A Brighton vegetable farm’s fight against a metro district’s eminent domain action to provide storm drainage for new housing drew hundreds of people to an Adams County courthouse Monday in support of the nearly century-old operation.
District Judge Sarah Stout listened to nearly four hours of testimony about the developer-controlled district’s attempt to use a portion of the farm’s property. Stout told both sides that she would render a judgment in the case no sooner than the end of the month.
The judge is charged with deciding whether Parkland Metropolitan District No. 1 can condemn a swath of Palizzi Farm to build a stormwater project for its Bromley Farms housing development.
Farm owner Debora Palizzi said on the stand that the laying of giant drainage pipes across her 63-acre farm would be so disruptive to her ability to plow and till her land that it would essentially put her out of business permanently. Palizzi grows sweet corn, tomatoes, peppers, chili peppers, okra, beets, onions and cucumbers at the farm on East Bromley Lane, which has been in business since 1929. Each year it sells its produce at area farmers markets.
The drainage work “would completely divide our farm into half and, as we stand today, it would completely eliminate the irrigation on my farm,” she testified Monday.
Jack Hoagland, a longtime developer in Colorado, is president of the Parkland Metro District and a partner in the Bromley Farms project. He said the stormwater infrastructure project wouldn’t simply benefit the new neighborhood he wants to build but also would resolve a decades-long drainage problem in Brighton.
It was the city’s elected leaders, in fact, who gave Parkland the authority to use eminent domain as part of a service plan the City Council approved for the metro district last summer.
Hoagland characterized the drainage work as having a public benefit that justifies the use of eminent domain under Colorado law. Palizzi, he said, rejected an offer of $300,000 for the easement across her farm — which he cited as evidence that Parkland had made a good-faith attempt to buy the access for its stormwater project before turning to condemnation.
But Palizzi’s attorney, Donald Ostrander, delivered a pointed retort about his client’s reticence to grant access to her land: “Does this suggest to you that this isn’t about money?”
His question elicited applause from crowds gathered in three overflow rooms in the courthouse.
Audience members also scoffed at a point in Hoagland’s testimony when he listed several partners in the Bromley Farms development who also serve on the board of the Parkland Metro District. In 2019, the Colorado Supreme Court ruled that metro districts, as quasi-municipal governments, have eminent domain powers.
After the hearing, Palizzi said Parkland’s move to condemn part of her farm for its drainage project was nothing more than an attempt by the metro district to find the cheapest and most direct route, without fully exploring other options.
“Our land is so important to us,” she said in an interview outside the courthouse. “I just hope for a good outcome where I can continue feeding the community and surrounding communities.”
Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter, The Spot.