A Jefferson County court recently held in favor of an association seeking to enforce its parking restrictions on a public streets. The association had a restrictive covenant that prohibited the parking of pickup trucks anywhere on the association’s property. The association had interpreted this covenant to prevent the parking of pickup trucks anywhere within the community with the exception of the homeowners’ garages, as the vehicle would then be concealed from the public view.  This interpretation, although never written in the Rule and Regulations for the community, had been followed by homeowners for over twenty years and written in welcome to the neighborhood letters. Unfortunately, one homeowner began to insist on parking her pickup truck in her driveway and in front of her home. She argued that the association could not enforce its covenant on the public street. She further claimed that the association had abandoned its right to use the covenant to prevent her parking the vehicle in her driveway, since it was not enforcing the covenant as written.

No Colorado case law addresses the enforcement of restrictive covenants on streets that have been dedicated to a city or county. There does exist case law from other states that support the position that covenants are contracts between a homeowner and his or her association. This contract gives the homeowner an obligation to comply with an association’s restrictive parking covenants, regardless of whether the streets in question belong to the city or county. The Trial Court found that the association had made a reasonable and common sense interpretation of the covenant, and it was a valid exercise of the board of director’s power to do so.

Orten & Hindman has handled several cases to enforce parking restrictions for associations. Courts have used the following criteria to evaluate association parking restrictions:

• record its covenants prior to dedicating the streets to the city or county to insure that the city or county is bound by the covenants which run with the land. 
• consult with its attorney prior to dedicating the streets. Association attorneys can ensure that the dedication references the covenants and insures that the streets remain subject to the covenants. 
• reduce any board interpretations of covenants into a written rule and regulation. Although boards have the authority to interpret covenants, making a rule protects the association from the lawsuits of owners, claiming that the interpretation is not correct or that they had no knowledge it existed.