Shuttle Bus Experience?

I am interested in hearing from anyone with experience with an HOA operating a shuttle bus. Here is our situation:

The county required the developer of our gated "55 or better" community to include a bus, to be donated to the HOA, in the Proffer (in Va. this is a legal agreement between the developer and the county for certain considerations in return for approval of the development - think of it as a legal form of bribes). The proffer says that at the time of the issuance of the 751st building permit (out of 800) the developer will provide a bus to be operated and maintained by the HOA. There are no other details in the proffer (e.g. size or type of bus, etc.). The HOA is still under developer control. We anticipate election of a homeowner board in 18 months. The 751st building permit will likely be issued in the next 6 months. There is nothing in the 2007 HOA budget for operation and maintenance of a bus.

Homeowner groups have requested the Board to survey the community to determine their opinion of if and how the bus should be operated (e.g. only within the gated community, to and from the local shopping areas and train and bus stops, on-call or scheduled service, etc.). These decisions are needed so a budget estimate can be developed. The developer controlled board has declined to do so. Without this information there will be no basis for estimating operating costs to include in the 2008 budget when it is developed this summer.

If the board does nothing, then the prospect is that sometime in the next six months a bus will appear in our parking lot and it will sit there depreciating until sometime after election of a homeowner board a year later. It seems to me that the present board will not have fulfilled its fiduciary duty to the HOA if it lets that happen.

Anyone have any experience operating a community shuttle bus service? How is it set up (contracted operation, driver hired by HOA, scheduled runs, on-call)? What costs are involved? Also any suggestions as to how to get the current board to get off its a**?

Dave

Is the HOA required to operate the bus and are there stipulations as to a schedule?

If not, an option may be to sell the bus and put the proceeds into the HOA.

As posted above, operating a bus company, even with only one bus, is not something you really want to get into. I would have the HOA attorney look into the options.

Hi:

We are a master-planned community in Portland, Oregon. Our docs require the HOA to provide bus shuttle service. Several of the surrounding developments (much smaller) have the same requirement, but simply provide vouchers for owners to use for cab service.

Our bus originally ran into downtown Portland but since the area west of us developed more and has a lot of high-tech industry, we run our bus to the local transit station (includes a Park & Ride area, bus transfers and light rail). We run the bus approximately 14 hours per day and the cost is rather high. We contract with a local, private bus company to provide the service. However, we are looking at what alternatives are available to us, particularly since most of the ridership is during rush hours, and include many of the local High School students (who have school bus service but that isn't cool).

The best recommendation would be to re-read anything included in your documents, as well as anything involved in the original hearings and other city/county documents that led up to the permitting of the development. See what is actually required as far as service. Talk with your owners as well, to see what kind of service they are wanting or would use. It may be that it's worthwhile to the owners to pay more to have the service (similar to a lot of retirement home buses that take the folks shopping &/or to doctor appointments, on field trips, etc.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA
Compliance Coordinator
Forest Heights Homeowners Association
Portland, Oregon