About two dozen members of the Colorado City community, including all five Colorado City Metro District (CCMD) Board Members, gathered for a community forum on Tuesday, July 23, for an opportunity to ask questions and give opinions on anything they desired.
The originally released agenda dealt primarily with Colorado House Bill 24-1267, which gives Metro Districts the ability to levy fines for covenant violations. The first official act of the night, however, was a unanimous suspension of the agenda so that any topic could be discussed.
That being said, the majority of the meeting focused on the covenants and the desirability or nondesirability of attaching fines to them. The mood of the meeting vacillated from conciliatory, angry, peaceful and appreciative.
CCMD Chaiman Neil Elliot made it clear at the beginning that it was not a meeting at all. It was an opportunity for everyone, including board members, to be citizens and express their feelings. The meeting is available on the website if anyone would like to hear the comments and discussion. The first citizen who spoke was a regular attendee of the metro meetings who made his feelings known via a letter read by District Manager Jim Eccher. The citizen indicated that he felt monetary fines for covenant vio- lations was a blatant overreach of the metro directors, and that the enforcement of the new bill would make Colorado City nothing more than an HOA.
He also indicated he felt the covenants were outdated and should be done away with.
One of the board members shared what he had learned about HB 24-1267. Several times it was mentioned that, according to the bill, the CCMD had only until January 1 to decide how they were going to deal with the legislation.
The third citizen who spoke indicated he felt the act gave no new powers at all. He cited several paragraphs in the bill which referred back to an act that went into effect on 1-1-22. In his opinion, it changed nothing.
A couple spoke next and stated, “We’re asking for help.” They shared stories of a neighbor ignoring covenants, having a chicken coop, people living in a camper and ruining the spot they picked to retire because of a total disregard for the covenants.
Their story prompted a question from another attendee, “Do you want to enforce all of the covenants? Because, it’s pretty much an all or none situation.”
To which one member of the audiences said, “If covenants had been enforced many of the businesses along the highway would not have been permitted.”
There was discussion of the status quo in which people with complaints were being encouraged by the CCMD board to file county complaints and even take small claims action. And that the metro district seemed not to take any action.
One man stated of the Metro District, “You aren’t excited about this; nothing is going to happen.”
Moderator and CCMD Chairman Elliot, at this point, interjected that some of what appeared reluctance was because Pueblo County was in the process of changing their code, and another member of the board interjected that the county was using that as an excuse for not getting anything done.
A man in the audience then interjected, “You are making excuses right now. Giving us a penalty structure would be more than we’ve got now.”
A CCMD Board Member said that for architectural control to work you had to have a lot of money, something the CCMD did not have. Litigation takes money, and an involved electorate he continued. Without funds your only weapon is persuasion.
Near the end of the meeting several other things came up. Robert Smith, who has been fighting a battle with noxious weeds at his own expense and time, indicated he won’t be doing that anymore and hoped the Metro District will step up.
A brief comment was made by an audience member that talk about a second reservoir couldn’t be done legally because of eminent domain issues. In the end, many questions remained. Is there a clear mandate from the constituents to enforce the covenants with fines, continue as they are, or quit enforcing all covenants? If the covenants are ignored, what recourse do people have for neighbors who trash their own property causing property values to dive?
What would an enforcement agency look like? Who comes up with the fines? Are all the covenants fined in an equal way? Is there a way to finance action without fines?