Court rejects Gilbert’s eminent domain claim

Leni Cazden’s nine 40-foot pine and cottonwood trees are safe from being chopped down — for now.

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge ruled this month that Gilbert could not use eminent domain to take her property inside a county island to expand a town road.

“I just went out and hugged my trees,” said Cazden.

“Some of us still like homes with horses and real grass. I want my kids to know and respect the Earth,” she said.

Cazden lives on the northwest corner of Higley Road and Fairview Street, between Germann and Williams Field roads. Other homeowners along the county island side of Higley Road, to the west, sold portions of their property last year for a road expansion planned by Gilbert between Frye and Pecos roads.

But Cazden took the issue to court, spending $40,000 and arguing the town should not take all of the approximately 80 feet needed for the expansion from the county island side of the road, leaving hundreds of new houses inside town limits on the other side of the road unaffected.

Of that 80 feet, 40 is within town limits and is outside Cazden’s wall — basically a dirt lot set aside for future road expansion. The other 40 feet includes Cazden’s yard and irrigation ditch.

Cazden and her attorney, William Cleaveland, argued that the 40 feet outside her wall is enough to expand the street without tearing down her trees and wall and installing town-approved landscaping in their place.

But town officials say that they needed between 60 and 80 feet to build a road, and that it’s not possible to bend the road around Cazden’s house when surrounding homeowners have sold the town the land it requested.

Town officials blame the proceedings for stalling expansion of Higley Road — which, they say, means Chaparral Elementary School won’t get a crosswalk that school officials have sought, in the near future.

Town Manager George Pettit said expanding Higley Road between Frye and Pecos roads has been postponed indefinitely as the town moves forward on other road projects.

Chaparral students are now largely bused because there is no crosswalk at Frye Road and town officials have deemed it too dangerous to build a crosswalk until the road is expanded, since vehicles now merge where the crosswalk would be located.

The ruling, filed Jan. 8 by Judge Carey Snyder Hyatt, does not resolve the entire case. Still in dispute between the town and Cazden is whether Cazden owns all — or any — of the remaining 40 feet inside town limits.

The judge, though, dismissed a motion by Cazden’s attorney seeking a judgment to allow her to claim ownership and seek compensation for the entire 40 feet inside town limits.

Pettit said the town has already begun meeting with Maricopa County officials to gain support from the county to use eminent domain to seize the property and move forward with the expansion.

“In order to build a full-width arterial street to our standards, we require that amount of right of way,” Pettit said.