Austin Colbert/The Aspen Times
The owners of Snowmass Resort Conoco have dropped their lawsuit that accused the town of cutting off access to the service station during an automobile race held in September.
“I’d rather just move on and forget about it,” said Jeff Jandegian, who co-owns the Snowmass Conoco with Jeff Head, on Monday. “It turns out it wasn’t worth the time.”
Through its ownership entity Snowmass J&M Corp, Conoco sued the town of Snowmass Village in February for allegedly violating Conoco’s right to exclusive use of the property it leases.
The suit claimed the town, without notifying the service station, cut off road access to the Conoco and its convenience store and used its lot as a staging area for support vehicles in association with the Aspen Snowmass Vintage Car Race held Sept. 16 and 17.
By doing so, the station lost two days of business, the suit claimed.
Parties would not discuss details of the settlement agreement, which was introduced to the lawsuit last week, and whether the town compensated the station.
“They offered to dismiss it, and we accepted it,” Town Attorney John Dresser said. He declined to elaborate.
Jandegian said Conoco and the town have been good neighbors over the years, but added the lawsuit was filed to make a statement.
“Basically, if you’re going to use the land, ask permission first,” he said, adding the business would have told its mechanics to stay home those two days.
In its formal response to the suit, the town said it “provided notice of the race through a designated website, social media, the town newsletter, a press release and other such posts related to the event, time of the event and transportation impacts from the event. The town further admits that Brush Creek Road was impacted by the event and that one point of access to the Snowmass Conoco is by Brush Creek Road.”
Beyond that, the town denied claims in the suit, which was filed in Pitkin County District Court and also accused the town of a wrongful taking of the property, trespass and interference with prospective business relationship.
Conoco stayed open during the race, but had to turn away customers who had booked appointments for mechanical work.
Lance Cote of the Aspen law firm Klein Cote Edwards Citron LLN filed the suit on behalf of Conoco, which is located off Brush Creek Road, just before the roundabout that connects to both Base Village and the upper mall.