled when they were able to purchase 40 acres of land near Hall Ranch right outside of Lyons as a homesite. The County, however, had other plans. It wanted the Stanton’s land for Open Space and offered to buy it at a discounted price. Mark and Laurie rejected the offer. This was their dream and they certainly weren’t going to sell out their future for a low-ball offer – or any amount of money!
In fact, as far as Mark and Laurie were concerned, the only thing that stood in the way of them fulfilling their dream was establishing their right to use the old access road leading to their property from Apple Valley Road. Since a Boulder judge had already declared the road to be a public road back in 1964, this seemed like a no-brainer.
A neighbor, however, believed that his portion of the road was private, not public, and refused to allow the Stantons to use the road as access. A different judge now declared that Mark and Laurie would have to go back to court and prove anew that the objecting neighbor's portion of the road was also public. It was a process that would take three-and-a-half years of litigation and would end in a surprise they would never forget.
Just as Laurie and Mark were about to go to trial and claim victory in the access lawsuit, one of the other landowners along the access road sold his land to Boulder County as Open Space. The County was now the owner of the land that butted up to the Stanton’s dream property – and the owner of a portion of the access road lying between the Stantons and Apple Valley Road. The County’s next step was to wipe the access road off the map! Boulder County vacated its portion of the road. After three years of legal battles, and with the end in sight, the Stanton’s had nothing to fight over. A critical portion of the access road no longer existed. Their property was now landlocked – worthless except as a picnic spot!
Mark and Laurie were stunned. Though they could legally challenge the County’s actions as invalid, and they had a good chance of prevailing, the Stantons were beaten. A legal solution would take several more years and the Stantons no longer had the money or the stomach to fight.
Again, predictably, the County offered to buy Mark and Laurie’s dream property – after all, they now had no access! The Stantons, with few options, sold the choice acreage - that the County had coveted from the start – for a discounted price. To boot, the Stantons had to sign an agreement that they would never complain publicly about the deal. The County had not only bought discounted Open Space, it had bought the Stanton’s dream – and their silence. The taxpayers of Boulder County may have received a windfall – but the cost was high. It cost the heart and soul of Mark and Laurie Stanton.
FOOTNOTE
The Stanton story is not unique. In a different road access case, one Boulder County Attorney was quoted as saying:
"If the road is declared not public, it will dramatically affect the market value, and then we [Boulder County] could purchase it. We decided to go to trial because we could save the County $1 million."
Boulder County has never acknowledged that the "savings" comes directly from the pockets of the individual landowners.
WHAT CAN BE DONE?
Because of this, and many other stories like it, the Land Use Coalition monitors land use court cases, especially where Boulder County has intervened in a private lawsuit, or has manipulated the land use codes to prevent a landowner from accessing land to build a family home. One of the goals of the Coalition is to establish a fund for the defense of landowners unfairly subjected to litigation at the hands of Boulder County.
The Land Use Coalition believes that elected officials should be held accountable for their actions. If you have comments about these issues that you would like to forward to the Boulder County Commissioners, you can reach Ron Stewart, Paul Danish, or Jana Mendez at (303) 441-3500.
The Land Use Coalition is a diverse, non-partisan, grassroots organization dedicated to informing, supporting and protecting citizens and their property rights in Boulder County, while also supporting Open Space, wildlife preservation and reasonable land use regulations. The LUC has influenced important statewide legislation and helped shape local land use regulations.
This space was paid for by citizen donations to the Real People, Real Stories Committee of the Land Use Coalition in an effort to inform the public about the impact of land use issues on real people in the community.
Do you have a story you’d like to tell? We invite and encourage your participation and support. For more information call 303 666-7903 or visit our website at http://landusecoalition.org. Watch for another story two weeks from today.
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For more information contact the Land Use Coalition at info@landusecoalition.org or call 303-666-7903.
Last updated January 24, 2002.
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