Changing the road dedication on a plat

Is is possible for a HOA board to change the road dedication on a plat from "roads are for public
access and utilities" to "roads are for exclusive use of property owners"? The plats have been
in effect since 1987 and are in Colorado. The subdivision was formed with the 35 acre
exemption so the plats were not approved by the county commisioners. The HOA is attempting
to change the plats with a 50% plus one vote. I believe it would take 100% approval by
the property owners to change the roads from public access to private access. Could I get
opinions on this and the reasoning? Thanks

Mary,
The county has never accepted the road dedication so legally the roads are still owned
and maintained by the HOA. The roads have been open to the public since 1987 and the
HOA has declared in a lawsuit (concerning access)that the "roads are open to the public".

Robert,
In Colorado you don't have to go through the county for approval on a subdivision if the lots
are 35 acres or bigger. That is the case here. When the subdivision was formed they used this
exclusion. I contacted the county last week and they said they have no jurisdiction
because of the 35 acre exclusion. My question is can the HOA change the public nature
of the roads with only a 50% plus one vote. I would seem to me that since they have been
open to the public for so long it would take a 100% vote of the property owners to make a
change to the plats. This move would drastically change the rights of property owners.

Jim,
Who pays to have work done on the roads? how are the roads platted on the Master Plan of the development, are there easements along this roads, who mows the area alongside the roads?

You state the HOA has declared the roads to be public at some prior court case. How can the HOA declare them to be public, are you implying they were platted as "private" at some point? I doubt the HOA can just say, ok, this land is public land subject to the control of the county without some court records being made. If the HOA has said, we will allow public access to these roads, then the HOA must own the roads.

Well Mary and I are both confused, which is hard to do, as she is confused a lot and I have to post and keep her straight. A burden I gladly accept as a service to my fellow man/woman.

If all this is simply a question of how the HOA can restrict passage on these roads and they own the land and maintain the roads., I would assume you need to go to the county and find out how you do this for these particular roads.
I don't think it is solely the vote of anyone that will determine if this can be done. I would imagine there may be right aways involved and it doesn't make any difference what you do, those restrictions will stand. First establish that you all do indeed own the properties, have deeds to prove it, have county approval to do what you want to do, and abide by State law on how you declare the land to be private, if it is public.

If you can do it or declare it or re-instate it or change anything is certainly a call for the county to make and a very good (read expensive) lawyer to prepare and process. Let me ask you this: Can your HOA build a fence all the way around your property as deeded, and put in security gates?

First off thanks for all the help here. The roads are owned by the HOA and maintained by the
HOA. The plat though states the roads are for public access. In a lawsuit concerning an
easement, a District Court Judge ruled that the roads are open to public access enven though
the HOA owns the roads. Now the HOA it seems, has decided to ignore the Judge and they
are having a vote (property owners) to have the wording on the plats changed as I have described
above. They are trying to do this with a 50% vote plus one. I believe ALL property owners would
have to vote to change the plat wording not 50%. Hope this clarifies somewhat.

Thanks Roger. I agree. But it was my thought that the ONLY possible way to change it
would be for ALL the property owners to agree. Not 50%

Jerrell,

I contacted the county zoning and planning and this was there response:

"That subdivision is a 35 acre sub which was not signed off by the County Commissioners so that means that we have no jurisdiction over it. This is a civil matter that we can’t do anything about. It might be in your best interest to contact your attorney."

Jim,

Two questions, if I may.

1) What reason did the judge give for his decision?

2) What is a "35 acre sub" and why wasn't it approved by the Co Commissioneers?

OOOOOOOOOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPs ,,,:o,:0,,;)

Jim,
I hope your HOA has a good lawyer. I hope what they are trying to do is doable with 51% or any other %. Back to I hope they have a good lawyer. I would absolutely demand that your HOA present your "Good Lawyers" case to your membership and explain what is going on. Without that I would object strenuously to any attempt to involve the membership. I doubt the board has the authority to allocate funds to pursue something that is not open and clear to the membership, for the Board to declare the Board has decided is not enough with the information provided here.

JimR14 In Florida when a road is a public road and the owners want the roads to be established as private, there is a road closing proceedure you have to go thru as I said in my previous statment to you. In Florida there is a statuate that deal in traffic on roads(chapter 316) and road closings (chapter316.00825) it is quite involved. One note to mention there's no fewer than 4/5 of all the owners of record in the subdivision have consented in wtiting to the abandonment and simultaneous conveyance to the homeowners association.They also have to accept all the maintainence involved in the upkeep of the road. I don't know what your state says but as I said in my previous reply to you there is additional liability that the association will incur. Which brings me back to mine and Mary's origional question. Why does the HOA want to make the roads private? Do you want to make it a gated community after 23 years as a public road??? JerrellC Florida

JimR14 It sounds like your board is running wild spending you association's funds. I think it's time you people should start asking some questions on what is the board's real purpose. It sounds like they have blown a lot of your money without explaining what their real intentions are. It also sounds like they have received some bad legal advice from their attorney who may not be knowledgable in roads and easement rights. You need an attorney who has experience in all types of land laws. (Platting,replatting,vacations,zoining,prescriptive road right of ways,reservations, etc) JerrellC (Florida retired surveyor, engineer, and land title worker)

I agree completely. I believe their attorney is giving bad advise and milking the situation. Thanks again for everyones opinion.

Jim,

IMO, a much better plan would be to pay heed to the judge's ruling and just let the county start maintaining the "public" roads. Perhaps the roads should not have been deemed to be private all these years. Frankly, public roads are much less costly than private roads.

Having said that, if your BOD is adamant in fighting this, IMO they really need to find a new attorney; one not associated with the case that they lost. Afterall, he doesn't have a very good track record!