NO MAN’S LAND: POHOA Ignores Maintenance At Mercer Canal. Oh, And We Own A Bridge?

As with many of the Poudre Overlook Odysseys, it all just starts with a POHOA Director or Chair being non-transparent. That makes a homeowner check their facts, and it often uncovers something bigger than the original issue. I mean, all this started with PID#30 and the POHOA Board refusing to address a section of concrete that is sinking, creating standing water on the East End. That led to the broader topic of Stormwater Drainage Facilities and our lack of required maintenance. And, this has now led to a dispute with Landscape Committee Chair, Gloria Jones, who contends that a parcel of land is owned by Larimer County that we, in fact, actually own.

After the 2/22/24 Landscape Committee Meeting, I did a site walk at the West (North) end of Bubbling Brook Court. This is where POHOA connects with a pedestrian/bike sidewalk to Stagecoach, which has no HOA but does have a 501(c)3 non-profit community group called Northwest Neighbors FC.

While out there, I spoke with Paul, who is the homeowner adjacent to this section. Paul recounted how he has, for years, approached Gloria about the degrading landscaping in this connector. He told me that Gloria has repeatedly claimed this land is owned by Larimer County, and therefore not the responsibility of POHOA to maintain. As we know from my HOT POTATO series, Public Improvement District #30 has also disowned responsibility for this area.

The POHOA Board has received multiple emails from me on the subject. Enough for President Ballweber to offer testimony (signed off on by the POHOA Board) to the State of Colorado HOA Homeowners Rights Task Force (ironically enough) describing my efforts as “combative”. So, it is interesting that the POHOA Board frames this as a “war”, and that they are in combat to avoid doing a very basic function of their duties as Directors: maintenance of our infrastructure to avoid higher expenses at a future date.

So, when the starting point is convincing the Board that we actually own the property, of course it’s gonna take a little extra effort, and a few more words. I mean, if this is a war, then the object of our battles is . . . facts. In an America that has a large swath of the population that can’t accept basic realities in spite of overwhelming evidence and facts, the burden falls upon everyone else to document the facts in fine detail so there’s no doubt among those that retain their critical thinking skills.

So, here’s the issue: We not only own the parcel just past the end of the sidewalk of the Bubbling Brook Ct. cul-de-sac, but we also own all the land not just to the Mercer Canal, but actually a significant amount of the land on the other side of the Canal. In fact, there appears to be a bridge to a private property that is actually on our property. Do we actually own a bridge that we have no budget for repair or replacement?

Well, we’d have to first establish the boundaries. Now, it appears Gloria may have been tried some due diligence by going back to original documents. I like that process. When I got back from talking with Paul, I went back to my paper copy of the governing documents, which included a Plat Map of POHOA. Sure enough, it shows no cul-de-sac at the end of POHOA. It actually shows the original intention of the Developer – to connect Bubbling Brook Court and Doubletree Drive as a continuous street.

So, I went to the online map at https://maps1.larimer.org/gvh/?Viewer=LIL

And, what exists there is a satellite image with the plat lines superimposed. I will say that there’s a little offset, so it’s not the same as using an engineer in the field. But, it contradicts the plat map included in our governing documents.

So standing there with Paul, he then asked me about the fact that this “connector” is actually overflow drainage if the pipe beneath cannot handle the volume or gets clogged. So, who owns the property to the right of the blue area in the above picture?

I thought it was the private property owner who built a house between the Mercer Canal and Larimer County #2 Canal, and accesses it over the bridge he built near the end of Bubbling Brook. I presumed, probably like many others, that the ditch company owned the ditch, and the other guy owned the property on the other side of the ditch. But, this is not the case!

As you can see, this private property has a southern border that is a perfectly straight line. The Mercer Canal leaves his property and is not designated as a separate parcel. It is therefore an easement. So, where does it go?

Well, you could probably guess that POHOA then has an adjoining straight property line to Mr. Wells, but the line isn’t on our side of the Mercer Canal, but it actually is quite a distance on the other side. This not only means the Mercer Canal is an easement on POHOA property, but the bridge to Mr. Wells parcel is completely on POHOA property.

As someone who has been a former Secretary of POHOA, I have been through all of the paper documents and digital documents in our possession as of January 2019 through September of 2019. I have never seen any indication of an easement or agreement with either the Mercer Canal, or Mr. Wells. I am also unaware of how that bridge was built – whether by the builder that built POHOA (who is now bankrupt), or by that property owner.

But, what is for certain is that this bridge has no budget or reserves for repairs or replacement.

Again, I just started with a small section of concrete that appeared to be needing repairs, and at this juncture, I’m surprised to find out we may collectively own a bridge! What is happening?

Based upon this new discovery, I then went back out to survey this new “no man’s land” that apparently Mr. Wells doesn’t think is his property.

Why?

Well, he’s got a barbed wire fence that follows that straight line. Its a pretty good indicator he knows where his property ends. But, once you take the time to walk down to the edge of the Mercer Canal, you can see that in 2023, someone did some work to dredge out the canal significantly – putting the dirt onto the sides of the land on either side. Apparently, this included some HUGE sections of Cottonwood trees (the ones that give Doubletree Drive their name) that has fallen into the Canal – enough to perhaps even block some flow.

From this vantage point, I now saw this whole area differently. Not only was there a huge pile of logs that is on the other side of the Canal ON POHOA PROPERTY, but, the entire area between the Bubbling Brook Street and Sidewalk and the Mercer Canal, it looks like a jungle (in February). This area has been allowed to become overgrown with random trees and weeds that have never been maintained by anyone.

From the sidewalk, we can see the Bridge has a very steep slope that is covered in unattended weeds, bushes and trees. It’s a very nice Bridge. However, you can also see that the surface of it is wood. And, wood doesn’t last forever, and not nearly as long as concrete. When that starts to break down, who pays for repairs or replacement – POHOA or Mr. Wells? Is there any documentation to tell a POHOA Board the right answer?

Well, neither Gloria nor the Board will answer any questions on the subject.

But, as I continued to survey this No Man’s Land we apparently own, I crossed the bridge (since it isn’t trespassing on Mr. Well’s property), and took some photos of those logs that the Mercer Canal people cut up and dropped in a disorganized pile.

So, while we are planning to have volunteers do a clean up of the area at the end of Bubbling Brook, I believe that these giant logs are just too large – unless we are going to have volunteers using chain saws or some heavy equipment to load this stuff on trailers or pickup trucks. Nothing is impossible, but this is not just everyone showing up with hand tools and a bottle of water to do some work.

If we continue looking Eastward from No Man’s Land on the other side of The Bridge, we can see that there’s actually an access road. Again, this is on POHOA property. That is, again, an easement for which we do not have any written agreement as far as I can tell.

If we examine the Larimer County Digital Plat, we can see that this road leaves POHOA property and goes back onto Mr. Wells property before returning onto ours. So, which of us is responsible for maintenance of this road whose purpose is most likely service to the Mercer Canal – which is perhaps indicative of both the Road and Canal being the same overall easement.

Who knows?

Nobody knows. It’s No Man’s Land.

Turning back to the North/West while standing on The Bridge, we can now see the steep drop from the Bubbling Brook Sidewalk through the overgrown grasses, bushes, and weed-trees, and now the newly exposed slope from the Mercer Canal being dug up (by someone). Basically, if someone wanders off that sidewalk, they could take a tumble down a steep incline. And, it’s full of plenty of large rocks and boulders that could break bones or knock someone in the head.

So, I did a little Googling, and found that it’s actually the City of Fort Collins that has the information about who owns the New Mercer Ditch (the term is different than what you see on some of the digital maps). They have the contact information, and so I called and spoke with a very nice person who explained to me how this works.

1. The ditch is a Prescriptive Easement, which means it is historical and there would not be any documents created or maintained with a new HOA development like POHOA. That explains that.
2. The New Mercer Ditch Company has a right to have access on 25 feet on either side of the ditch. That would explain the access road we see after crossing The Bridge. The access points are Bubbling Brook Ct. and Northern Ct. in Solar Ridge. That explains that.
3. But, the large Cottonwoods – they are the property owner’s maintenance issue. And, apparently, large branches came down into the ditch, so they had to cut them up and remove them. They have a right to put them on the property on the edge of the bank. That is both within 25 feet, and it is also our property. The question is whether we have any responsibility to remove it since we weren’t maintaining the tree.
4. The Bridge, however, is a mystery. While it could have been built by Mr. Wells or the builder/developer of POHOA, it would have required documentation with the New Mercer Ditch company. You can’t build bridges over their ditches without planning, documentation, and approval. So, they should have something that tells us the answer to this mystery.
5. They agree that if the Cottonwoods were to come down and damage the bridge, or even knock parts into the canal, they would have the right to clear it. And, that could create some significant costs. The New Mercer Ditch company didn’t have the records available during my call to figure it out, but they will get back to me.

As an aside, I found out that someone from the POHOA Board contacted the same ditch company because they were searching for the source of the water flowing through our Stormwater Drainage Facilities for each of the last 3 summers. While we apparently blamed Pleasant Valley Ditch Company, the owners of New Mercer didn’t think it was likely there’d be a release so far East of the ditch. So, that too remains a mystery. They did say that if that much water was coming down, then they’d be wasting their shareholders value, so someone probably has an interest in resolving the issue.

But, this led to another new discovery. Once the water leaves our Stormwater Drainage Facility, 100% goes into the New Mercer Ditch. And, then it is no longer stormwater drainage!

Water Law is hard!

Ultimately, there are probably three salient issues to be resolved regarding management of No Man’s Land:

• Who should be maintaining the Cottonwood Trees that are apparently dropping large heavy limbs?
• Who owns The Bridge, and is responsible for maintenance and repairs?
• What should be done about the areas adjacent to Bubbling Brook (steep fall into ditch) in terms of landscape maintenance, and on the other side, with this large pile of heavy logs?

Now that some awareness has been raised, I’m sure we will get to the bottom of it. But, remember, this all began because the POHOA Board doesn’t want to address one small section of concrete that is accumulating water every time it rains or snow melts – and that problem is only getting worse. If we listen to Irve Denenberg, unofficial street spokesperson of the Board, he says it doesn’t matter until after we all die, so we should just ignore it and pretend it isn’t happening. “No one cares, Andy”

But, I’m the problem for bringing up something that could easily result in a tree limb taking out a bridge that results in us getting a Special Assessment when maintenance could avoid the expense.