AMT390- 95 Years Plowed Under: Family Farm Loses to Developer-Run Eminent Domain Board- As A Man Thinketh

A 95-year-old Colorado family farm is facing its greatest threat—not from drought, pests, or markets, but from the forced hand of eminent domain. The Palizzi Farm, a fixture in Brighton since 1929, recently lost a bitter court battle against a government entity determined to cut a pipeline through their fertile fields. Despite generations of hard work and a deep-rooted legacy of providing food for the community, the Palizzi family found their land rights powerless in the face of a local government’s infrastructure plans.
At the center of this dispute is a question that goes beyond one family or one pipeline: What happens when those with a vested financial interest in development are allowed to wield the government’s power to take private land? The Parkland Metropolitan District No. 1, a quasi-municipal body, was created specifically to pave the way for a new subdivision. Sitting as its president is Jack Hoagland—a private developer who stands to benefit from the very project that forced the Palizzi family to give up their land.
The Palizzi Farm, established in 1929, is one of the last working farms in Brighton, Colorado. Generations of the Palizzi family have grown vegetables and raised crops on the same soil, feeding not only their local community but serving as a living link to Colorado’s agricultural heritage.
Everything changed when Parkland Metropolitan District No. 1—formed in November 2023 to facilitate the Bromley Farms housing development—targeted the farm for a 40-foot-wide, two-acre pipeline easement. The purpose: to construct four 48-inch stormwater drainage pipes to serve the needs of a massive new subdivision.
Despite offers of compensation reportedly double and even five times the land’s market value, the Palizzis refused. Their concern was not just about money, but about the long-term viability of their farm. The proposed pipeline route would run directly through crucial cropland, disrupting their unique flood-irrigation system and interfering with plowing, planting, and harvesting.
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Starring: Charlie and Shuana Rankin