GOLDEN — For 23 years, Kim Snyder has operated a business and lived on the southeast corner of West 14th Avenue and Wadsworth Boulevard.
That could change with construction of the West Corridor light-rail line.
Snyder and her husband, Galen Foster, recently received a letter from the Regional Transportation District that was the formal notice of intent to acquire their property.
“This use of eminent domain — or land grabbing — is absolutely egregious,” Snyder said Thursday.
On Saturday from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Snyder and Foster will hold a bake sale at their business at 1398 Wadworth Blvd.
Snyder said people have stopped by to offer items for the sale, although she’s not ready to say how the proceeds will be used.
“This is the first group of letters of intent that went out saying we will need their property for our project,” said Brenda Tierney, spokeswoman for the West Corridor.
More letters will be sent out in the next year as engineering is firmed up on the $634 million, 12.1-mile rail line from Denver to the Jeffco government center.
“We don’t send out the notices until we are absolutely positive we will need their property,” Tierney said. “RTD doesn’t take this lightly … and we follow federal guidelines on acquisition and relocation.”
The quarter-acre, on which sits Snyder’s car window-tinting business, will be needed for “transit improvements,” including the rail line, associated stations and parking facilities, the letter said.
About a dozen area property owners received the notices, which include acquisition and relocation process brochures and advise the recipients that they are entitled to their own appraisal.
Chad Ammons, general manager of Erico Motorsports on Wadsworth at West 13th Avenue, said his company leases the property.
“We knew this was coming and we’ve been looking around to relocate but we haven’t gotten information yet on what compensation may be available,” Ammons said.
Other owners “are people who have property where the parking lot is going to be, where the station is going to be,” Snyder said. “We are not.”
Tierney said a 1,000-space parking structure will take up most of the land on the east side of Wadsworth between West 13th and West 14th avenues.
Snyder said she understands her property will be used for staging materials and equipment during construction, but questions what will happen to it after the project is finished.
“This is our home; this is our business. We have a really good life,” Snyder said. “Extra money (from a forced purchase) means we will have to leave here and that’s going to change my life.”
At 52, Snyder and her husband, who is 56, said they don’t want to start to do that.
Ann Schrader: 303-278-3217 or aschrader@denverpost.com
