[From Colorado Luis, a tale that should be of interest to us all.]
One side
The Super Slab was sold as a tax-free way to solve our transportation woes. A private — and secret — group of investors would fund the project. It would be a Super Highway stretching from Pueblo to Fort Collins. …
[T]he ?200 affected? landowners turned out to be more like 75,000 and they were outraged that a for-profit entity could condemn their land without any governmental oversight or citizen input. These people were the true heroes. They were farmers and ranchers, people who wanted to get away from the city, people who owned land they were deeding to open space and others. They organized county groups spontaneously. They organized meetings of 1000 people, list serves, and brought over 1000 people to the capital to testify against the bill. According to the state police, this was the largest group of people to show up and testify on a bill ever.
Some pundits have dismissed these folks as just NIMBY?s ? Not In My Back Yard ? and there is some of that (who would want a superhighway in their backyard?) but there was also a lot of thoughtful concern about turning so much power over to a private for profit company.
The fact remains, the people in the highway zone spoke loudly and clearly ? they did not want the Super Slab ? and the legislature listened.
The other side
TRn: Colorado Senate committee defers action on Front Range Toll Road bill
But a major campaign of opposition to the project developed out of a poisonous and unscrupulous website with hysterical public meetings, letterwriting, overblown newspaper reportage, vilification of supporters, culminating in a demonstration at the Capitol of 600 to 800 people. …
Under [the 1882] statute – details of which are something of a mystery – companies filing a claim for an easement apparently have the right to install utilities such as waterpipes, telephone lines, electric transmission lines, gas lines… and tollroads. The early statutes permitted hundreds of private tollroads to be built, only one of which survives – Pikes Peak Toll Road to the top of a mountain. …
Most important the noisies must be told: you have your rights, and they will be respected, but you won’t decide this matter. The mob doesn’t rule here.
Somebody wants to use that old law that is continually used to steal public resources (OK, buy for cheap or condemn), to build a privately owned toll road as an alternative to a publicly owned Interstate. Free Market Madness.
While the project is on hold, remember to be eternally vigilant. Every single day someone is looking around and saying, “hey, I can make some money here.” And they are looking in our backyards, at our public lands and our sacred spaces, for a quick profit before they move on to destroy something else. mjh