Supreme Court Case

The final chapter in the determination of the future of the Valley Floor is being outlined in a Denver, Colorado office near the state Capitol Building. On January 22, the Colorado Supreme Court, the highest jurisdiction in the state, heard oral arguments from the Town of Telluride and SMVC on the question of the Town of Telluride's authority to acquire our 570-acre gateway through the process of eminent domain. In 62 minutes of no-nonsense back-and-forth, the panel of 7 Justices heard final summary pleas and asked probing questions on topics ranging from municipal purpose to legislative intent, home rule/local authority to state-wide concern. At some point in the next nine months, their judgment will be released.

At issue before the Supreme Court was a law passed in 2004 prohibiting home rule municipalities, such as Telluride, from using eminent domain to acquire land outside its borders for open space. When SMVC filed a motion with the District Court to end Telluride's condemnation effort based on this law passed retroactively, the Judge ruled that the new law was unconstitutional and allowed the proceedings to continue. Shortly before VFPP was able to raise the funds needed to meet the $50MM value placed on the land by the jury, SMVC filed an appeal to the Supreme Court based on the District Court Judge's ruling.

The Court proceedings can be viewed in their entirety at www.telluridewebtv.com.

Briefs filed by both sides to the Supreme Court can be found in the Town Updates link in the legal section of this web site.

VFPP will post the Court's judgement as soon as it is released.

While we wait, please join us and visualize the Valley Floor Forever Wild.