Ordinance TREND + Legal TREND. Require Voter Approval for Eminent Domain.

The City: Littleton, CO & Wheat Ridge, CO

The voter approval requirement: To access urban renewal tools like tax increment financing or eminent domain require urban renewal

What did a district court in Colorado do with Wheat Ridge’s Ordinance?  The Wheat Ridge ordinance, related to mandating that any tax-increment financing package over $2.5 million first get the consent of voters, is pre-empted by Colorado’s supremacy on the issue.

What’s the city’s argument: voter approval will cost time and money, and runs counter to what is established in state law regarding urban renewal.

What is the property rights/libertarian/tea party argument for the ordinance? 

• urban renewal has “outlived its usefulness” and it is not an economic tool
• taxpayers should have a say over how their tax dollars are used

Denver Post | Wheat Ridge will not challenge judge’s crackdown on urban renewal limits