Plaintiffs in the lawsuit surrounding the latest segment of Silverthorne's Blue River Trail recpath introduced a petition Thursday to amend provisions in the town's charter relating to eminent domain.

Eminent domain is a right granted to home rule municipalities to acquire private property through the courts when officials can't reach outside agreements with landowners. Permission and compensation for land use or land acquisition is settled in the courts. This process has begun between the Town of Silverthorne and three property owners in the affected Blue Mesa Subdivision neighborhood.

Charlie and Ginny Crowley and Laura Lyddy have teamed up with Lou and Suzann Gobis and Ed and Matthew Lutz to form Silverthorne Voters Opposed to Eminent Domain (Silverthorne VOTED), a committee dedicated to raising awareness about municipal use of eminent domain in Silverthorne and nationwide — with the aim of changing town documents to provide better protection for landowners.

Committee members sbumitted to the town clerk their notice of intent to circulate the petition Thursday.

“Our town attorney will work with our town clerk and review the document for sufficiency under the appropriate state statute,” Silverthorne spokesman Ryan Hyland said. “A determination on sufficiency will be made by February 9.”

If it's accepted, the committee then has 90 days to collect 200 signatures of registered Silverthorne voters to place the amendment on a special election ballot. If the committee wanted to get it on the April ballot, their time is much shorter — roughly 30 days — to get the petition approved and the signatures collected.

The charter amendment — providing the petition passes and the measure is approved in an election process — would create provisions under which municipalities must get voter approval to commence eminent domain proceedings in three instances: Conveyance of private property to a private developer, acquiring open space, and constructing or installing recreational facilities.

“We think this is a logical thing to protect everybody's property rights,” Ginny Crowley said, adding there's been plenty of verbal support for the petition.

Lyddy said, “I'm not against recreation, however, we have property rights.”

Legal wrangling

Members of the committee have been tied up in legal proceedings for more than a year, and still await Judge Mark Thompson's ruling on whether Town of Silverthorne officials have the right to build the proposed recpath — which includes bicycle travel — on their easement. Plaintiffs argued in November's two-day trial that the easement's language prohibits it from being developed into more than a public walkway.

Crowley and Lyddy said they're proposing the charter amendment because its portion on eminent domain currently is one sentence long: “The Town shall have the right of eminent domain for all municipal purposes whatever within or without the limits of the Town.”

They say it doesn't match provisions in the town code, which the charter trumps, and should be more explicit in what it allows and doesn't allow.

“We realize a town needs to operate and we don't want to compromise the health and safety or things that are crucial to the people, like infrastructure,” Crowley said.

The women say the petition to amend initiated from the Blue River Trail argument, but is more widely applicable. Colorado is one of a handful of states that hasn't addressed the private property conveyance situation, despite cases happening nationwide. They say they fear similar action from Silverthorne officials in other areas of town, given recent goals for redeveloping the town's character.

Crowley said the idea isn't to remove the town's ability to use eminent domain. Rather, it's to make the town more accountable to its citizens, and require “public purpose” to meet both court and citizen approval.

They say the charter requires the town have efficient and orderly government “while also providing for and encouraging the fullest possible citizen participation in the affairs of the town,” according to wording in the document.

“In the very important issue of taking the private property of citizens, we believe the ‘fullest possible citizen participation' is necessary and should be required,” the documents state.

As for how Silverthorne Town Council feels about it, Hyland said, “I'm certain that the Town Council will be interested in weighing in on the subject matter of the proposed petition, however, they will likely be holding comment until a determination on petition sufficiency is made.”