"You are asked to correct this violation within 10 days from the date of this letter."
That line went out from the Lowry Community Master Association to a fourteen-year resident in August 2020, ordering her to take down a social justice sign from her townhome yard. The resident, Melissa Steele, pushed back publicly. LCMA executive director Mary Carr defended the policy as consistent, longstanding, and applied to every kind of yard sign the same way, telling CBS Colorado the association had "a legal responsibility to enforce its Design Guidelines consistently."
Six years later, a homeowner in Lowry preparing to list this fall is dealing with the same association, the same design review system, and a state legal framework that no longer works the way it did when that letter was written. The rules on paper look almost identical. What the HOA can actually do about a violation has changed underneath them, and that gap matters more to a seller than the rules themselves.
The Sign Fight Is a Better Lesson Than It Looks
The 2020 policy allowed some categories of yard sign (for sale, political candidate, garage sale) while prohibiting others, including the social justice messaging Steele and her neighbors posted. That is a distinction based on what the sign says, not just where it sits or how big it is.
Colorado has since put a specific limit on that kind of rule. Under C.R.S. 38-33.3-106.5, an HOA cannot prohibit or regulate a sign or flag based on its subject matter, message, or content, with a narrow exception for commercial messages. A sign policy that treats a graduation banner one way and a political message another way runs directly into that statute now. This is not a comment on whether the LCMA's current sign policy complies. It is a comment on what any Colorado HOA's authority actually covers today, and it is narrower on message content than it was in 2020.
That single change is a preview of a larger shift.
What the HOA Can Still Fully Control
None of this touches the part of Lowry's covenant system built around physical structures, and that system is unusually specific.
A backyard shed, playhouse, or detached garage counts as an accessory building under the LCMA's design guidelines, and it cannot exceed 8 feet by 10 feet by 8.5 feet high, measured including any skid, foundation, or slab. It has to match the main house in siding, roof, and color, and it needs a Design Review Request before it goes up, not after.
Fences carry their own list. Barbed wire is banned everywhere in the community. Dog-eared pickets can't be visible from the outside. Fences have to be capped. Cedar or redwood can be left in its natural state, but a stained or painted fence that fades, blisters, or chips has to be redone, and changing to a different color or shade requires a new Design Review submission even if the fence itself isn't changing shape.
Construction work carries specific limits too: nothing before 7 a.m. or after 7 p.m., no exterior work at all on Sundays, and amplified sound capped at 68 decibels for lower frequencies, stepping down to 37 decibels for anything above 4,800 cycles per second, measured from the property line. Dumpsters and portable toilets have to come off site within two weeks of project completion and can't sit there longer than 60 days regardless. Even mailboxes are covered: swapping in a similar style and color doesn't need review, but a different style or color does.
The LCMA leans on its own guidelines for this level of physical detail, and defers to the City of Denver for things like noise complaints and livestock ordinances, which residents are told to route to 311 rather than the association. That split matters for a seller because it tells you where the HOA's authority actually starts and stops.
What Changed Underneath the Rules
The physical rules haven't loosened. The path from "you're in violation" to "this costs you money or lands in court" has.
Colorado's HOA enforcement framework now requires two separate 30-day cure periods before an association can refer most covenant violations, the kind that don't threaten public health or safety, to legal action. That is described in detail by attorneys tracking the current enforcement changes, and it roughly doubles the runway a homeowner has to fix something before a violation notice turns into a legal matter.
Fines for those same non-safety violations are now capped at $500 per violation under C.R.S. 38-33.3-209.5, regardless of how long the issue sits unresolved. Attorney fees an association can recover in enforcement are capped at whichever is lower: 50 percent of the underlying debt, or $5,000. And under a separate 2022 law, HOAs in Colorado lost the authority to regulate parking on public streets altogether, one of the more common flashpoints in dense, well-planned communities like Lowry.
None of this erases the design review process. It changes the stakes of ignoring it.
What This Means If You're Listing in Lowry This Fall
Colorado law requires that HOA governing documents and disclosures reach a buyer before closing, a requirement rooted in C.R.S. 38-35.7-102 and the broader disclosure obligations under the Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act. In practice, that means the buyer's agent or the title company is going to request the association's status letter and violation history as part of due diligence, the same way they'd pull a reserve study for a condo.
That's the moment an unregistered shed, an unapproved fence color, or a swapped mailbox that never went through Design Review turns from a backyard detail into a paper trail. It doesn't necessarily kill a deal. It does turn into a conversation, and it's a better conversation to have before a buyer's agent finds it than after.
A homeowner listing this fall has more room to fix a design review gap now than they would have had a few years ago. The 30-day cure periods mean there's real time to submit a retroactive Design Review Request for that shed or repaint the fence to an approved shade before the association escalates anything. The $500 fine cap means the financial exposure on a minor, non-safety violation is fixed and predictable rather than open-ended. And a lawn sign or a parked car on the street is no longer the kind of thing that can complicate a listing the way it might have in 2020.
The practical move is straightforward: before you list, walk your own property against the LCMA's published guidelines, and if you find something that never went through Design Review, file the request now rather than let a buyer's team flag it during their own review.
The Boulevard One Wrinkle
Homeowners in Boulevard One, the newest section of Lowry built out on the last undeveloped parcel of the original Air Force base, route design questions to a different community manager than the rest of Lowry. General design review and covenant questions for most of the neighborhood go through one MSI contact, while Boulevard One has its own separate contact for the same category of question. That split suggests a home in Boulevard One may sit under an additional layer of design requirements on top of the master association's rules, which is worth confirming directly with the property manager before assuming the general Lowry guidelines are the whole picture.
FAQ
Does every home sale in Lowry require an HOA disclosure package? Any property inside a common interest community in Colorado, which includes homes governed by the LCMA, falls under CCIOA's disclosure requirements. That means HOA fees, rules, pending assessments, and governing documents need to reach the buyer before closing.
What if my shed or fence was never submitted for Design Review? It's still technically a covenant violation regardless of how long it's been there. Submitting a retroactive Design Review Request before listing gives you the benefit of the current 30-day cure periods rather than waiting for a buyer's team to raise it during their own document review.
Can the LCMA still ban yard signs entirely? Colorado law prevents an HOA from regulating a sign or flag based on its message or subject matter. Reasonable, content-neutral rules on size, number, and placement are still allowed.
How fast can a violation actually become a legal problem now? Under the current framework, most non-safety violations require two separate 30-day cure notices before an association can refer the matter to legal action, giving a homeowner roughly 60 days of notice before real legal exposure begins.
If you're weighing a fall listing in Lowry and want a clear read on what your HOA history will look like to a buyer's team before you go on market, Debbie Jacobs — Selling Denver can walk through it with you. Book an Appointment.
