Neighborhood Spotlight

The Left Hand Valley Courier is spotlighting various local neighborhoods, their history, issues and general nature. This week, the Courier is spotlighting The Cove residential neighborhood.

Most Niwot residents are familiar with Somerset and Legend Ridge, but any mention of The Cove is usually met with raised eyebrows and puzzled looks. Small, lovely and secluded, the neighborhood was established in the early 1990s.

You won't find The Cove unless you happen upon it while walking or are in the process of achieving your goal of driving to the very end of every road in Niwot. Even then, you are unlikely to realize that separate parts of The Cove are connected by a walking path that descends to a ravine and curves up to the street level on the other side.

Bill Katamura is an original resident and was the first president of The Cove PUD Homeowners Association. He continues to live in the house he built in 1994. Katamura said, "The Cove was developed from 15 of the 16 acres owned by Frank and Dorothy Wyatt." The Wyatts kept their house and incorporated the remaining acreage in 1993 with Charter Properties Management. Skyland Drive on the west side of the neighborhood and Comanche Road on the east were both extended, the lots were graded and utilities were buried.

The 15 homes were all built in the 1990s. Most of the units were built on speculation and sold before completion. The west side of the development includes 12 lots on the extension of Skyland Drive in the Autumn Ridge neighborhood. The other three lots are on the extension of Comanche Road in Morton Heights. The connecting path was initially packed gravel, but erosion quickly became an issue and the gravel was replaced by concrete within a few years.

Because the two parts of The Cove are accessed from different neighborhoods, the path provides a connection between them. In addition, it provides a shorter, walkable distance between Autumn Ridge, Somerset, and The Cove to Niwot Elementary School on Walker Road. This allows the path to be designated a school route.

The beautifully-maintained roads in The Cove are privately owned by the homeowners association, rather than by Boulder County. The decision was influenced by the ravine which separates the land.

The ravine would have limited the frontage of the homes on Skyland Drive. The width requirements for a county-maintained road would have taken 10-20 feet from the front yard of one of the homes compared to the HOA-designed road.

Katamura said, "Given the issues that [another] HOA has had with the county, I think we probably came out ahead."

The Cove contracts with a plow service, which clears snow on both the road and the path. However, residents of The Cove provide additional attention to the path for safety and accessibility reasons. As current HOA president Rod Archer said, "I believe the pathway across the ravine is the most well-known and most appreciated feature of The Cove."