As Denver’s population grows, neighborhoods across the city are transforming. Older, smaller homes are being replaced with modern townhomes and apartment buildings. But in the West Colfax neighborhood, one family feels they’re being penalized for refusing to leave.

CBS Colorado’s Jasmine Arenas interviews Griselda Barbosa Martinez on her property. CBS

 A 50-plus-page lawsuit by homeowners Jorge Cardenas and Griselda Barbosa Martinez accuses the City of Denver, a property developer and Saunders Construction of violating their rights and threatening their property.

The couple has lived in their home for more than 20 years. They say it has been a labor of love since day one.

“When we bought this house, it was destroyed,” said Cardenas in Spanish.

They spent the last two decades reconstructing their home.

Over the years, they’ve turned down multiple unsolicited offers to sell — including a $180,000 offer in 2022. Homes nearby often sell for more than half a million.

That same year, construction began next door. The family says they received a letter stating a private company, with city authorization, would soon come onto their property to remove trees as part of alley maintenance. The couple claims that alley was quietly shifted closer to their home — endangering a retaining wall and several mature trees.

“They received a letter on their door advising them that in another week, this construction company would be coming onto their property and knocking down all their trees,” said Anna Martinez, the couple’s attorney. “And that the city of Denver had given authorization for it.”

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The lawsuit argues that no due process was followed, and that neither the city nor the developers could clearly explain the boundary of the alley in question.

“You could never go to your neighbor’s house and say, ‘Your trees are in my yard, so I’m chopping them down.’ But that’s essentially what the threat was,” Martinez said.

The city of Denver and Saunders Construction declined to comment, citing pending litigation. Defendants in the case have filed a motion to dismiss, denying any wrongdoing.

The couple’s home is seen between larger buildings on either side. CBS

 Martinez says the lawsuit is about more than property lines — it’s about basic rights.

“You can’t displace someone from their property. You can’t chop down their trees. You can’t trespass onto their land if you don’t know where the line is,” she said.

For Barbosa and Cardenas, the fight is about protecting not just their land, but their home and what it represents.

“This is our home,” said Barbosa in Spanish.

The case is now awaiting a court decision on whether it will proceed.

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