TELLURIDE, Dec. 6, 5:37 p.m. – Maybe it’s not the date set for the Led Zeppelin reunion, but it is going to be a sight-and-sound oriented reunion for titans of a more profound kind for the Town of Telluride: When attorneys for both sides of the Valley Floor War reconvene for oral arguments to decide, before this state’s highest court, the Colorado Supreme Court, what’s more supreme, the rights of the individual property owner versus the rights of a municipality to shape it’s own future via condemnation of open space immediately outside its boundary.

The last time the legal foes met on the field of battle was in Delta to determine the valuation of the 570-acre Valley Floor. The result of that extraterritorial affair cost the town $50 million, plus. Money meant for the pockets of Neal Blue, a global defense and atomic energy magnate who paid approximately $7 million for the so-called Valley Floor in the early 1980s with designs on developing it for resort and residential-style amenities.

But on Jan. 22, 2008, before the seven members of the state’s highest legal authority, the legal eagles for both the town and the San Miguel Valley Corporation will duke it out again, in the flesh, as opposed to a trading of paperwork salvos in the form of crossing motions, briefs and so on.

Originally, to give an example of just how much paperwork has gone back and forth, Telluride officials had expected oral arguments to begin sometime this fall.

The SMVC, though capable of receiving $50 million-plus for the property, is challenging the town’s right to obtain the property through condemnation.

To answer that question, seven judges on the other side of the Colorado Rockies in Denver will hear the case. They are described, by the Web site for the body at www.courts.state.co.us, with the following words, presented to the General Assembly of the State of Colorado slightly more than a year before the Jan. 22 date for oral arguments, by Chief Justice Mary Mullarkey, on Jan. 12, 2007: “The Colorado Supreme Court is the state’s court of last resort. Its decisions are binding on all other Colorado state courts.

“The Supreme Court is composed of seven justices who serve ten-year terms. The Chief Justice is selected from the membership of the body and serves at the pleasure of a majority of the justices. The Chief Justice also serves as the executive head of the Colorado Judicial System and is the ex-officio chair of the Supreme Court Nominating Commission. The Chief Justice appoints the Chief Judge of the Court of Appeals and the Chief Judge of each of the state’s 22 judicial districts, and is vested with the authority to assign judges (active or retired) to perform judicial duties.

“Requests to review decisions of the Colorado Court of Appeals constitute a majority of the Supreme Court’s filings. The Supreme Court also has direct appellate jurisdiction over cases in which a statute has been held to be unconstitutional, cases involving decisions of the Public Utilities Commission, writs of habeas corpus, cases involving adjudication of water rights, summary proceedings initiated under the Election Code, and prosecutorial appeals concerning search and seizure questions in pending criminal proceedings. All of these appeals are filed directly with the Supreme Court, and, in these cases bypass the Court of Appeals. The Supreme Court also has exclusive jurisdiction to promulgate rules governing practice and procedure in civil and criminal actions.”

The fireworks for this case, barring any other delays or developments, will be at the Colorado State Judicial Building, 2 East 14th Ave., Fourth Floor, in Denver.