Council conditionally approves parts of Cherry Creek South metro district service-plan amendments, blocks HOA removals pending code changes

The Parker Town Council on Sept. 15 held a lengthy public hearing on proposed amendments to the service plans and intergovernmental agreements for Cherry Creek South Metropolitan Districts Numbers 4 through 11, approving only portions of the applications that the town attorney found not to conflict with Parker's model service plan and land-development code.

Why it matters: the applicants sought the right for several metro districts to provide typical homeowners-association services'including covenant enforcement, trash collection and design review'and to impose fees and special assessments to pay for those services. Town staff and the council's outside special counsel said Parker's existing code and model service plan require a homeowners association (HOA) for residential communities and that removing that requirement would conflict with current law unless the council first amends the town code.

Town planner Jamie Wynne told council the packet contained the proposed amendments and the background: the districts had submitted service-plan amendments largely to update to the town's current model, but the primary change requested was to remove the HOA requirement. Metropolitan-district special counsel Kim Crawford told council that a number of the proposed amendments fit within the…