Snowmass Town Council denies requests to expand mandatory leash zones

The Snowmass Village Town Council denied requests from the Country Club Townhomes Association and Seasons 4 Condominium Association to include their properties as mandatory leash zones for dogs.

In October, the Town Council adopted ordinances that would make several public spaces in Snowmass mandatory leash zones, including the Rim Trail area, Base Village, and the Village Mall. When the ordinance was passed, a provision was included that required any expansion of mandatory leash zone areas to be passed by another ordinance. At the end of January, representatives from the Country Club Townhomes and Seasons 4 associations sent letters, requesting the Town Council vote to adopt land around their properties as mandatory leash zone areas.

But council members denied those requests in their Monday Town Council meeting. The Town Council agreed the ordinance was too new, and it wanted to see how its enforcement would play out over a year before making additions to leash zones. Council members also agreed that adding mandatory leash zones to specific neighborhoods could be a slippery slope.

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“If we start doing one private area and then another private area, I don’t think it’s within our purview, and I don’t think we should go there at all,” said Council member Alyssa Shenk.

Snowmass Police Chief Brian Olson said while there may have been a few times officers were called to the Snowmass Club Circle, which is the road that surrounds Seasons 4 Condominiums, for off-leash dogs causing a problem, it wasn’t enough to necessitate making the area a mandatory leash zone.

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“I’m not sure a couple of personal experiences needs to morph into a mandatory leash zone,” Olson said. “I would ask that they’d continue to call, and we’ll come down there and deal with the individual problems rather than inflict an enforcement option that would make us required to be down there specifically driving around trying to enforce any dogs off-leash, which I think would be problematic.”

The Town Council also received several letters from residents at Country Club Townhomes and Seasons 4 Condominiums urging it not to make those neighborhoods mandatory leash zones. Several opponents said it would overburden the police force, and the request to enforce a leash zone was a reflection of a small group of people in those associations.

The land the associations were requesting to become mandatory leash zones is privately owned by the homeowners associations in those areas.

“We’re a private entity, we have extremely little public access into our area, we’ve got our own rules in place whether we are comfortable with them or not. We can adjust them as we see fit as long as we stay within what is appropriate for the town,” said Seasons 4 resident Scott Arthur. “There’s absolutely no reason for us to be burdening the police department and town council and things like that with an extra ordinance to make sure that someone else, or ‘big brother’ as it were, is watching over us.”