Eminent domain, used often to seize land from private owners, has Palizzi Farm in Brighton fearing for its survival
By Tracy Ross | The Colorado Sun
“I’m not young, I’m not stupid and it’s not going to happen.”
That’s what Debbie Palizzi told developer Jack Hoagland when he knocked on her door in 2022 and offered her $75,000 to run a stormwater pipeline from a subdivision he wanted to build through land her family has been farming for over 90 years.
Now that land could fall into Hoagland’s hands. He has asked an Adams County judge to decide whether Parkland Metropolitan District, of which he is president, can exercise eminent domain on Palizzi’s property to the west of the proposed Bromley Farms neighborhood.
If that happens, Palizzi said it will destroy her ability to continue farming 65 acres that sit between Sixth Avenue and Bromley Lane in Brighton. A pipelin...