The Georgia corporation that owns Dollar General stores is again suing the Montezuma County commissioners over their rejection of a store proposed on County Road N at Highway 145.
Leaf Properties filed an amended complaint in August after the commissioners voted on July 22 to deny the store a high-impact permit.
It was the second time they voted 2 to 1 to deny such a permit. They first did so in April of 2024 and were then sued.
A year later, District Judge Todd Plewe ordered the board to hold a second public hearing because they did not issue a written decision the first time around.
In its complaint, Leaf Properties argues that the nearly four-acre parcel in question is zoned commercial and retail stores are a use by right. The corporation complains that the board didn’t tell it what it could have done differently to win approval and accuses it of listening to “a vocal group of residents opposed to a dollar store in particular and seemingly any development more generally.”
In its reply, dated Sept. 4, the county states that uses by right can’t exceed county threshold standards without permission, and the store would generate traffic above those standards. The county also says it doesn’t have to guide applicants on how to cast their applications.
At an impromptu town hall in Dolores on Aug. 27, Commission Chair Jim Candelaria said, “We get lawsuits thrown at us almost on a daily basis.”
Gail Binkly is a career journalist who has worked for the Colorado Springs Gazette and Cortez Journal, and was the editor of the Four Corners Free Press, based in Cortez.