Terry Bott thought she did everything right when she bought her home in Trail Ridge South neighborhood in Northgate in 2003.
“I read all the covenants,” said Bott, an accountant who works for a homebuilder. “There were some I didn’t like. I can’t have a clothes line, for example. I think that’s stupid. But I agreed to abide by it.
“I told myself I was willing to abide by everything in the covenants even though I didn’t like all the stuff.”
So she was angry in 2006 when the board of the Trail Ridge South Homeowners Association passed rules prohibiting homeowners from parking on neighborhood streets, which are public. She’s been fighting the HOA ever since.
First, she volunteered to serve on the board to work for change.
After a couple of years she resigned, but has continued to challenge the rule, which allows guests to the neighborhood to park on the street. Just not homeowners.
Bott went back to her copy of the covenants, which govern things such as landscaping, paint colors, displays of signs and flags and changes to a home.
Every buyer in a covenant-protected neighborhood agrees to honor the covenants, which are enforced by volunteer boards that police the neighborhood. Often, property management companies are hired to collect dues, maintain commonly owned neighborhood parks, pools and rights-of-way and do the dirty work of enforcement.
Anyway, Bott studied the covenants, written by the developer in 2001, and found only one reference to parking.
“The covenants only say abandoned cars after five days and recreational vehicles can not park in the street,” Bott said.
Trail Ridge South resident Terry Bott says she studied the covenants before buying in the neighborhood in 2003 because she specifically wanted to be able to park in front of her home. She is upset the Homeowners Association board passed a rule in 2006 banning on-street parking by residents.
So I gave the covenants a look. I’m not exactly Stephen J. Hawking, but I can read. What I read left me puzzled. (Shocking, I know.) There was one paragraph on parking: Section 4.11 Restrictions on Parking and Storage.
Sure enough, it bans abandoned vehicles. It requires garage doors to be kept closed except “when in immediate use” by a vehicle. It goes on to say: “Boats, recreational vehicles, campers, motor homes, trailers and other such vehicles shall be kept in the garage” . . . “and shall in no event be parked on the streets” of the neighborhood.
The HOA board read that paragraph as permission to adopt a rule six years ago banning parking by home-owners.
Trail Ridge South HOA president Amy Umiamaka
HOA president Amy Umiamaka wasn’t on the board at the time. But she said the board was concerned about safety of children riding bikes and appearance.
“It sure does make the neighborhood look nicer,” Umiamaka said.
To appease Bott, she said, the HOA board finally solicited a legal opinion from attorney Lenard Rioth last fall.
In a November letter to the HOA, Rioth said he believed the rule prohibiting parking was valid. He concluded the “other such vehicles” language applies to car and trucks.
“It’s pretty straight-forward,” Rioth told me. “There’s plenty of case law to support the board.”
But another longtime HOA attorney, Jack Scheuerman, said it wasn’t so simple.
“Banning parking exceeds the authority they have under the covenants,” Scheuerman told me. “I think a judge would shoot it down.”
Shocking, isn’t it, that neighbors and lawyers all disagree?
Bott is convinced she has the right to park on the street and it doesn’t matter if a majority of her neighbors agree with the board’s actions.
I’ve talked to neighbors on both sides of the question. The community certainly is divided.
Some say it’s imperative to the safety of neighborhood children to keep cars off the street. Others say it’s unfair to allow guests to park on the street but not homeowners. Some have several teenage drivers and no room in their driveways for all the cars.
Bott seems determined to resolve the question of what Section 4.11 really means.
“I’m not going to drop this,” she said. “I resigned from the HOA board because I thought what they were trying to do was wrong.”
She said the dispute has led to heated board meetings and confrontations.
“I’ve been told by a board member that I should move if I do not like what they are doing. These guys need to be stopped.”
Here’s a guess: a judge ultimately will decide the definition of “other such vehicles.”
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If that is indeed a picture of her house, and wants to park in front of it, she needs to remember that Colorado Springs parking code prohibits parking within 5 feet of any fire hydrant. I hope she owns one of those beer canned size “Smart Cars”, otherwise, she will be blocking her driveway or encroaching on the fire hydrant.
Stupid ! Unbelievably Stupid. Who really wants to live in a Stepford Wife environment any way where you can’t even park your car on the street……
I want to live in a Stepford Wife neighborhood. That is why there are two kinds. That is called choice. If you want to live in the ghetto, that is your perogative. Move there. If you don’t want to abide by rules, don’t move into a nice covenant controlled neighborhood.
Steph … these are the only two choices? And are you really saying that if you don’t live in a HOA community you live in a ghetto ? Really ? Based upon your mind set I’d take the ghetto anyday to get away from your type of thinking ….
I am a community manager and the first thing we learn in the M100 is that rules can’t be more restrictive then the covenants. I agree with Jack, that rule doesn’t apply to owner vehicles. I’ve seen covenants that restrict street parking entirely and it is clearly spelled out, no parking of any vehicles.
I live in TRS, and this is the least friendly, most contentious neighborhood I’ve ever lived in. We keep to ourselves as much as possible, and will leave as soon as we can, because people here are much more interested in backbiting and bickering than being neighborly. I think the negative atmosphere here will effect property values much more than whether or not there are cars parked on the street.
Interesting comment from HOA president Amy Umiamaka when she said board was concerned about safety of children riding bikes and appearance. Residential streets are not great playgrounds for kids. That’s why we have yards and community playgrounds. I didn’t realize such a nice neighborhood didn’t have playgrounds for the kids so they would not have to play stick ball in the streets
Steph….didn’t the article say that the issue wasn’t part of the original HOA rules when Bott moved in? Didn’t it also say it wasn’t an issue until the HOA changed the rules in 2006? How is she at fault for picking this nice covenant controlled neighborhood that subsequently changed the rules?
It seems obvious to me from reading the pertinent section of the covenants that all the vehicle types listed that are prohibited from parking on the street are either recreational or utility vehicles. I wouldn’t interpret that passage to mean passenger cars or even pickup trucks.
It’s simple.. If kids are so ‘endangered’ by parked cars in the street, make more playgrounds for them, or punish the parents that let the kids play in the streets. I’m not sure how the community can restrict parking on public streets anyway.. It’s one reason why I avoid covenant neighborhoods, mostly because of the Nazi mindset of the boards, not to mention that the rules are made for everyone else in the neighborhood but the board members.
Though I think the passage has been misinterpreted, there’s plenty of room in her driveway … so what’s the problem?
Maybe she doesn’t like backing into the street and parks on the street because it is a public street and it is her right to do so.