Judge mulls award of reported damages in water-tap moratorium case

GREELEY — Developers of the Eagle View Farms estate lots north of Greeley are awaiting word on whether they will be awarded damages in a case in which they claim to have lost residential lot sales due to North Weld County Water District’s moratorium on water taps from 2021 to 2024.

Weld District Court Judge Todd Taylor, having already ruled in 2023 in favor of Eagle View in the breach-of-contract case, is now considering Eagle View’s request for damages of more than $1.23 million after a trial to the court in January.

North Weld Water’s moratorium held up numerous developments across its service area for those three years. The district lifted the moratorium in November 2024.

Attorneys for North Weld Water District have stated that the original amount of loss claimed was the lost sale of Lot 2 of the development for $230,000, but the amount of estimated damages has gone through four iterations, with key witnesses changing their assessments during the court case.

The requested $1.23 million amount is the fourth and highest amount so far in the case, according to North Weld’s written closing arguments. North Weld argued that Eagle View’s request for damages is based on underlying assumptions that are “unsupported and speculative.”

“In the end, EVF has failed to satisfy its burden that it is entitled to lost profits in any amount claimed,” North Weld’s closing arguments stated.

Eagle View Farms, which was developing a 24-lot residential community just west of Lucerne and north of Greeley at Colorado Highway 392 and Weld County Road 35, sued in February 2022 in Weld County District Court, alleging violations of a water-service agreement through which North Weld agreed to provide water service for the project. Eagle View claimed that it lost sales as a result of the moratorium. North Weld sought to have the case dismissed in March 2022, arguing that Eagle View knew about the moratorium when it contracted to sell one of the lots. A judge in June 2022 denied the motion to dismiss. Taylor ruled in favor of the development in 2023, stating that regardless of whether there was a moratorium in place, the original contract held that the Water District would provide the water to the development.

In his 2023 ruling, Taylor wrote: “To counter Eagle View’s reliance on the water district’s moratorium prohibiting the sale of new water taps, the water district argues that it did not contractually agree to provide actual water taps, but merely agreed to provide the water supply for those taps. The water district’s argument is specious. It is undisputed that the water district refused to sell water taps during the moratorium. By refusing to sell a new water tap for Lot 2, the water district could not provide water to Lot 2 and thereby meet its contractual obligation. The water district’s sophistry is not only misleading, it is disappointing.”

Both sides filed their closing arguments on the damages on Feb. 7 after a two-day trial to the court Jan. 23-24.

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