It must be the law or Judge Nichols would not have approved this.
That does not make the actions of RFTA seizing private land, in order to pursue an agenda that has never once been shown as truly viable to succeeding; any less appalling.
This is the worst yet in their track record of public business dealings and that is saying a great deal given the millions of dollars in bailouts and handouts that taxpayers have given RFTA over the years.
Chad Abraham:
"A judge has approved the Roaring Fork Transportation Authority’s request to seize a private parcel of land in Basalt that the agency wants for its $46 million overhaul of transit in the valley.
The Jan. 18 order by Judge Gail Nichols of Pitkin County District Court says that RFTA and the town of Basalt, which is a co-petitioner in the eminent domain proceeding, have the legal authority to take the land. Nichols also ruled that the property along Basalt Avenue serves a public purpose.
RFTA will pay a $600,000 deposit to the court registry to gain immediate title of the approximately half-acre parcel, and pay $12,398.44 to the Pitkin County Treasuer’s Office to cover outstanding property taxes, the judge’s order says. (The transit agency is paying for the land acquisition, and the town signed on as co-petitioner in a show of support, officials have said.)
The Cathers family of Basalt, owners of the Cathers Home Furniture Store across the street from the land in question, has waived all challenges to RFTA’s eminent domain authority.
But the family “has specifically reserved the right to seek additional compensation for the taking, which shall be the sole issue remaining for trial,” the order says.
Paul Cathers, CEO of his family’s business, said in December that he and his relatives believed the bus agency was low-balling during negotiations. RFTA’s original offer for the land was in the neighborhood of $585,000, Cathers said, a sum that is less than what the family paid for it six or seven years ago.
The family’s appraisal valued the land at $1 million, Cathers said.
As part of RFTA’s $46 million bus-rapid transit plan, the land will be used to expand by 100 spaces the existing park-and-ride lot near Highway 82...."
"Unapologetically pursuing and tracking patterns within the news others make since 2010."
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