Responding to the Town of Dillon's proposal to move Gold Run Circle and the recreation path and allow tandem parking, a representative for the Yacht Club Condominiums says no way.

In an email to the Summit Daily News, Ned Brandt of Americana Resort Properties, which manages the Yacht Club association, said the Yacht Club is rejecting the town's proposal for two reasons:

“First, in the town's petition to the (Colorado) Supreme Court they emphasize how unsafe tandem parking is, yet they want the Yacht Club to accept that as a solution.

“Second, the town wants Yacht Club to indemnify the town, which no other homeowner association has done, should do or could do.”

Acting town co-manager and police chief Joe Wray said that as of late Friday afternoon, the town's attorneys had not yet heard the rejection from the Yacht Club's legal council. But, he was able to “re-affirm parts of what our appeal is based on.”

“We feel that tandem parking is the lesser of two evils here. Tandem parking is less dangerous than the cars parking and driving on the recpath,” Wray said. “The courts and the Yacht Club have said that tandem parking is not really dangerous. The ruling for the Yacht Club essentially proved that proposition.”

To the second statement, Wray said what the town is appealing applies only to the Yacht Club and no other homeowner's association.

An offer

Last week Dillon offered to spend the money to move Gold Run Circle and the recreation path north of the town's right-of-way, which would allow Yacht Club residents to tandem-park on Gold Run Circle next to the condos and, to the extent possible, on Tenderfoot adjacent to the property. There would be no parking permitted on the traveled roadway, and the Yacht Club would have to agree not to park on the recreation path.

The town has also asked the Colorado Supreme Court to review the case.

Both the trial court and Colorado Court of Appeals have ruled that the owners, residents and guests of the Yacht Club may park anywhere on the town's right-of-way in the vicinity of the Yacht Club, and the town has been prohibited from ticketing, towing or prosecuting them.

After it filed a petition for review last week, a statement from the town said the Yacht Club “has interpreted this broad ruling to allow parking on the town's recreation path on Tenderfoot and Lower Gold Run Circle, across from or near to the Yacht Club.”

Case history

The homeowners association sued the Town of Dillon in January 2010 over a recreation path project impacting the town's right-of-way. Condo residents had been parking in the right-of-way since the complex was built, and maintained the town was taking away much-needed parking spaces. Town officials contended condo residents had been parking illegally in the area for years.

In May of last year, the town won a contempt hearing after the Yacht Club alleged Dillon was not doing its part in letting condo owners park in the right-of-way as previously instructed.

The town lost its appeal of the 2010 case in December. The ruling said the town had abused police powers by ticketing and towing vehicles in the adjacent right-of-way.