Planning changes

This subject often comes up in reference to pools in HOA's. It must have come up every year in our HOA about our pool. Especially when another expense had to be approved. I say a pool is a "necessary evil". Yes, there are downsides to it and would make a great garden space. However, what attracts families and potential buyers to your HOA to purchase? A pool.

I would rather be part owner in a private pool than pay the expense of having an individual one in my yard. It's WAAAY more expensive, more issues, and insurance requirements to allow individuals to own their own pool. This way the pool is in one general area and disturbs those owners who obvisously bought their home within ear shot of the pool. It wasn't like the pool was hidden from these people when they bought their homes...

The developers/builders installs pools because they know it will attract buyers and they don't have to deal with the long term maintenance issues. Which the long term maintenance is the most expensive part of owning a pool. If your association is willing to be okay with not having an item that would pull in purchasers, then discuss getting rid of the pool. However, I think you will find that having the pool does indeed provide some benefit seen and not seen. I recommend keeping the pool and just dealing with the arguments that will always arise each summer....

Not only would this change need to be approved but (depending on how your documents are written) it might need considerably more than a majority to approve.

You should also determine whether you need approval from banks that hold mortgages.

Thank you very much guys. We've got clear vision on how to block this idea about filling pool.

Well, that may not prevent them from closing the pool permanently.

Personally, I'd be P.Oed if i were a new owner and was promised a pool with my purchase.

Look for a very high voting threshold needed to close that pool. I'd bet it would be 100% needed.

We're working with this issue right now. Our CCRs require 75% of homeowners to approve closing the pool or reopening it if it's been closed for two consecututive years (which it has been since 2008.) In our case, we closed it because of money problems and in the research we've done over the last six months, we've found it would cost A LOT to reopen. Not only would we have to install the anti-entrapment equipment (now required by federal law), our decking is a hot mess, thanks to two years of weather (including February's blizzard). We also need a new cover and since the pool's over 30 years old, God knows what else we'd need in repairs. Unlike your community, our usage is quite low, so given that and the potential repair expenses, our board is recommending that the pool be closed.

You probably need to have a special homeowners meeting to discuss the pros and cons (some of which I've listed above), and then take a vote. If noise is your main issue, you might want to ask about rules that could be set up for the playground (e.g. opening and closing hours). If the playground is geared towards young children (7 and under), that may help prevent some commotion since those kids would probably have parents or guardians with them. The kids I'd worry about are the teenagers who might loiter about and cause a number of problems besides noise.