Parcel W - Easement
Parcel W is the 1982 Silver Springs Water Company easement around the lakes a.k.a. The Enjoyment Easement for the General Silver Springs Community Membership use and access.
1988 - June 21 - Letter to American Savings regarding lake access and park development.
2005 - May 18 - Letter to Lake Front Property Owners from Anthony Sands, President of the SSMHOA: “As I am sure you all know, the private property owners on the lakes do not own the property that contains the lakes, or the lakeshore. The lots in different subdivisions have different setbacks from the lakes. In all cases however, the Master Association owns the ground under the water and the lakeshore going up the dam to include the crest of the dam.” [NorthShore lots 1-4 and 6-12, Park Place lots 38-44, Silver Springs lots 47-49 and 193-199, and SouthShore lots 1-11 and 50-60 and LL-SLS lots 1-4 surround the Little Lake, of these however NorthShore lots 1-4 and 6-12 and SouthShore Lots 1-11 back lot property are the dam itself.]
Yellow highlights show where the Silver Springs Water Company easements a.k.a. The Enjoyment Easements were located around both the Silver Willow Lake and the Silver Willow Pond, on this1982 map drawn by the J.J.Johnson Engineering Co. for the early developers as a sales tool.
Recorded in the 1979, 1982, 1994 SSSF CCRs.
Article IV
PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE COMMON AREAS
Section 1. Members’ Easements of Enjoyment. Every member shall have a right and easement of enjoyment in and to the common area, if any, and such easement shall be appurtenant to and shall pass with the title to every assessed lot, subject to the following provisions:
(a) The right of the Association to establish uniform rules and regulations pertaining to the use of the common area including but not limited to private streets and the recreational facilities thereof.
(b) The right of the Association, in accordance with its Articles and Bylaws, to borrow money for the purpose of improving the common area and facilities and to aid thereof, to mortgage said property, provided that the rights of any mortgagee shall be subordinate to the rights of the members.
(c) The right of the Association to dedicate or transfer all or any part of the common area to any public agency, authority or utility for such purposes and subject such conditions as may be agreed to by the [general] members. No such dedication or transfer shall be effective unless a written instrument pursuant to a two-thirds majority vote of those present at a meeting for this purpose that has been duly called of members including proxies who are entitled to vote has been recorded, agreeing to such dedication or transfer, and unless written notice of the proposed action is sent to every member not less than ten (10) days in advance. However, the Declarant reserves the right to grant easements over any part of the common area or any other designated utility easement areas for utility purposes.
American Savings July 1985 Silver Springs Waterway and Access Parcels Plat was drafted by J.J. Johnson Engineering. Several owners went into bankruptcy - Am. Savings took over parcels belonging to InSource, Hazelwood, and others.
Robert Larsen and Silver Springs Water Co. maintained the water rights.
See list of Silver Springs parcels.
Silver Springs Water Co. manager Lynn Stevens assured the homeowners and the Homeowners Board that the S.S. Water Co. would always allow the 15′ to 25′ buffer zone at the perimeter of the lake to be used as a right-of-way and “Enjoyment Easement” for use by all the HOA members. See Stevens letter.
In 1986 Bill Ligety headed an lake owner committee to limit access by outsiders to the lake perimeter therefore HOA members were to carry a S.S.Lake Use I.D. card whenever they used the “Enjoyment Easement” around Silver Willow Lake.
In 1988 Bill Ligety (Lot 193) and a committee of lake perimeter property owners retained an attorney to assert their sole rights to the lakefront property. Somehow they were able to extend their property rights to the waters edge. Sometime during this procedure the lake access Parcel K next to Lot 193 and beach Parcel I west and contiguous to Lots 47, 48, 49 were absorbed into these respective lots. Park Place Lot 44 absorbed Parcel 8. This action resulted in the HOA General Membership losing its right of access (a prescriptive easement) to the perimeter of the Silver Willow Lake, and limiting the general access to 444 shoreline feet of Parcel H (now the Silver Springs playground park area), to a sliver of Parcel J (on the west side of Park Place), and to the pump house Parcel R (a portion which possibly may belong to Mountain Regional Water Company).
Parcel K aka Lake Access parcel aka Tax I.D. Parcel Number PP-98-A-2-A Entry 00298852 Book 497 Page 280 Recorded on October 17, 1988 was deeded by American Savings & Loan to Wiliam C. Ligety and Cynthia Sharp.
In 1989 the Silver Springs Associates, a.k.a. the Developers Michael Barnes, Rick Widdows, and Warren Spieker, in a move to sell the properties in their SouthShore subdivision, provided an Exclusive Private Enjoyment Easement Agreement to the purchasers. In effect this document reserved the General Members easements around the lakes for the exclusive access and use by the lake view property owners.
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Hi Bill,
I keep receiving questions about the Enjoyment Easement and the status of ownership and use.
I would appreciate a statement from you and/or the MA board that I can post on the website that will answer the following questions:
- When did the homeowners lose the right to walk the perimeter of the lakes? Why?
- Who owns the land from the back lot lines to the water, under all the water, and across to the back lot line on the other side?
- If the MA holds title to all that land, and if the MA can only hold Common Area property, then should all the homeowners have access and use?
- If the MA does not hold title to the easement around the little lake because the last title was held by SSD in the 1970’s and was never transferred to anyone else, then the property became an “ownerless easement” according to the Summit County Recorder.
- If this is truly the case then does the MA have the responsibility to maintain it? If Mountain Regional did not own the easement how could they transfer it to the MA in 2004?
- If the MA holds title to all the land around and under the lakes then why can’t all the homeowners use it?
- Do any of the lake view owners own any of the platted Enjoyment Easement land from their original back lot lines to the water’s edge? If so, how many on each lake?
- There is a document titled Private Enjoyment Easement dated around 1989. Is it a recorded document? Or is it attached to Deeds of properties sold by the SSD, Inc. or SSA, Inc. ?
- Have properties transferred to new purchasers included the Private Enjoyment Easement?
- Can you provide a copy of the deed that spells out that the MA owns the Enjoyment Easement around both lakes?
- If lake view owners are presenting a proposal to the MA to purchase the land between their back lot lines to the water, doesn’t that require the vote of the entire 504 Association Members?
- If the documented ownership of the Enjoyment Easement can be established won’t it be easier to sort out who truly is responsible for the dams?
- Since the lake view owners have used the Enjoyment Easement from 1990 or earlier to 2004 does that provide to them Easement by Prescription property rights and ownership?
Your reply will be appreciated,
Lucy Archer
1979, 1994 SSSFHOA CCRs “Article 1. Section 2. “Common area” and “common facilities” shall mean all real property owned by the Association for the common use and enjoyment of the members of the Association.”
An easement is a non-possessory interest to use real property in possession of another person for a stated purpose, such as a right of way for utilities.A prescriptive easement is acquired by continuous, open, uninterrupted, exclusive, and adverse use of the property for ten years.Easement by Prescription
An unrecorded easement that was acquired after a period of twenty years’ use that was public, continuous, uninterrupted, and peaceable. Private ways (a road, path or driveway across property belonging to another) are protected after seven years’ use, which must be constant and uninterrupted.