The state does not have to compensate a business when a transportation project blocks drivers’ view of the property, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.
Robert Duncan, an attorney representing the Colorado Department of Transportation and the Regional Transportation District, said the ruling is especially relevant to RTD’s FasTracks project because the agency won’t have to worry about paying out millions over obstructed views.
Tuesday’s decision came in the case of Happy Church, whose property next to Interstate 25 became harder to see as a result of the recently completed T-REX project.
Leaders of the church, on East Orchard Road in Greenwood Village and owned by Marilyn Hickey Ministries, argued the project caused a “loss of visibility.” The project widened the freeway, built a light-rail line between the church and I-25 and erected a 30-foot-high retaining wall. The church sued the state for about $1.9 million.
In November 2005, the Colorado Court of Appeals ruled the church was entitled to damages.
But Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, writing in Tuesday’s 6-0 opinion, said motorists’ view of property is not a right for which landowners can be compensated under the Colorado Constitution.
“There is simply no inherent property right to continued traffic or visibility along the I-25 transit corridor,” she said.
CDOT spokeswoman Stacy Stegman called Tuesday’s decision “fair” and noted that the agency compensated Marilyn Hickey Ministries for the portion of its church property taken for the T-REX project.
“We are very disappointed,” said Leslie Fields, the lawyer who represents Marilyn Hickey Ministries in the matter. “We thought we had a strong case.”
Fields also represents Centennial Promenade Shopping Center, which also abuts the T-REX project at East County Line Road in Centennial and is in court seeking compensation for loss of visibility.
Fields said she believes that the Centennial Promenade lawsuit, which seeks damages of more than $4 million, won’t be affected by the Supreme Court ruling because of “factual distinctions” that make it different from the Marilyn Hickey Ministries case, but she declined repeated requests to say what those distinctions are.
Duncan, however, said that Tuesday’s ruling nullifies Centennial Promenade’s claims against CDOT.
Denver lawyer Malcolm Murray represented two other business affected by T-REX: J. Alexander’s restaurant in Centennial and Dallas-based Terrabrook, which owns an office building along I-25.
J. Alexander’s is now separated from the adjacent freeway by a high retaining wall supporting the light-rail line. And T-REX affected parking at the Terrabrook building as well as sunlight reaching it, Murray said.
In both cases, the businesses settled with CDOT without filing a lawsuit.
Staff writer Howard Pankratz can be reached at 303-954-1939 or hpankratz@denverpost.com.
