Critics of a now-scuttled Boulder County plan to build a composting plant on county-owned open space say they will appeal a judge’s decision to throw out their lawsuit.
They said they will continue their legal fight even after the county dropped plans to build the compost facility on the 40-acre parcel on North 107th Street south of Longmont at the abandoned Rainbow Nursery parcel, plaintiff Brandon White stated in a new release Tuesday.
White said District Judge Partrick Butler’s Monday ruling to dismiss the lawsuit sidestepped the issue of the county using public funds to buy protected open space for an industrial-scale composting station.
“We feel very strongly the Court followed the lead of the County in dodging the substance of the matter of protecting Open Space lands, purchased for perpetual conservation with restricted tax revenues,” White stated in the release. “In so doing, the Court and County also failed to address the related legal issues. It’s unfortunate we now have to turn to the Court of Appeals, but we respect the process on this very important matter for all Boulder County residents.”
White and fellow defendants Lisa Battan and Victor Vargas own property near the proposed site of the composting plant. They claim in their lawsuit that the county violated the public trust by using $160,625 in sales and use taxes in 1994 to create a conservation easement to protect the parcel from development. The county then paid $985,000 to buy the property from a private landowner in 2018.
The suit claims that once the county bought the property, officials said none of the protections afforded under the conservation easement were in effect. In 2020, the county announced to property owners the Rainbow site would soon host the compost plant, the suit claims.
The landowners said the use of county open space tax revenue to buy the property also violated portions of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR by using voter-approved funds to make the purchase.
Their suit asked that the conservation easement for the parcel be reinstated and the county be blocked from developing the site.
Butler, in his ruling, said that since the county withdrew its application to develop the land for the composting facility, he cannot find the plaintiffs are being injured. He also said he could not find enough facts to determine the county violated provisions of TABOR, as alleged by the landowners.
“The Court cannot find — especially now that the Compost Facility application has been withdrawn — that Plaintiffs have alleged a sufficient injury in fact,” Butler stated in his ruling.
A second lawsuit against the compost site is still pending.
The county, saying it needed to further study issues surrounding the compost plant, earlier this month withdrew its application to develop the site. County commissioners last week also said the Rainbow site should be permanently taken off the table for the facility.
“The commissioners have each, individually, expressed their disinterest in pursuing the Rainbow Nursery site as a possible compost facility,” county spokeswoman Barbara Halpin said in an email. “We do not have concrete next steps for how the county might proceed in addressing composting.”
The county’s proposal to build on the Rainbow Nursery parcel drew fire from local officials, including Longmont City Council. In a letter to the county commissioners, the council stated it is likely to ask the county for more collaboration in developing a compost facility.
