Opinion ID: 2517173
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Scope of Article XX

Text: The threshold question in this appeal is whether the condemnation of property for open space and park purposes falls within the scope of the eminent domain power granted to home rule municipalities in article XX of the Colorado Constitution. Telluride claims that, pursuant to article XX and its home rule charter, it is empowered to condemn the property in the Valley Floor for open space and park purposes. Telluride argues that because subsection 4b prohibits extraterritorial condemnations for open space or similar purposes, the statute represents an unconstitutional abrogation of home rule municipalities' eminent domain power. The Corporation counters that the constitution does not provide home rule municipalities with the authority to condemn extraterritorially for open space and park purposes, and that subsection 4b is carefully tailored not to interfere with powers granted by article XX. As both parties recognize, the General Assembly has no power to enact a law that denies a right specifically granted by the constitution. City of Thornton v. Farmers Reservoir & Irrigation Co., 194 Colo. 526, 534, 575 P.2d 382, 389 (1978). Therefore, the constitutionality of subsection 4b depends on whether article XX grants home rule municipalities the power to condemn property for open space and park purposes. We hold that it does. Eminent domain is a sovereign power granted to home rule municipalities by article XX of the Colorado Constitution. Section 1 of article XX provides that a home rule municipality: shall have the power, within or without its territorial limits, to construct, condemn and purchase, purchase, acquire, lease, add to, maintain, conduct and operate water works, light plants, power plants, transportation systems, heating plants, and any other public utilities or works or ways local in use and extent, in whole or in part, and everything required therefore . . . and . . . the same or any part thereof may be purchased by said city and county which may enforce such purchase by proceedings at law as in taking land for public use by right of eminent domain. Section 6 of article XX gives each home rule municipality all powers necessary, requisite or proper for the government and administration of its local and municipal matters. These article XX powers are vested in municipalities through their home rule charters. Telluride's charter gives it the full right of self-government on local and municipal matters, and further provides that the town has the right of eminent domain to acquire property both within and without the boundaries of the Town for any purpose deemed by the Town council to be in the Town's best interest. Telluride, Colo., Home Rule Charter, §§ 14.1-14.2 (1997). The Corporation first argues that the constitution does not provide Telluride authority to condemn extraterritorially for open space and parks because these are not purposes enumerated in article XX, section 1. The Corporation asserts that home rule municipalities can only condemn for purposes that either appear in section 1 or are correlative to the purposes listed in section 1. We disagree. This court has held on multiple occasions that the purposes specified in section 1 are merely examples of a broader grant of power, namely the power to condemn property for any lawful, public, local, and municipal purpose. City of Thornton, 194 Colo. at 534, 575 P.2d at 389; Toll v. City & County of Denver, 139 Colo. 462, 468, 340 P.2d 862, 865 (1959); Town of Glendale v. City & County of Denver, 137 Colo. 188, 194, 322 P.2d 1053, 1057 (1958); Fishel v. City & County of Denver, 106 Colo. 576, 583, 108 P.2d 236, 240 (1940). For example, in Fishel v. City & County of Denver , Denver sought to condemn land outside city limits to be donated to the United States for an air corps technical school and bombing range. 106 Colo. at 578, 108 P.2d at 238. We rejected the argument that the condemnation power is limited to the purposes enumerated in section 1, stating: In view of the wide scope of such enumerated cases in which the power might be exercised  probably then considered as being all-inclusive  and the circumstance as we have so many times held, that this amendment was designed to give as large a measure of home rule in local municipal affairs as could be granted under a Republican form of government, we have no doubt that the people of Colorado intended to, and, in effect, did thereby delegate to Denver full power to exercise the right of eminent domain in the effectuation of any lawful, public, local, and municipal purpose. Similarly, in City & County of Denver v. Hallett, we affirmed Denver's power to issue bonds to acquire property for a public auditorium. 34 Colo. 393, 398, 83 P. 1066, 1068 (1905). We acknowledged that the power to build a public auditorium was not specified in article XX, but held that the statement contained in the first section was not intended to be an enumeration of powers conferred, but simply the expression of a few of the more prominent powers which municipal corporations are frequently granted. Id.; see also Toll, 139 Colo. at 469, 340 P.2d at 865 (holding that Denver had authority to condemn extraterritorially for flowage easements and channel improvements, though there is no mention of those purposes in article XX); Town of Glendale, 137 Colo. at 194, 322 P.2d at 1056 (Although sewers are not expressly mentioned in the Constitution, the powers enumerated therein are by way of illustration and not of limitation.). Furthermore, a plain language reading of article XX, taken as a whole, confirms that the purposes enumerated in section 1 do not define the full scope of the eminent domain power. Section 1, which originally applied only to Denver, is made applicable to all home rule municipalities by article XX, section 6. Section 6 grants each home rule city and town the powers set out in section 1, 4 and 5 of article XX, as well as all other powers necessary, requisite or proper for the government and administration of its local and municipal matters. . . . As we have held previously, this language establishes that the list of purposes in section 1 is not comprehensive. Karsh v. City & County of Denver, 176 Colo. 406, 411, 490 P.2d 936, 939 (1971). In Karsh v. City & County of Denver , we examined whether Denver was authorized under article XX to issue bonds for the purpose of an urban renewal project, notwithstanding the fact that urban renewal is not a listed purpose in section 1. Id. We held that when section 6 was added to article XX in 1912, it clearly expanded the purposes for which bonds might be issued. Id. We stated, The enumerated purposes of section 1 were superseded by the general section 6 standard of `local and municipal matters.' Hence, in light of our caselaw and the plain language of article XX, we reject the Corporation's contention that Telluride's eminent domain power is limited to the purposes enumerated in section 1. The Corporation next argues that the condemnation power under article XX is more limited in the context of an extraterritorial condemnation. The Corporation relies on language in section 6 which states that a home rule municipality's charter or local ordinance shall supersede state law within the territorial limits of the municipality. Because this language identifies a distinction between a home rule municipality's powers inside and outside of its jurisdiction, the Corporation asserts that a municipality's eminent domain powers should be construed narrowly when exercised extraterritorially and thus should be restricted to the list of purposes specified in section 1. We have not recognized a distinction between the scope of the extraterritorial and territorial eminent domain powers conferred in article XX, and we do not agree that the language in section 6 regarding supersession supports such a distinction. The section 6 language cited by the Corporation establishes that home rule municipalities have plenary power over local and municipal matters within their territorial limits. However, we consider it a significant departure from the plain language of that provision  language constituting a grant of power  to infer that the provision contradicts or constrains extraterritorial powers independently established in a separate constitutional provision. We have affirmed extraterritorial condemnations in a number of cases and have not assigned an inferior status to the extraterritorial exercise of the condemnation power. See, e.g., City of Thornton, 194 Colo. at 535, 575 P.2d at 389 (holding that Thornton was authorized to condemn extraterritorially for water rights); Toll, 139 Colo. at 468, 340 P.2d at 865 (affirming extraterritorial condemnation for flowage easements and channel improvements); City & County of Denver v. Bd. of Comm'rs, 113 Colo. 150, 156, 156 P.2d 101, 103 (1945) (holding that Denver could condemn property for construction of airport more than five miles outside of city, despite five-mile limit in conflicting state statute); Fishel, 106 Colo. at 584, 108 P.2d at 241 (affirming extraterritorial condemnation for air corps school and bombing range). In sum, we reiterate that the eminent domain power granted to home rule municipalities in article XX is not limited to the purposes enumerated in section 1, nor is the eminent domain power circumscribed when exercised extraterritorially. Rather, article XX grants home rule municipalities the power to condemn property, within or outside of territorial limits, for any lawful, public, local, and municipal purpose. Hence, we now examine whether the condemnation of property for open space and parks effectuates a lawful, public, local, and municipal purpose.