Chautauqua and cottage owners reach agreement
A group of cottage owners have reached an agreement to settle their lawsuit with Colorado Chautauqua Association over a vote on new association articles of incorporation and bylaws.
The lawsuit, which named 13 cottage owners and sub-lessees as plaintiffs as well as two more people identified simply as members of the Chautauqua association, challenged a recent vote adopting new bylaws concerning the organization’s governance.
The change removed a requirement for all bylaw changes to be voted on by all of the organization’s paying members.
Association officials had said the old format allowed special interests to purchase member
ships and essentially “buy” seats on the board and vote for actions that support their own agendas rather than the best interests of the broader community.
According to the release, the plaintiffs and the association had two “lengthy” mediation sessions and extended negotiations and agreed the vote would be upheld and the association would move forward with the governance structure approved by the members.
In return, cottage owners would have more input on issues impacting them, according to the release.
“We are pleased to bring this dispute to a closure and look forward to the Colorado Chautauqua thriving for years to come,” Shelly Benford, the CEO of the association, and Stan Garnett, the attorney for the plaintiffs, said in a joint statement.
Garnett filed a motion with the Boulder District Court dismissing the suit against association. However, the document notes that the plaintiffs are still not dismissing their suit against the city of Boulder.
Boulder is a party in the suit only as far as the plaintiffs seek a declaration that there has not been a default for “failure to substantially increase rents.”
Citing the terms of a 20-year lease agreement through which the city leases 26 of the 40 acres of Chautauqua land to the association, Boulder City Attorney Tom Carr had previously said the agreement required the association to “increase rental rates substantially. It appears this is not occurring under the current Board and may cause CCA to be in breach of that requirement.”
The case currently does not have any hearings scheduled.
Chautauqua, founded at the foot of Boulder’s Flatirons in 1898 as part of the national chautauqua movement by the Texas Board of Regents and Boulder city leaders as a cultural and educational summer retreat, comprises 99 cottages, as well as an auditorium and dining hall.
The association owns 61 those cottages, which are leased to visitors, with another 38 belonging to private owners who sublease the city-owned land on which the structures sit.