{"id":2453654,"date":"2020-01-24T01:00:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-24T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspentimes.com\/?p=319645"},"modified":"2020-01-24T01:00:00","modified_gmt":"2020-01-24T08:00:00","slug":"redstone-road-closure-leads-into-lawsuit-confrontation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/local-news\/redstone-road-closure-leads-into-lawsuit-confrontation\/","title":{"rendered":"Redstone road closure leads into lawsuit, confrontation"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
The Filoha Meadows Nature Preserve, about two miles north of Redstone.<\/strong>
<\/em><\/figcaption><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

A Redstone-area homeowner\u2019s association illegally closed a road last summer that\u2019s been open to the public continuously for at least the past 135 years, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Pitkin County commissioners.<\/p>\n

The suit accuses the Rock Creek Association, which represents homeowners in a subdivision north of Redstone, of interfering with and stealing property from Pitkin County when it installed a gate on Dorais Way and cut off public access in August. Dorais Way is a portion of the historic Rock Creek Wagon Road and former Crystal River Railway line, the suit states.<\/p>\n

In particular, the August closure cut off the public\u2019s access to most of Filoha Meadows, a 185-acre slice of Pitkin County taxpayer-owned open space, which is only open to the public from July 1 to Sept. 30.<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers of the public have used Rock Creek Wagon Road through (the Dorais Way section) for travel, commerce and recreation without interruption since at least 1885 until Aug. 28, 2019, when RCA closed and locked a gate at approximately the intersection of Redstone Boulevard \u2014 also part of Rock Creek Wagon Road \u2014 and the southerly terminus of Dorais Way,\u201d according to the lawsuit filed by Pitkin County Assistant Attorney Richard Neily.<\/p>\n

The five-member board of commissioners is asking a District Court judge for three times \u201cthe amount of actual (monetary) damages sustained\u201d because of the RCA\u2019s \u201cinterference with and theft of property owned by Pitkin County,\u201d the lawsuit states. In addition, they are asking for a permanent injunction to stop the homeowners \u201cfrom interfering with the public right to use that portion of Rock Creek Wagon Road,\u201d according to the suit.<\/p>\n

A lawyer for the defendants was not listed in the suit. Phone messages left Thursday seeking comment from Terry Knapp and Phil Youngman, RCA\u2019s acting co-presidents, and three other members of the homeowners association were not returned. The Rock Creek Association is made up of homeowners in the Wild Rose Ranch Subdivision outside Redstone.<\/p>\n

In the Aug. 28 letter, the RCA Board of Directors wrote to inform \u201cfriends and neighbors\u201d that it had purchased the portion of Dorais Way from Redstone Boulevard \u201cnorth to the pre-existing private segments of the roadway,\u201d according to the letter, which is included in the lawsuit.<\/p>\n

\u201cDorais Way is now closed to all public access, including vehicle, pedestrian and bicycle traffic,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

Because of the purchase, RCA homeowners were liable for the road, which frequently sees vandalism, littering of property with human and animal waste and \u201coften quite reckless access \u2026 to the dangers of rapidly moving water\u201d in the Crystal River, according to the letter. This \u201cunacceptable liability\u201d requires \u201cthe permanent closure of Dorais Way to public access,\u201d the letter states.<\/p>\n

In a conciliatory move to area residents, however, the homeowners\u2019 association offered a caveat.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe RCA recognizes that friends and neighbors in the Redstone community use Dorais Way occasionally for pleasant walks or to visit residents who live along Dorais Way,\u201d according to the August letter. \u201cThis type of pedestrian access may continue if an RCA member will provide access and take responsibility for you as a guest.\u201d<\/p>\n

The edict apparently didn\u2019t go over well with at least one Redstone area resident, who was out for a hike Sept. 6 in Filoha Meadows with his wife and a friend.<\/p>\n

On the way back to their car, the trio was confronted by a member of the homeowners\u2019 association, who was out walking his dog, according to a Pitkin County Sheriff\u2019s Office report.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat are you doing here?\u201d the 76-year-old homeowners\u2019 association member said, according to the report.<\/p>\n

The 74-year-old hiker responded that the road was public, that they were not trespassing and that he\u2019d been \u201cdoing this for 20 years,\u201d the Sheriff\u2019s Office report states.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The hiker) told me the man then stepped in front of him and began chest bumping him and said, \u2018You know this is private property and you are trespassing,\u2019\u201d according to the report. \u201c(The hiker) told me he tried to go around the man and he kept getting in front of him and bumping him with his chest as if he wanted a confrontation.\u201d<\/p>\n

The hiker\u2019s wife and friend also separately told the sheriff\u2019s deputy that the homeowners\u2019 association member was the aggressor in the situation.<\/p>\n

The homeowner, however, said the hiker was the chest-bumper and \u201cthreatened to kick his ass,\u201d the report states. He also told the deputy the road was private and asked how he would like it if people urinated, defecated and littered on his property.<\/p>\n

\u201cI told him that I would not like it, but that didn\u2019t mean I could close public access,\u201d Deputy Josh Bennett wrote in the report. \u201c(The homeowners\u2019 association member) told me there will be problems.\u201d<\/p>\n

That was the third time during Bennett\u2019s interaction with the man that he referenced \u201cproblems.\u201d The first was right after the deputy arrived at the man\u2019s house, according to the report.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs I entered the home on the table just inside the door \u2026 (was) what appeared to be a sawed-off shotgun,\u201d the report states. \u201c\u2018Don\u2019t let that intimidate you,\u2019 (the man said) as he pointed at the sawed-off shotgun.<\/p>\n

\u201cI asked him if that was for the bears and he responded, \u2018It\u2019s for problems.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

No one was charged in the case.<\/p>\n

The legal claim to Dorais Way is complicated and involves what is known as \u201cquitclaim deed\u201d the homeowners\u2019 association received from two mining companies, which conveyed \u201cwhatever property interest, if any\u201d it had in the former railroad line, according to the lawsuit. That interest can be tracked back to the person who originally acquired the property from the U.S. government in November 1894, the suit states.<\/p>\n

Pitkin County wants the judge to find that Dorais Way is and has been a public highway and that the mining company and railroad before it abandoned the property after the track was torn up in 1942 for use in the war effort, according to the lawsuit. That means the mining company would have had no interest to convey to the homeowners\u2019 association, the suit states.<\/p>\n

via:: The Aspen Times<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Filoha Meadows Nature Preserve, about two miles north of Redstone. A Redstone-area homeowner\u2019s association illegally closed a road last summer that\u2019s been open to the public continuously for at least the past 135 years, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday by Pitkin County commissioners. The suit accuses the Rock Creek Association, which represents homeowners […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[49],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2453654","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-local-news"],"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-18 19:09:09","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSPN The Valley's Quality Rock","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453654","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2453654"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2453654\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2453654"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2453654"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kspn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2453654"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}