Eminent Domain or Exploitation? What Colorado’s Land Grab Means for Maryland’s MPRP and Property Rights

By Michael Phillips

In Brighton, Colorado, a quiet farm just became ground zero for a very loud warning shot: the government can now take your land—not for a road, school, or public highway—but for a private developer’s drainage pipe. Welcome to the 21st-century definition of “public use,” where private profits hide behind public processes.

The Polizi family’s farmland, an operational agricultural site, lost an eminent domain battle to the recently formed Parkland Metropolitan District—a quasi-government entity created by a vote of Brighton’s city council. The twist? The head of the district is the developer who will directly profit from the seized land.

This isn’t just a local Colorado scandal. It’s a red alert for Marylanders, especially those fighting to protect their land from the proposed Maryland-Pennsylvania Reliability Project (MPRP)—a massive transmission line plan that threatens to seize private farmland, forests, and residential property through eminent domain for out-of-state energy needs.

The Pattern Is National—and Maryland Could Be Next

Let’s connect the dots.

In both Colorado and Maryland:

• Government-backed or quasi-governmental entities (like utility commissions or metro districts) are being weaponized to seize land.
• Private corporations stand to profit, often cloaked in vague “public benefit” language.
• Local voices—farmers, homeowners, environmental advocates—are steamrolled by special interests tied directly to the political and regulatory machinery.

In Maryland, FirstEnergy and Potomac Edison are pushing the MPRP project, which proposes new high-voltage transmission lines stretching from Pennsylvania through Frederick and Washington Counties. The catch? Much of the energy is destined for out-of-state customers, while Marylanders bear the cost—in land, disruption, and environmental risk.

Worse, under Maryland’s current utility law, the Public Service Commission (PSC) could approve these routes, granting utilities condemnation authority—meaning they can forcibly take land under eminent domain with the state’s blessing.

What’s the “Public Use” Anymore?

The U.S. Supreme Court’s infamous Kelo v. City of New London decision in 2005 cracked open the door for this type of abuse. The Court ruled that economic development can constitute “public use,” even if the seized land ends up in private hands.

Since then, states like Maryland and Colorado have made insufficient efforts to protect property owners. In Colorado, we now see the ultimate perversion: a developer uses a government-created entity to take land for his own private gain—and wins. In Maryland, we risk the same outcome under the guise of “energy reliability.”

This Isn’t About Power Lines—It’s About Power

Let’s be clear: this isn’t about whether drainage pipes or transmission lines are useful. It’s about who decides and who benefits. And too often, it’s not the landowner.

Marylanders must demand:

• A moratorium on all eminent domain activity related to out-of-state utility projects.
• An audit of the MPRP and its backers, especially connections between developers, regulators, and political campaigns.
• Legislation limiting the use of eminent domain for anything not strictly and verifiably public use—not “future development,” not “reliability enhancements,” not “economic growth.”

Because if we don’t act now, the next headline won’t come from Colorado. It’ll be from Carroll County. Or Washington County. Or your backyard.

Final Thought

When a developer sits atop a government agency and uses that power to seize farmland for a project from which he profits, that’s not eminent domain.

That’s eminent corruption.

And if Maryland doesn’t learn from Colorado’s betrayal of landowners, we’ll soon be telling our own farmers, homeowners, and families the same thing:

You don’t own your land. Not really.