The Crested Butte News Serving the Gunnison Valley since 1999
Next court date set for August 26
by Mark Reaman
The battle between the Crested Butte South Property Owner’s Association and the Gunnison County Library District is ramping up. Gunnison District Court judge Kellie Starritt denied a motion this week for a Temporary Restraining Order and set a court date for the Preliminary Injunction filed by the CB South POA against the library district.
The temporary restraining order motion was filed to pause ongoing construction of the library in CB South until a formal review and approval by the POA is obtained for the project. “The Court finds the Plaintiff has failed to demonstrate a real, immediate and irreparable injury that requires emergency relief,” Starritt wrote on Monday, August 17. A hearing on the Preliminary Injunction filed by the POA is set for August 26 starting at 9:30 a.m. with the whole day reserved for court.
The legal squabble has been ongoing for months and is getting expensive with combined legal fees running into six figures.
The CB South POA contends the library did not follow proper procedure with subdivision covenants to go through the Design Review Committee (DRC) review. The library district contends it went through a thorough review process known as a Location and Extent Review for public entities building public facilities and included the CB South POA. But even with that, the district submitted materials for an application to go through the DRC and was placed on the agenda for a regularly scheduled DRC meeting set for July 28. The POA said the application was not complete, so the district was taken off the agenda for that meeting. The library district says it provided more than was required for an application.
“The library district has acknowledged several times that it is subject to the CB South covenants and on June 6 they signed an agreement to that effect,” said CB South POA manager Derek Harwell. “They said they would follow the covenants so let’s follow the covenants. The library is the only known entity in CB South’s history to come forward and claim they don’t have to follow the covenants.”
“More than 700 builders and developers have gone through the design review process,” added CB South POA board president Kevin Dietz. “As far as the July 28 meeting, the covenants state that the owners are responsible for a complete application and the DRC manager must deem the application complete. That was never done so they were taken off the agenda. In fact, we were given three sets of plans, and all were a bit different.
“And all of them included a three-story apartment building which is not allowed,” continued Dietz. “It shouldn’t be this hard. We recently approved a bank building and vet clinic, and those buildings had some complexities as well.”
“We offered several times to help them complete the application, but we received no response at all,” said Harwell.
Library District executive director Drew Brookhart said the project is continuing and moving ahead at a good pace. He said the biggest hurdle for a new library in CB South is the CB South POA. “The new library’s foundation walls were poured last week. Site grading and storm water infrastructure are largely completed. All of the site utilities are in place including the geothermal field which was constructed last year,” said Brookhart. “The POA continues to be the greatest threat to this public project. To date, the Gunnison County Library District has spent $116,637 on legal fees to defend the construction of a new public library from the litigation initiated by the Crested Butte South POA. The Library District did not initiate legal action and tried to avoid litigation by offering a settlement before the POA began its lawsuit. It is also important to acknowledge that the Crested Butte South community, ostensibly represented by the POA Board, is incurring additional legal fees and the Gunnison County community at large is incurring this expense.”
Harwell said the CB South subdivision has so far spent close to $27,000 on lawyers, “with well over $30,000 expected to be spent by the time this goes to court.” Brookhart said he is uncomfortable spending six figures on lawyers, but it was necessary given POA actions.
“The Library District could not avoid the expense because the POA’s aggressive and unnecessary litigation forced the Library District to defend the overall viability of delivering the new multi-million-dollar public library, jobs for local tradespeople, and a more than $1 million dollar investment made by the State of Colorado,” he wrote in an email this week. “It is especially regrettable because the POA has had ample opportunity to provide input on the plans and has already done so. In fact, the Library District suspended the employee housing portion of the project, which is a stand-alone building from the library, in response to POA feedback. Nevertheless, the POA continues to attack the new public library in District Court with vague and seemingly inconsequential complaints about landscaping, dark sky compliance, and calculations for drainage, snow storage, and parking. The project complies with all of these requirements because they are also prerequisites for receiving a building permit from Gunnison County, which was granted on May 8, 2026.”
“We are perplexed by the situation. There are sections of the covenants that are not ambiguous,” said Dietz. “At the end of the day, they agreed to follow the covenants. We all want a library for the community. We want them to accept our help in getting it done.”
“Unfortunately, the legal fees will only increase in the coming months because the POA again tried to stop the project on August 8 with a renewed motion for a restraining order and preliminary injunction,” Brookhart emphasized. “A hearing on the preliminary injunction is scheduled for August 26. Preparing for and participating in this hearing will be extremely expensive for the Library District and by extension every taxpayer in Gunnison County.”
Brookhart said the legal expenses come with a cost that ultimately hurts the final product. “The Library District will very likely not be able to afford a planned interactive playscape in the children’s library or equipment in the community workshop/makerspace as a result of the litigation expenses,” he said. “It truly is heartbreaking because everyone in the community will pay the price for the POA’s frivolous litigation.”
“I think if we all sat down together in a room instead of in court, we could hammer this out in an afternoon and get it to the DRC,” concluded Harwell. “But the library board and the executive director won’t respond to our offers to help. We have offered ways to proceed without going to court and have received no response.”
