Poudre Overlook PID#30 Documents Released By County But Questions Remain

On the eve of a Poudre Overlook HOA (POHOA) Special Meeting called by Director Ballweber (with a completely botched notice for the wrong date and place) to remove Director Mowery (the author of this article), Larimer County Engineering has released the spreadsheet with estimations of costs to maintain our roads and sidewalks through 2051. You can download the document here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1twd2hHLvorS9-m2aCIpQA3zXqrSO6NpU/view?usp=sharing

When PID Board Member Hammond responded to questions about the estimates on October 12 by email, he included a grid with numbers that was difficult to understand. This followed nearly 3 weeks of simply asking for the raw spreadsheet and data that ultimately was sent by Katie Beilby with Larimer County Engineering.

Board Member Hammond portrayed the tax increase in his email like this:
“1. There are sufficiently accrued funds for the 2025 (see below) street resurfacing from the May 2022 County Maintenance plan.  In order to ensure sufficiently accrued funds for 2045 (see negative value under current revenue projection).  In order to cover those costs the PID Board approved increasing the yearly collections from $31,000 to $39,997.51 (~$40,000, increasing annual taxes from ~356 to ~$460 per  household).  This was authorized by the County and recorded in the PID Board meeting notes and does not exceed legal mill levy.

2. Snow removal for HOA Common areas is the responsibility of the HOA not PID.  Colorado State Snow Removal Law states: 

1. Residents are responsible for clearing driveways and sidewalks within 24 hours after a snowstorm to allow safe use by pedestrians. This is particularly important along school pedestrian routes to prevent children from having to walk in the street.
2. Owners must place snow from their driveways and sidewalks onto their front yard or other areas of their own property, and not into the street. This practice reduces the number of icy areas on streets and ensures proper drainage flow into the storm sewer once snow melts.

Snow removal from sidewalks does not typically affect the integrity of the concrete.

This answers all of your questions and I consider this matter closed.”

You can see the entire email thread here, including the grid with numbers (not really a spreadsheet): https://drive.google.com/file/d/1jNLLme_odTGFcYiXzUQqd2OJnnoVypmL/view?usp=sharing

If you compare Board Member Hammond’s presentation to the actual PID#30 2022 Maintenance Plan, that negative value in 2045 looks a bit different in context. You see, at that point, the streets of Poudre Overlook will be 40 years old. According to Ms. Beilby, this reflects a complete replacement of the roadway, including the road base. While there are spikes in expenditures every few years, these are for things like sealing the roadway, and in some cases replacing the asphalt – that’s what’s coming in 2024-25, apparently.

But, the complete replacement of the under-layers (road base) is kind of like what we are seeing out on I-25 the past couple years. We remove EVERYTHING and start over with brand new streets. The price tag for that is estimated to be $757,230, which is two times the expenditure planned in 2025 of $377,481. It will be the biggest expenditure year in the history of PID#30, if estimates are correct. If we did not increase taxes, we would have a shortfall of $267,019 – which appears to warrant the action taken.

But, Board Member Hammond didn’t mention the next few rows of the spreadsheet, which include several years beyond 2045, where we still collect significant tax revenue, but do not have the same expenditures. By 2051, even with that huge $757k expense, the shortfall is reduced to $9,247 – a tiny fraction of that eye-popping forecast in 2045.

It raises the logical question: Could the road base replacement project be delayed 6 years to avoid this large tax increase?

Had the PID#30 Board given adequate notice with this relevant information in advance of a meeting that wasn’t planned for Happy Hour on a Friday in the cul-de-sac in front of Board Member Hammond’s house (literally) in August when a large percentage of the homeowners were on vacation (or just enjoying a summer weekend, even if local), it is likely at least one astute homeowner may have pointed this out. This calls into question the adequacy of notice (which does not follow the PID Bylaws), and whether there is an intention to hold meetings in such a way as to discourage participation that might question or contest such decisions.

We only find out this information when someone like Director Mowery does the research and asks questions. Which makes PID Board Member Hammond’s Petition to remove Director Mowery from the HOA Board of Directors curious timing. Director Mowery has inquired about what gives rise to the Petition, and was told by Director Ballweber that they “don’t need a reason!” while demanding for his resignation at the October 6, 2022 Special Board Meeting (that also had insufficient notice).

But Board Member Hammond also makes a spurious claim regarding snow removal: That a failure to timely remove snow does not impact the lifespan of concrete. He goes into a recitation of the HOA rules (which is not the purview of the PID), but then raises the issue of private owner responsibility for removing snow within 24 hours, but NOT into the streets.

There’s a few problems with his analysis.

First of all, per HB22-1139, HOAs now have no right whatsoever to regulate the streets. If an owner puts snow into the street, it is Larimer County, not the HOA or PID that would enforce code. In an email to the POHOA Community on February 17, 2022, a link was sent to this CDOT website: https://www.codot.gov/travel/assets/driveway-snow-removal-flyer_statewide_2020.pdf

On that site, a Colorado Statute is cited – CRS 43-5-310, with the emphasis being that it is “ILLEGAL” to put snow into the roadway. And, several iterations of the POHOA Board have attempted to assign criminality to the practice as well. There’s a problem or two with this, however.

When you contact the Larimer County Sheriffs about enforcement of CRS 43-5-310, they say that they do not enforce Title 43 laws in this county unless it is a major thoroughfare. It makes sense. If you push large amounts of snow out onto Overland or 54G, it could cause an accident. But, on a dead-end residential neighborhood? No, they won’t even come out to take a look, let alone issue a citation. We should stop pretending promoting the concept of “illegal” snow removal by homeowners.

But, Board Member Hammond then implies that if homeowners push snow from their driveways into the streets, because it would then block drainage when it freezes. Well, that’s exactly the problem. If the ice freezes and bonds with that concrete, it causes spalling, which means the water works its way below the surface, expands, and causes cracks that eventually go through to the base. It shortens the life of the concrete.

There’s also the logical problem of this argument because of snow removal in the streets by the PID. In fact, for years, we’ve had contractors who have alternatively pushed snow to the center of the street (particularly on Headwater), or into huge piles at the end of cul-de-sacs. But, many times, that snow is pushed into the exact drainages along the curb Board Member Hammond says is problematic.

If homeowners are chided for doing this, then why does PID do it themselves?

In March of 2020, the contractor actually created a 10 to 12-foot pile that was centered ON THE SIDEWALK at the South End of Bubbling Brook Court, which also blocked the drainage. What was bizarre was that the streets and sidewalks were already cleared TWO DAYS BEFORE by homeowners, and the contractor literally undid the work and made it worse.

When asked to have the contractor fix the problem, the POHOA Board (Represented by Trademark) tried to claim this was intentional and proper, until it was demonstrated that none of this followed either the PID or HOA policies on snow removal. Even then, they let it freeze/thaw for 3 weeks – which is exactly the type of thing that causes damage.

So, when raising the issue with Board Member Hammond, there is a good faith effort to improve our operations in maintenance to avoid early demise of the concrete, and the higher taxes necessary to repair or replace by simply doing a better job with snow removal.

When we examine the budget for snow removal, it’s a paltry $1200 per year. POHOA homeowners, for years, have complained about waiting up to 3 days for snow removal, while adjoining neighborhoods with HOAs have their snow removed the same day. Blame is placed elsewhere, but it appears one way to address this is by increasing the budget for snow removal to prevent earlier damage due to spalling/bonding that cracks the concrete earlier.

Similarly, in 2021, we learned that the HOA, which has the responsibility of removing snow from common area sidewalks, got a quote from our contractor that showed the cost of removing ALL snow from ALL sidewalks (including the “private” sidewalks in front of homes) was EXACTLY THE SAME as the cost for these short areas. The contractor explained that loading and unloading the equipment for all these short spans was more work than simply doing all the sidewalks in one continuous flow – and all homeowners would benefit from having the largest/heaviest snows removed for them. This is a huge benefit for living here and paying for this, but that POHOA Board voted NO! It was kind of beyond belief!

So, for raising these questions Board Member Hammond has led an effort to remove Director Mowery from the POHOA Board of Directors. Or, at least the timing makes it appear this way in combination with a refusal to say why the removal is warranted or urgent.

It’s noteworthy that the contractor used by POHOA for snow removal was recently sold, and there is no carry-over contract to the new company that is signed and in place. We’ve been told for years to have our snow removal contracts done by October, as there is a mismatch between supply and demand in the Fort Collins area. Yet, we get perennial excuses that blames the contractors for not having available bandwidth, or us not having a large enough budget.

It’s time for the PID#30 to have meetings scheduled at times when homeowners can participate, and for the agenda to include these topics of how our tax dollars are appropriated, and how we do proper maintenance to keep our roads and sidewalks lasting longer. We need transparency, which includes responding timely to document requests. And, it is time to stop pretending that participation and asking questions is harassment or an offense.

Larimer County Commissioner John Kefalas has been sent information to look into the PID#30 Bylaws and the recent tax increase, and we hope to get support that gets us on track for better maintenance practices, better notice on meetings scheduled when people can attend (including remotely), and answers regarding whether it is time for POHOA homeowners to directly vote on changing our taxes.