Ogborn Mihm Files Lawsuit Against Vail Corporation on Behalf of Eagle County Homeowners

VAIL, Colo. , June 9, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent lawsuit filed by the Red Sky Ranch Metropolitan District, on behalf of the Red Sky Ranch homeowners against the Vail Corporation, asks the Court to end an arrangement made by the Vail Corporation decades ago that prevents the community from controlling its own tax revenue and enables the Vail Corporation to increase its profits.

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In 2001, the Vail Corporation developed Red Sky Ranch and put into place a "Dual Metro District Structure." This dual metro district structure, in which one metro district owns and operates a development's infrastructure facilities, but the other metro district is required to pay for all of the costs relating to the infrastructure facilities, is commonly referred to as a "Master and Servant" district structure. Here, the "Master" district (Holland Creek Metro District, which is controlled by Vail) owns all of the infrastructure but pays for nothing, while the "Servant" district (Red Sky Ranch Metro District) owns nothing but pays for all of the infrastructure through taxes on the homeowners. 

By arranging the structure in this way, the Vail Corporation has continued to make profits from this residential development decades after the original homes were sold, by requiring on-going payments from Red Sky Ranch Metro District to the Vail Corporation's agent Holland Creek Metro District.

The abuse of the Metro District structure by developers was addressed in the 2021 Colorado Senate Bill 21-262 that was signed into law by Governor Jared Polis on June 28, 2021. The new bill was implemented to address statewide concerns that original developers of communities were taking financial advantage of homeowners and refusing to provide them with control over their own communities.

The lawsuit was filed by attorneys Peter McClenahan and David Marcus with Ogborn Mihm, and Kim Seter with Seter & Vander Wall.

For more information, contact Red Sky Ranch homeowners:

Jim Malernee    (970) 569-3642     [email protected]
Peter Mason      (312) 972-9512    [email protected]

SOURCE Ogborn Mihm, LLP