If you go
What: Nine Mile Corner hearing
When: 9 a.m., Tuesday/Wednesday
Where: 1777 6t St., Boulder
A legal clash over 20 acres of land along the Erie-Lafayette border, which threatens to derail plans for a multimillion-dollar development and could set a new precedent for how Colorado’s judiciary oversees the use of eminent domain between neighboring towns, will unfold in Boulder District Court this week.
Lafayette wants almost half of Erie’s 45-acre property at the corner of U.S. 287 and Arapahoe Road to provide “a buffer through open space” between the towns in order to “protect Lafayette’s unique community character,” according to a condemnation lawsuit filed last summer.
The case marks the first instance in which a Colorado town or city has tried to acquire land from its neighboring community through eminent domain, Lew Harstead, a Boulder-based attorney who specializes in land-use law, said earlier this year.
Dabbling in such unchartered legal territory has made it difficult to forecast how such a case could be decided — though the case’s unprecedented nature might prove difficult for Lafayette in persuading a judge.
At the heart of the suit rests Nine Mile Corner: a 30-acre mixed-use development slated for construction along the traffic-heavy corner; and which may best illustrate east Boulder County’s fundamental dilemma relating to recent commercial and residential growth.
Lafayette’s claim hinges on whether condemning the land to transform it into open-space serves the public good or purpose, a requirement under Colorado’s eminent domain law.
“In October of last year the court issued an order granting the town of Erie’s request for discovery and for a hearing on the town’s motion to dismiss,” Erie spokesman Fred Diehl wrote in an email on Friday. “That hearing is now set for (Tuesday) and we look forward to the opportunity to present our case to the court.”
The courtroom face-off comes almost a year after Lafayette officials first moved to investigate the development in the wake of rumors that its King Soopers planned to migrate over to Erie — along with a landslide of much needed sales tax revenue.
Erie’s population boon — increasing about 200 percent since over the last 17 years — paired with a building urgency to seize as much available land as it can for future development plans, has inevitably lead to skirmishes along its border.
Over the past several years, Lafayette City Administrator Gary Klaphake told the Camera last summer, it’s become increasingly difficult to preserve Lafayette’s small-town character while its neighbor to the north seeks much-needed sales-tax revenue through commercial growth.
Erie netted $4.4 million in sales tax revenue over 2015, according to the town’s website, $11 million short of Lafayette’s haul that same year.
“Lafayette is content in their skin, in who they are without becoming a big city,” Klaphake said in April. “But Erie wants to be a big city. The conflict is inside of the philosophy, in what they aspire to.”
Across the street from where Nine Mile is to be constructed, however, Lafayette has initiated plans for large-scale development of its own: 400 residential units are planned for the 80-acre SILO subdivision; paired with plans for a 21,930-square-foot commercial project dubbed Lafayette Promenade.
As the towns face off in court, the potential for yet another land-based suit could take shape in future months as Erie looks to build more than 650 homes along Lafayette’s eastern border.
Anthony Hahn: 303-473-1422, hahna@dailycamera.com or twitter.com/_anthonyhahn
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