WINDSOR — A stadium, domed pickleball and volleyball courts and surrounding areas at the troubled Future Legends sports complex will remain shut down because of safety concerns, a Weld District Court judge ruled Thursday afternoon.
More than two weeks after she held an all-day hearing on June 18 to hear arguments from the town and Future Legends management about whether a restraining order should be lifted and a new occupancy permit granted, District Court Judge Kimberly Schutt ruled that, “based upon all of the evidence before the Court at this juncture, that the Town has met its burden of proving, through clear evidence, that grounds exist … for the Court to issue a preliminary injunction” to keep the complex closed until its owners satisfy a list of safety issues.
“The town had given them a punch list a year ago, and that’s what they need to do,” Windsor town attorney Dan Money told BizWest. “The town is pleased with the court order.”
The town’s list of safety concerns included electrical issues including unprotected conductors, areas of construction debris that posed hazards to the public, extension cords used for exterior lighting, the lack of permanent separate-sex restrooms and other code violations.
As the complex was being built, Schutt’s order noted, “the Town worked with Future Legends to conditionally issue TCOs (temporary certificates of occupancy) for portions of the complex with the expectation that Future Legends was going to continue making substantial progress toward completion of the project per the site development plan. However, as reflected in the correspondence from Town officials to Future Legends last Fall, Future Legends was not making adequate progress and there were a number of concerns specifically identified.”
Those concerns “were more than mere cosmetic issues — they implicated public safety,” she wrote.
“Enjoining Future Legends from occupying and using the property and improvements, including the Collegiate Field, when there are no certificates of occupancy in effect for them, will not disserve the public interest,” Schutt wrote. “Quite the contrary — it will serve the public by preventing potential injury and harm to members of the public from conditions at the complex which the Town has deemed to be unsanitary and unsafe.”
Citing the town’s concerns about “live wires, inadequate lighting in the parking lots, egress/ingress concerns about the roads in and out of the complex” and other issues, she wrote, “the Court was not presented with any evidence at the June 18 hearing that these issues had all been remedied, and instead the Court heard that a portion of the dome had recently collapsed due to a power outage. Thus, the Court again finds the public interests will be served by the granting of Windsor’s request for injunctive relief.”
After failing to secure a temporary restraining order against the town in U.S. District Court, Future Legends managing partner Jeff Katofsky sought judicial review by the Weld District Court, alleging violations of due process after the town decided on April 23 to not renew and to change the expiration date of the certificates of occupancy for a construction project at the facility. The complaint was filed under Rule 106, which provides a mechanism for seeking judicial review of decisions made by governmental bodies, officers or lower tribunals in Colorado.
“For Future Legends to succeed on the merits of its Rule 106 action here, it will have to demonstrate that Town officials abused its discretion in a way that is arbitrary, unreasonable and unfair, or there is a violation/misapplication of law,” Schutt wrote. “Without actually reaching those merits here, the Court finds that Windsor is more likely to prevail on the merits of those claims given the standard of review and the evidence before the Court as of now.”
Katofsky could not be reached for comment, but Schutt specifically rejected one of his contentions.
“The Court is also not persuaded by Future Legends’ contention that Windsor is contradicting its claimed safety concerns by allowing use of some of the ball fields on the northwest end of the complex,” she wrote. She noted that Scott Ballstadt, Windsor’s director of planning, noted at the hearing that “those fields were previously constructed by the Town 10-15 years ago and deemed completed at the time. Final inspections were done and certificates of completion were issued after they passed inspection. Ballstadt testified there are no life safety concerns for that portion of the complex. It is thus distinguished from the other portions of the complex which have not been completed upon final inspection or for which there has not been any request for inspection made anytime since the letters were sent to Future Legends last Fall. For the reasons stated above then, the Court finds Windsor has a reasonable likelihood of success on the merits.”
Schutt concluded that, “based on the evidence presented at the June hearing, the Court continues to find the balancing of the equities of this matter strongly favors Windsor’s ability to enforce its laws and disfavors Future Legends attempts to operate the facility without TCOs (and without even an active building permit in place at this time) If Future Legends is allowed to invite members of the public into the facility without a valid certificate of occupancy, particularly after the Court specifically denied its request to extend the TCOs, then any business or property owner can use and occupy partially constructed facilities without a certificate of occupancy. The public’s health, safety and welfare would be jeopardized.”
The shutdown forced the Northern Colorado Owlz baseball team to rebrand and move to Colorado Springs, and also sent two soccer clubs, the Northern Colorado Hailstorm FC and Northern Colorado Rain FC, scrambling in search of other places to play.
The fields have been inaccessible since April 27 when the town shut it down. After Future Legends sued to get the facilities reopened, Schutt issued a restraining order May 23, banning public use of the stadium, domed pickleball and volleyball courts and surrounding areas, and scheduled the June 18 hearing to hear from both sides.
The only exception Schutt made to Thursday’s ruling that closed the major portions of the complex to the public was that “the parties may, by mutual agreement in writing, allow for representatives of the parties and/or any engineers, insurance company representatives or other necessary professionals to enter the property for purposes of inspection of the collapsed dome or other safety issues existing at the Property during the duration of these proceedings. Any such agreement shall state the specific date, time, purpose and portion of the Property to be entered for this limited purpose.”
This article was first published by BizWest, an independent news organization, and is published under a license agreement. © 2025 BizWest Media LLC.
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