Editor’s note: The story has been updated to correct the year in a quote by Iris Hollow Master Homeowners Association lawyer Jesse Witt.
The owners of a small, nonprofit preschool in Boulder’s Iris Hollow neighborhood fear a disagreement with the homeowners association over access to a playground could eventually force them to move or close.
The Children’s House Preschool moved to the building in the neighborhood about 20 years ago, taking over from a previous childcare center. Children’s House signed an agreement with the HOA in 2003 to use the common area playground next door for as long as the building remained a preschool and pay a fee to the HOA.
“When we bought the building, it was what we thought would be a dream place,” owner Michael Knuckey said, adding the annexation agreement for the housing development showed a preschool using the playground and the previous owner had used the playground at no cost.
The preschool building’s lot, which isn’t part of the HOA, isn’t large enough to meet state licensing requirements for fenced in, outdoor space, he said. The adjacent playground meets the requirement and is open to the neighborhood outside of the preschool’s operating hours.
Knuckey and his wife, Elaine McCarthy, own and run the preschool, which has operated since the 1970s. In 2010, Knuckey said, the couple signed a 10-year agreement with the HOA to allow them to update the playground equipment and make other improvements. Those improvements cost the preschool about $25,000, he said.
When the 2010 agreement expired, a one-year agreement was negotiated in 2020. But negotiations broke down after that agreement ended.
Both the preschool and the HOA representatives described their relationship as difficult and contentious.
Knuckey said the HOA wanted to raise the annual payment from $3,000 to $9,000 a year, while expecting the preschool to continue to cover the cost to maintain the playground. At the same time, he said, running a childcare center has become increasingly challenging following the pandemic, and the preschool has lost money for years.
“As a nonprofit, it was just completely unaffordable for us,” he said.
He said the preschool is an asset to the neighborhood and community, with more than 50% of the students coming from low income and second language families.
“Our dedication has been to remain open and provide affordable preschool opportunities, as well as free and reduced tuition to those most in need,” he said.
Jesse Witt, a lawyer who represents the Iris Hollow Master Homeowners Association, said the HOA was willing to work with the preschool and lower the fee to use the playground, but wasn’t willing to agree to the preschool’s request for exclusive, permanent use of the area.
“The HOA wants to retain some measure of control over how its land is used,” Witt said.
While the school maintains the playground itself, Witt said, it also benefits from HOA services that include snow removal and landscaping that “cost a lot more now than they did in 2003.”
He noted the homeowners weren’t surveyed directly to get their input about the playground’s use, but that the HOA did talk to homeowners about the subject at its annual meeting last fall. He characterized the preschool’s request for lower fees as asking homeowners to subsidize a private business, saying a lower fee would result in higher HOA fees for the homeowners.
“The bottom line is that this land belongs to the homeowners, and they have the right to decide how their land is used,” Witt said. “They also have the right to decide what to charge if a business wants to operate on their land. We had hoped to reach a new agreement with Children’s House that was fair to both sides, but that has unfortunately proven impossible.”
With negotiations at a standstill, the two sides sought a court opinion. Knuckey and McCarthy argued that, though the 2010 and 2020 agreements had expired, the original 2003 agreement was still in effect. The 2003 agreement stipulated that the preschool pay three times the amount a homeowner paid in HOA fees.
The HOA disagreed, and a Boulder County District Court judge ruled in the HOA’s favor in December. The judge found that the 2010 agreement legally replaced the one from 2003 and gave the HOA permission to stop providing playground access. The preschool plans to appeal the decision.
Without adjacent playground access, the program’s students walk to a nearby park or ride a bus to other area parks for time outside — an arrangement Knuckey said may not be sustainable. The preschool also is licensed for 25 students, but enrollment now is limited to 13 children because the bus only has 13 seats.
The couple had planned to eventually sell the building to another preschool program, Knuckey said, but that’s unlikely if there’s no playground access.
“The neighbors I’ve spoken to, the general feeling in the neighborhood is they want to have the preschool here,” he said. “But we’re stuck in a place where without a playground we can’t really operate.”
