Even as the backhoe was starting to tear up the hillside above the arboretum last week, Maynard filed suit in U.S. District Court asking federal judge John Kane to issue a temporary restraining order halting construction on the project. The federal suit, which names the City of Denver and the Denver Botanic Gardens as defendants (along with a litany of federal agencies), alleges that Denver officials violated the city charter by giving the easement to Chatfield Green without the city council's approval. However, Judge Kane refused to halt work on the subdivision, ruling that the plaintiff in the case, a member of the Denver chapter of the Sierra Club, hadn't proved that he would sustain "legal injury" from the project. Kane gave Maynard twenty days to find other plaintiffs for her suit, which is still pending.
Already, the suit has strained relations between the Sierra Club and the Botanic Gardens, which last week released a statement saying it was "unfortunate that some members of the Sierra Club, in their enthusiasm to stop the development adjacent to the Chatfield Arboretum, are intentionally misrepresenting the purpose of the current construction."
That construction is part of an agreement reached between the developer and the Botanic Gardens to protect the arboretum. The "stormwater diversion system" being installed is supposed to keep wetlands near the arboretum from being contaminated by runoff from the planned 800 homes. "We are not able to stop the development," the release from the Botanic Gardens continues, "but we secured a binding legal agreement with the developer for this elaborate, multi-faceted program."
Of course, if Ann Bonnell had had an extra $250,000 lying around, an injunction would already be in effect at Chatfield Green. The construction crews working on the hillside would have had to wait at least until the conclusion of next month's trial in Jefferson County.
Maynard feels so strongly about the injustice of the bond requirement that she says she may try to take the case all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court. "I've moved heaven and earth to try to get an injunction," she says. "I've done everything I can think of."
But Bonnell now fears it may be too late to prevent a subdivision that will loom over her beloved arboretum. She also believes Littleton and Denver have botched an opportunity to create a regional park in the southwest metro area, since the arboretum is already sandwiched between the state park at Chatfield Reservoir and a Jefferson County open-space park to the west.
"This is the last view of the mountain backdrop from Wadsworth without houses in the middle of it," Bonnell says. "Now the arboretum will be surrounded by subdivisions."
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