Commercial construction projects sometimes get held up in Colorado over disagreements between local governmental entities. When a land’s boundary line is disputed, lengthy legal battles may postpone a site’s initial development. It took more than three years for the municipal parties involved to reach an agreement that allows the development of the Nine Mile Corner project to proceed, as reported by the Colorado Hometown Weekly.
The proposed Nine Mile Corner project is advertised as a mixed-use community consisting of retail, restaurants and luxury residential homes on about 45 acres in Erie. In 2016, the City of Lafayette filed a condemnation lawsuit against its neighboring municipality, the Town of Erie, over a shared open-space tract of land that was necessary for the project to flourish. The City of Lafayette intended to take ownership of their bordering land through the use of eminent domain. The Colorado Supreme Court, however, rejected their claim.
The two parties eventually settled their dispute through an agreement that provides for revenue-sharing from the Nine Mile Corner project. While litigation over land use is oftentimes complicated, this particular legal action took more than three years for the two neighboring municipalities to finally settle. The development company that was originally contracted to begin the construction may now proceed with moving forward with its building plans.
Challenges over the actual ownership of land or its boundaries may cause prolonged delays. Various legal issues may require contractors who are hired to wait for the issues to settle or find another opportunity. According to the USG Corporation + U.S. Chamber of Commerce Commercial Construction Index for the year 2018, the backlog for contractors averages 9.3 months.