Seven Years. One Ditch. We Have a Trial Date

A long-overdue update for Applewood neighbors and everyone following this  story.  

Dear Applewood Neighbors and Friends of Golden,  

It has been nearly ten months since my last post here, and I want to start with a genuine thank  you.  

Thank you for staying with this. Thank you to everyone who has checked in, shared earlier  posts, signed the petition, or simply driven past my property, noticed the fixourditch.org sign,  and wondered how things were going. You have been more important to this effort than you  know.  

I have been quiet on this blog since May because active litigation requires patience and  discipline, and there are stretches where the most responsible thing is to put your head down  and trust the process. But today I have the most significant news in seven years of this story,  and you deserve to hear it directly from me.  

We Have a Trial Date  

On March 16, 2026, a Jefferson County District Court judge set a trial date for the first week of  December 2026 in our active lawsuit concerning my 1860s irrigation ditch lateral.  

I am not going to discuss the details of the litigation here — that belongs in the courtroom, not  on a community blog. What I can tell you is this: after seven years, we are going to trial. A  Jefferson County judge will decide what Colorado water law actually means for a small property  owner whose historic irrigation rights were buried and blocked by a neighboring development —  without his knowledge, and without his consent.

For anyone just finding this page: welcome. The full story is on the About page. The short  version is that in 2019, my 1860s irrigation ditch lateral — drawing water from the Lee Stewart  and Eskins Ditch, which has served Applewood since the 1860s — was buried in a pipeline  during construction of the Cottages at Rolling Hills subdivision next door. The pipeline was  installed incorrectly. Trees, fences, walls, and a 50,000-volt Xcel Energy transformer were  placed on top of it. I spent the years since trying every reasonable path to resolve this. When  every path ran out, I filed a lawsuit. 

How We Got Here — Because It Matters  

Filing this lawsuit was never what I wanted.  

In 2023, I approached the HOA president directly — neighbor to neighbor — and explained my  situation. The covenants recorded by the subdivision in September 2020 explicitly require the  HOA to maintain access to the irrigation easement and to keep it clear of obstructions. I  believed a reasonable conversation between neighbors could resolve this without the time,  expense, and heartache that litigation brings to everyone involved.  

That conversation did not lead anywhere productive. Over the following months and into 2024, I  worked with legal counsel to pursue a negotiated easement agreement — one that would have  provided proper access to my lateral and addressed the encroachments above it. For well over  

a year, that process moved slowly. Proposals were exchanged. Time passed. No agreement  was reached. No encroachments were removed.  

Eventually, with no remaining path forward, the court allowed me to add the Cottages at Rolling  Hills HOA and the three lot owners whose backyards sit above my buried pipeline as  defendants in the fall of 2025, alongside the original developer.  

I want to be direct about this: every step I took before that moment was an attempt to avoid  exactly this outcome. The lawsuit was a last resort, not a first choice. My family has paid an  enormous price — in money, in time, in stress — that I would not have chosen if any reasonable  alternative had remained available.  

What Has Happened Since  

In March 2025, the HOA arranged for a professional jetting and cleaning of the pipeline — the  first thorough cleaning since it was installed in 2019. I was present and documented it  throughout. I am grateful that work was done.  

As of this writing, I have been told that another cleaning of the lateral is planned this week,  ahead of irrigation season opening on April 1. I do not yet have a confirmed date. Last spring's  cleaning required closing the eastbound lane of W. 32nd Avenue for approximately half a day —  a significant undertaking that reflects the complexity of maintaining a buried pipeline in a public  right-of-way.  

Some of you may have noticed that my fixourditch.org signs and security lighting were absent  from my property for a period of time last year. At the request of opposing counsel, I voluntarily  removed them during settlement negotiations as a gesture of good faith. No agreement was  ever reached. No encroachments were removed from my easement. The signs and lights are  back up. The security lighting was installed at the recommendation of the Jefferson County 

Sheriff's Office following documented vandalism to my property, and that recommendation has  not changed.  

What the Record Shows  

I want to share one fact from the public court record, because I think anyone following this case  deserves to know it.  

After I added the HOA and three lot owners as defendants in the fall of 2025, all four defendant  groups filed crossclaims against the original developer of the subdivision. In its crossclaim, the  Cottages at Rolling Hills HOA stated to the Jefferson County District Court that if I prevail in my  claims, the developer should bear responsibility for the HOA's resulting costs — including costs  the HOA may incur if it is forced to remove or move improvements or landscaping located over  my lateral. The other three defendant groups similarly filed crossclaims against the developer.  

I am not drawing legal conclusions from these filings. I am noting that they are public record,  filed voluntarily by the defendants' own attorneys, and that anyone who wishes to read them  may do so through the Jefferson County District Court.  

What This Fight Is Really About  

This is not about money. It is not about causing hardship for my neighbors. I do not enjoy any  part of this. I would trade every hour I have spent on this fight — and there have been  thousands of them, at enormous cost to my family — for an afternoon in my yard with the water  running the way it did before 2019.  

This is about whether 160-year-old water rights can be quietly made worthless by burying the  infrastructure that carries them under permanent encroachments, with no path for future repair  and no accountability for those responsible. My lateral is over 750 feet long. It runs under  private backyards and a Jefferson County right-of-way. It is part of a ditch system that has  carried water to properties in this neighborhood since the 1860s — a shared resource whose  history predates every structure on these streets by a century.  

If rights like mine can be extinguished this way — buried under walls and fences and utility  equipment and left without remedy — then no small water right in Colorado that sits in the path  of development is truly safe. That is the larger question this trial will help answer. And it is one  that matters well beyond my property line.  

171 Signatures — Now We Push to 300 

To every person who has signed our petition — thank you. It has mattered more than you know. We are heading into trial. This is the moment to grow that number. 

If you have not signed, please do so now at www.fixourditch.org. It takes thirty seconds and it tells everyone watching this case — in the courtroom and at the county — that this community is paying attention. 

If you have already signed, please share this post with one neighbor. On Nextdoor. In a text. On social media. Every voice adds to the record of community concern that has built around this issue. 

I will be posting more regularly now. There is a great deal ahead and I intend to keep you informed at every step. 

Seven years is a long time to fight for something as simple as the right to access your own water. But the ditch is still there. The water rights are still ours. And we are not done. 

Thank you for standing with us. 

Sincerely, 

Greg Koss

Applewood, Golden, Colorado www.fixourditch.org 

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