A bill to protect property rights is making it's way through the State Capitol.

House Bill 1278 passed round one with a 9-4 vote in the House Transportation and Energy Committee. The four who voted against the bill are Representatives Randy Fischer (D) Larimer, Claire Levy (D) Boulder, Michael Merrifield (D) El Paso and Dianne Primavera (D) Adams. The bill now heads to Appropriations, onto the House floor and then through the Senate. Representative Ken Summers (R) Lakewood is one of the prime sponsors of the bill.

The bill clarifies what RTD can use properties for if the property has been acquired using eminent domain. Eminent domain is the ability of a government to condemn your property and force you to hand over possession for a public use. Fair compensation is supposed to be part of the deal, that is if you don't mind paying court and attorney fees, and rolling the dice on the outcome in court.

As of today, RTD can condemn your property and immediately sell the property to a developer as long as it passes a public purpose test. A public purpose test can be passed even if only an undefined portion of the property development benefits public transit. This bill would limit RTD to use the condemned properties only for such things as parking for transit riders, transit maintenance facilities or other valid transit purposes but not commercial or residential development.

Development around Lakewood's light rail stations will fill in just fine as Lakewood City Council added in high-density, mixed-use zoning around the stations, like little mini-downtowns. There's no need for RTD to get into the development game and compete with the free market. Parking will become a high-priced commodity around light rail stations, RTD should reserve every space available for that use.