Snowmass Village ADUs: How HOA Covenants May Affect a Caretaker Unit

Ask the Town of Snowmass Village whether you can add a caretaker unit to your single-family home, and the current answer leans favorable. State law changed in 2024, according to Colorado's Division of Local Government; the town has been trying to modernize its own accessory dwelling rules to match, and staff have floated incentives to make it easier, not harder, to build one.

Ask the Snowmass Homeowners Association the same question about the same house, and for most single-family lots in the village, the covenant may limit the answer. As The Aspen Times reported, the covenants limit each home to one full kitchen. Because Snowmass Village's municipal code defines a caretaker unit as requiring a kitchen, that restriction may affect whether a second unit can qualify, even though the interaction between the town's rules and the covenant remains unresolved.

If you are shopping for a Snowmass property with a caretaker unit, staff quarters, or a multi-generational suite in mind, the recorded declaration for your specific subdivision is an important fact to check. Not the median price. Not the zoning map.

What actually changed at the state level

Colorado's 2024 accessory dwelling unit law, House Bill 24-1152, was written to push back against local rules that made ADUs hard to build. The state's Division of Local Government has since built out guidance and a certification track for jurisdictions that comply, tied to grant eligibility for homeowners and municipalities alike. The thrust of the law is that cities and counties have to allow at least one ADU where single-family homes are already permitted.

What the law does not resolve cleanly is what happens when the obstacle isn't the city's zoning code but a private HOA's recorded declaration. The issue remained unresolved in Snowmass Village as of early 2026.

How the covenant may affect accessory units

As The Aspen Times reported, the Snowmass Homeowners Association's master declaration predates the current housing conversation by decades; the association's attorney, Paul Taddune, said the covenants governing its member subdivisions cap every single-family home at one full kitchen. Nothing in that language mentions accessory dwelling units, caretaker units, or employee housing. The one-kitchen limit may affect whether a second space can qualify under the town's program.

The Aspen Times also reported that Taddune told the Town Council the association's covenants "don't allow duplex use, even though you're not going to call it a duplex." The distinction is between an express ADU ban and a one-kitchen limit that may affect whether a second space can qualify as an ADU.

Whose homes this actually covers

The Snowmass Homeowners Association was founded in 1966 and now has more than 850 members across 13 subdivisions in the village. The table below, based on the Snowmass Homeowners Association's site, shows which subdivisions are subject to its master declaration:

According to town staff figures cited at the same council discussion, roughly 874 of Snowmass Village's single-family homes, about 87 percent of the town's single-family stock, sit inside this footprint. If your search is narrowed to a single-family lot rather than a condominium, the odds that your future home falls under the one-kitchen rule are high enough that you should assume it applies until you've confirmed otherwise.

The town's count leaves a coverage question

The town's figures leave a separate question for buyers. As The Aspen Times reported, Snowmass Village's community development staff, Senior Planner Jim Wahlstrom and Director Dave Shinneman, told the council the town currently has 97 registered accessory dwelling units on the books, 85 caretaker units and 12 employee units. Nobody at that meeting could say how many of those 97 sit on lots governed by the SHOA. Taddune said he wasn't aware of any ADUs inside the association's footprint. The association's own manager, John Kenney, said there is "empirical evidence they exist" but no confirmed data on whether those units actually contain kitchens, which is the detail that would put them in conflict with the covenant in the first place.

That gap matters to a buyer: the information discussed at the meeting did not establish whether an existing ADU on a property within SHOA territory complies with the covenant. A listing that describes an existing ADU does not by itself establish whether the unit complies.

Why the town paused its proposal

The town's planning commission had already approved a plan to combine its separate caretaker and employee unit rules into a single ADU category, with a real incentive attached: up to 1,000 square feet of extra floor area without triggering the floor area excise tax, meant to make building a unit financially easier. Town Manager Clint Kinney framed the goal plainly, that if a homeowner wants to provide an extra 1,000 square feet for an employee unit, the town should let that happen.

The council didn't vote it down. It paused the vote to let staff and the HOA keep talking. Fixing the covenant itself would require a change by the SHOA board, and Taddune told the council candidly that the board would likely not recommend it. Council member Alyssa Shenk noted that the covenants predated the valley's housing crisis; changing them would require the board to reconsider its existing rules.

Nothing in the town's public meeting record since that discussion shows a new draft ordinance or a covenant amendment moving forward. For a buyer, that means the issue remains unresolved. It's the current state of play.

What to check before you write an offer

If a caretaker unit, staff housing, or a multi-generational suite is part of why you're buying a specific Snowmass property, treat the subdivision name as a due diligence item, not a footnote. Ask whether the parcel sits inside the Snowmass Homeowners Association's master declaration or one of the standalone subdivision associations, like Divide or Horse Ranch, that layer additional design review on top of it. Request the recorded CC&Rs directly rather than relying on a listing description. If an ADU already exists on the property, ask when it was built, whether it was registered with the town's housing department, and whether it includes a full second kitchen, since that detail may affect whether it complies with the covenant and qualifies under the town's rules.

None of this shows up in a median price or a days-on-market figure. It shows up in a recorded document that most people don't request until after they're already under contract.

A few questions worth asking directly

Does buying a condominium avoid this problem entirely? Condominiums, along with Melton I and Sinclair Meadows, are explicitly outside the Snowmass Homeowners Association's master declaration, according to the association's own site. The one-kitchen restriction doesn't apply there in the same form, though condo associations carry their own separate rules worth reviewing.

Will Colorado's 2024 ADU law eventually override the covenant? That's genuinely unresolved. Treat any claim that the law "settles" this as premature until the town and the association produce something in writing that says so.

Could I build a caretaker unit without a kitchen to sidestep the covenant? You'd solve one problem and create another. The town's own code defines a caretaker unit as requiring a kitchen with cooking, sanitation, and sleeping facilities. Strip the kitchen and you may avoid the covenant conflict, but you also no longer meet the town's definition of the unit type the incentive program was built around.

If you're weighing a Snowmass Village purchase with a caretaker unit or family suite in mind, this is exactly the kind of parcel-specific question worth working through before you're locked into a contract. Fiona Hagist has spent a career in the Roaring Fork Valley reading the fine print that listings leave out, and offers a free home valuation for anyone ready to start that conversation with the right questions already asked.

This article is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. Consult a qualified professional about your situation.