EXHIBIT A
WILLOW BROOK METROPOLITAN DISTRICT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE OPERATION OF IRRIGATION DITCHES AND LATERALS ON
THE RUBY RANCH
The Willow Brook Metropolitan District Board of Directors in regular session
sitting this ____ day of ________________, 2001, finds and resolves.
FINDINGS
- The Ruby Ranch contains approximately 120 acres of irrigated hay meadow
and pasture owned by the Willow Brook Metropolitan District (hereinafter
"District").
- These pastures and meadows are irrigated utilizing three irrigation
ditches; the water rights for which are owned by the Ruby Ranch Owners
Association but allocated to the District for purposes of irrigating the
meadows and pastures.
- The water rights are decreed only for irrigation and not for other
purposes.
- The Ranch irrigation ditches and laterals traverse lots and common space
on the Ranch. The ditches and laterals are unlined and water seeps out of them
into the soil when they are operated. This seepage is a normal condition which
can result in saturated soil conditions below these irrigation facilities. The
construction of houses, leach fields, and related facilities must take into
account the existence of the irrigation ditches and their attendant seepage.
- The Ruby Ranch Covenants at Article X, Section 2, provide:
Section 2. Irrigation Easements and Rights Reserved. Declarant
hereby reserves to itself, its successors and assigns, until assigned to the
Association, perpetual easements 20 feet in width across all of the lands in
the subdivision centered along the line of all irrigation ditches and laterals
presently in existence or hereafter constructed with the consent of the owners
of the lands across which constructed, for the purpose of construction,
maintaining, and operating irrigation ditches and laterals for the proper
irrigation of all meadow lands in the subdivision located on any lots and
tracts therein and covenants that it shall maintain and operate said ditches
for proper irrigation of all meadow lands. Declarant similarly reserves to
itself, its successors and assigns, the right to, and covenants that it will,
irrigate all such meadow lands at all reasonable times, and to go on all lots
and tracts in the subdivision for the purpose of irrigating such meadow lands
so as to preserve and maintain their natural beauty.
- The irrigation ditches and water rights benefit all of the owners on the
Ranch by adequately irrigating all of the Ranch meadows and pastures rather
than being used for amenities on private lots.
- The Ruby Ranch Architectural Review Committee and the District Manager are
regularly asked about the opportunities to use the irrigation ditch water
supply for filling ponds, the irrigation of lawns and shrubbery, and to serve
other amenities on private lots.
- The District Board has been advised that during times of severe drought the
diversion of some or all of the water rights used to irrigate the meadows may
be curtailed.
- The District Board recognizes that during years of normal and below normal
precipitation the entire amount of the flow in all three irrigation ditches are
required in order to adequately irrigate the Ranch meadows, including meadows
located on private lots which are the responsibility of the Owners Association
and the District, pursuant to Ruby Ranch Covenants, Article VII, Section 7,
which reads as follows:
Section 7. Hay Meadows. The Declarant
initially and, after assignment, the Association, owns all of the hay in the
irrigated hay meadows of the subdivision, whether platted in open tracts,
access easements or private lots. It is the responsibility of the Association
to provide for the irrigation of the meadows, and fertilization, cutting and
harvesting of the hay each season. The hay harvest yield, after any share
provided to those who irrigate and cut and otherwise harvest the hay, shall be
sold first to owners of property in the Ruby Ranch and then to others at a
price and at such timing priority as determined by the Board of Directors of
the Association. No horses shall be allowed to graze or roam unrestricted in
the irrigated meadows in the open area tracts or other open areas unless
specifically authorized by the Board of Directors.
- The protection, irrigation, and management of the Ranch irrigated meadows
and pastures is a significant principle recognized in the Ruby Ranch Covenants
and benefits all Ranch owners.
- Policies and procedures governing the use of the Ranch water supply are
necessary in order to insure that the Ranch water rights are not used in a
manner that is in conflict with the interests of the Ranch community as a whole
as embodied in the Covenants.
POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
- It is the responsibility of each lot owner to insure that construction
which occurs on a ranch lot is designed to recognize and account for the
existence of seepage from the Ranch irrigation ditches at no cost to the
District or the Owners Association.
- The use of the Ranch water rights for the irrigation of the Ranch meadows
and pastures, as defined in Article X, Section 2 of the Covenants, shall be the
paramount and overriding purpose for which the three irrigation ditches on the
Ranch are operated.
- The development of ponds or other impoundments on the Ranch is generally
inconsistent with the primary use of the Ranch water rights. The water rights
are not decreed for storage in ponds or impoundments. The demand for "flow
through" water to keep such impoundments fresh would greatly limit and
restrict the opportunities to move water to various meadows on the Ranch as
necessitated by proper water management. Such ponds or impoundments provide
benefits only to the individual lot owner, or lot owners, and not to the Ranch
ownership as a whole. In addition, the soil conditions on the Ranch make
impoundments a less than desirable situation because of the risk of water
logging and soil slumping.
- The District will take responsibility for the proper irrigation of the
Ranch meadows on both public and private lots as specified in the Covenants at
Article VII, Section 7.
- The use of Ranch water rights to fill existing impoundments or for existing
amenity irrigation systems shall be subordinate and secondary to the demands of
the irrigation of Ranch meadows at all times, including requirements
necessitated by water management decisions to avoid water logging, soil slumps,
and the development of unwanted wetland areas.
- Requests for water supply from the Ranch irrigation system by private lot
owners shall be made to the Architectural Review Committee, which shall review
the request and make a recommendation to the District Board. The District Board
shall consider the request at its next regular meeting for which adequate and
regular notice of the request can be given. The Architectural Review Committee
and the District Board shall be guided by these policies in responding to any
such requests.
- The adjustment of ditch headgates, divider boxes, and water flows in
ditches and laterals shall only be performed at the direction of the District
Manager or the District employee(s) or contractor(s) designated by the District
Manager to make such decisions.
- The District recognizes the existence of Bootlegger Lake on Lot 25 and an
impoundment on Lot 24 which depend upon the Ranch water rights and/or ditches
for supply. While these facilities are in existence, their operation shall
remain subordinate to the demands of the Ranch meadows and may only be filled
or replenished when water supply is not required for irrigation purposes, as
determined by the District Manager or his designee.
- The District Board recognizes that there is a decree for the pond on Lot
24. The District Board also recognizes that this decree does not give the owner
of Lot 24 a superior right to the use of water from the irrigation ditch when
the irrigation water right is being diverted and may only be exercised when (a)
its junior priority date is in priority and (b) there is excess capacity in the
Sawmill Ditch. At all other times, one hundred percent of the water flowing in
the Sawmill Ditch is being diverted pursuant to the water rights owned by
Owners Association and operated by the District and under the jurisdiction of
the District Manager.
- The District Board recognizes that there are currently amenity irrigation
systems on Lots 1, 10, and 20 which rely on the Ranch irrigation ditches for
their source of supply. These facilities may be operated only at times and in a
manner approved by the District Manager and consistent with the overriding
requirement for the use of the Ranch water rights for the benefit of all Ranch
residents on the meadows and pastures.
- No further impoundments dependant upon the Ranch irrigation ditches and
water rights may be constructed nor amenity irrigation systems installed which
are dependant upon the Ranch irrigation ditches and water rights without the
prior written approval of the Architectural Review Committee and the District
Board.
- The intent of these policies and procedures is to avoid unfounded
expectations concerning the use of water from the Ruby Ranch irrigation system,
including the expectation that the system would be operated for the benefit of
individual lotowners versus the benefit of the Ranch owners as a whole, and to
permit the District to operate the system in a way that allows for the
protection of the Ranch meadows and pastures, as well as their restoration and
enhancement.
- The intent of these policies and procedures is to avoid unfounded
expectations concerning the responsibility for mitigating the effects of the
operation of the irrigation system on private lots. It shall be solely the
private lot owners responsibility to mitigate any effects caused by the
operation of the Ranch irrigation system on a private lot.
- The Ruby Ranch Architectural Review Committee is requested to provide a
copy of this policy to every owner that requests permission to undertake
construction on a Ranch lot, including construction of an amenity irrigation
system or a water impoundment and to formally notify the District Board in
writing whenever a copy of this policy is disseminated.
Done this ____ day of ____________, 2001.
ATTEST: WILLOW BROOK METROPOLITAN DISTRICT
By:______________________________
Secretary
By:_______________________________________
President