The jury-rigged walk an Edgemont Ranch couple built from their second-story bathroom to a tree to allow their cats, Teddy and Gus, some independence remained in place Wednesday, a day after the deadline to remove it.
Martha Spence said Wednesday that the couple plans, through their landlady, to appeal the removal order from the Farmhouse East sub-association of Edgemont Ranch.
But a member of the Edgemont Property Owners Association, the master organization, said it’s too late.
There are seven sub-associations in the subdivision six miles northeast of Durango along Florida Road (County Road 240).
The deadline for removing the catwalk – admired by some neighbors, abhorred by others – was Tuesday.
Martha Spence and her husband, who goes by just “Spence,” said a former board member of the master homeowners association told them the catwalk couldn’t be removed without an appeal hearing.
Wrong, said Jerry McGeorge, treasurer of the master association.
Sub-associations have certain autonomy, but master association bylaws supersede neighborhood rules, McGeorge said.
One master association rule prohibits loose animals, McGeorge said. Animals can be out on leash but can’t roam, he said.
The Spences also didn’t ask before they built the covenant-violating catwalk, a 16-foot emergency fire-escape ladder between the house and the tree, and bracket-supported stairs to the ground, McGeorge said.
The Spences can appeal, but master association regulations trump all others, McGeorge said.
daler@durangoherald.com
