As a Real Estate broker in Grand Junction, for the past 20 years, I have watched the Brady Trucking Company problem very closely.

In selling both industrial and commercial property, potential purchasers often ask if the property is zoned for their business. They look closely at the zoning: business, industrial or commercial?

I would love to say, “Yes, you can purchase this property!” However with the track record of the City Council for the last 10 years, I tell these purchasers that the city and unfortunately the county cannot often be counted on to grant an approval for their business, that extreme due diligence prior to their purchase is required. “Why?” they ask. “The zoning is there!”

With the race-track approval and then disapproval a few years ago and now Brady Trucking and a few more tossed between, I feel that even if the zoning is there, I cannot seriously answer their question. The city has forgotten that the law is the law. The city and county have regulations and laws such that, if followed, the business and industries should never have a problem. The city and county are not in the feel-good business, and they are not governed by a minority vote that wishes to change laws at a whim. If the zoning is intact and the business fits the profile, the property should be able to be sold to a business safely. Not so here.

As I see it, no Realtor in the valley can safely sell a piece of industrial or commercial property and be sure that they will not meet a resistance of feel-good, minority, fighting their very right to exist. There is a very real cost in attorney fees, meetings and a personal toll that the City Council tosses to the owners of these businesses by simply failing to conduct their business as a business and working as a legal entity abiding by the law.

The City Council should conduct their our business as the City Council, the legal entity that you are. The real solution is to invite those who protest this legal transaction to either purchase the property personally (the city has no business purchasing the property) or run for a seat on the City Council so they can personally deny a legal ruling to the owners of these businesses.

I, as a Real Estate broker, could breathe and feel good selling these types of property if I knew my purchasers only had to follow the law.

PATTI L. BARRETT
Grand Junction

This entry was posted on Monday, January 19th, 2009 at 5:54 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.