2026-09-10 · Colorado · Courts

A metropolitan district tried to condemn easements across a community association's private roads to reach a parcel owned by the district's own affiliate. The association asked for limited discovery before the immediate-possession hearing, was told the rules did not allow it, and the Colorado Supreme Court has now said the trial court was wrong about that. In re Arrowhead Colorado Metropolitan District v. Roxborough Park Foundation, 2026 CO 54, was decided June 23, 2026, en banc and unanimous, with the order to show cause made absolute.¹

It is the Colorado Supreme Court's only community-association decision in a twenty-month window.

What the court held

C.R.C.P. 26(d), 26(b)(2) and 16(b)(1) give a trial court discretion to order prehearing discovery, including in an eminent-domain proceeding before an immediate-possession hearing. A trial court that concludes it lacks authority to order such discovery has erred — because Rule 16(b)(1)'s phrase “or at such other time as the court may direct” supplies a second pathway to deem a case “at issue,” and reading authority out of that clause impermissibly subtracts words from the rule.

The court did not hold that the association is entitled to the discovery it asked for. It remanded so the trial court can exercise the discretion it wrongly believed it did not have.

The dispute

Roxborough Park Foundation is a Colorado nonprofit community association in Roxborough Park, Douglas County. It owns the land, roads and pathways surrounding a plot called the “Homestead Parcel.” That parcel is owned by Arrowhead Colorado Propco, LLC — a related entity of Arrowhead Colorado Metropolitan District, a quasi-municipal special district.

To reach its affiliate's parcel, the district filed a condemnation petition seeking easements across the Foundation's private roads, and asserted a right to immediate possession under C.R.S. § 38-1-105(6)(a). An expedited immediate-possession hearing was set for January 30, 2026.

On November 18, 2025 the Foundation moved for limited, expedited discovery, arguing it needed the material to prepare — the public-use question being genuinely in dispute, since the parcel to be served was owned by the condemnor's own affiliate. On December 22, 2025 the trial court denied the motion, holding that neither the eminent-domain statutes nor the rules permitted prepossession discovery: the rules allow discovery only after a case management order, which requires the case to be “at issue,” which it read to mean all pleadings filed. The Foundation sought relief under C.A.R. 21.

1. In re Arrowhead Colorado Metropolitan District v. Roxborough Park Foundation, 2026 CO 54 (Colo. June 23, 2026) — opinion (source of the holding and facts) ↩
2. Colorado Supreme Court Case Announcements, January 26, 2026 — recording the rule to show cause in No. 26SA15 ↩
3. Colorado Supreme Court Case Announcements, January 12, 2026 — the certiorari grant in Twin Shores, No. 25SC286 ↩