This recent report tells it all. Lennar selling homes with no water. Lennar being the developer. Lennar being the owner and manager of the water’/sanitation district – Mt. Carbon.
The following research published in October, 2019 on “who owns what” explains in part how this happened.
- You have a developer (Lennar) with two levels of conflict of interest now running the water and sanitation district (Mt. Carbon)
- at the same time he is developing land and selling houses.
- In the rush to sell homes and make a profit
- the developer acting as the water and sewer provider
- is making promises to the developer acting as the home seller
- making promises to the homebuyer
- that he can’t keep.
- And now the residents are left holding the bag.
This is one of the reasons why the new Green Mountain board elected May 8, 2018, had problems with the Big Sky IGA. Because it established Big Sky/CDN as the owner and manager of (most of) the Big Sky Sewer System for Rooney Valley with virtually zero public accountability.
And Big Sky/CDN plan to sell it all to . . . Lennar.
If you haven’t seen it yet, here is the report about new residents of Red Rocks Center (RRC) who own a new home with no water:
Rawson and his wife Carolyn and their two kids moved to Colorado from Washington, just ahead of closing on their dream home in Red Rocks Ranch.
Initially that date was in August. “It got delayed a little over a month and then another week on top of that and now we have no sign of a move-in date,” Carolyn Rawson said.
It wasn’t until the latest delay that Tim says he learned that brand new home didn’t have water running to it. “It seems like it’s the town versus Mount Carbon and they are just butting heads,” he said.
Water and sewer services for the Red Rocks Ranch falls on the Mount Carbon Metropolitan District. In a 2008 agreement they signed on to build a new water treatment facility with more capacity for the town of Morrison. In return, the town would sell them the water needed for the development. That new facility isn’t done but the district is asking for more water taps for the development.
“The town has both the intention and the capacity to meet its obligation to the development, but we cannot do that until the district meets its infrastructure obligations,” Town Trustee Katie Gill said in a special meeting held on Sept. 26.
At that meeting the town council approved 50 additional taps and then denied a request to convert already-operating irrigation meters into 39 domestic taps for homes.
“As a municipal water provider, it would be reckless of the town to issue taps behind our capacity to reliably serve water through those taps we cannot and we will not do that,” Gill said.
One of those 39 taps would have gone to the Rawson’s dream home. That was the latest information they had about their water. Without it, they cannot move in.
While their builder, Lennar, is helping with unexpected costs during the move-in delay, they and dozens of other families are left questioning how long they can wait. “That is the worst. If I could just. … I need to know if I need to move on,” Carolyn Rawson said.
CBS Colorado reached out to the Town of Morrison and to Mount Carbon Metropolitan District for a comment. In a statement, an attorney for Mount Carbon says, “The district and town are working in collaboration and in conjunction to address the current and future needs of the development.”
CBS Colorado asked about the potential for other homes currently being built to see similar delays. He says once the new water treatment facility is running it won’t be an issue, and that could happen in the next few weeks.
As for those 39 taps now in limbo, they will likely hold another special meeting to put in certain conditions before reconsidering their approval.