Walking Paths close to homes - Not Gated Comm

We are living in a non-gated community. There have been arguments about whether oour walking paths are public or private. Some of the homes and windows are within 15 - 20 feet of the walking path and the homeowners do not want non-community people walking that closely to their homes and patios. Our roads are private and maintained by the Community. The Community is in Pennsylvania and is currently being built. It will have 247 homes and now has about 80 completed homes.

Is this a common issue with HOA's? Because the HOA members are paying dues to maintain the paths and common ground can signs be erected that indicate the paths are private?

Hi Sandra:

If you have a copy of the plat map for your community, the place where the paths are located should be noted on the plat. It may be that they are labeled as "tracts," or "easements." The plat map should also have notes regarding any easements, special conditions on the tracts, etc. There also may be some reference to them in the CC&R's for your community. If you can wade through all that, you may find the answer to your question.

If they are private paths, then it's possible to put up signs restricting use; you may need to check with the association's attorney to see what proper wording and possible statute citation(s) should be used.

J. Patrick Moore, CMCA

We have a walking path around our retention basin (which we affectionately call our "lake"). The "lake" and the walking path are on our common area and intended for the use solely of our residents.

We posted signage to that affect: Posted. No swimming. No boating. No ATVs. No bicycles. etc etc etc.

Within 2 days the signs were altered to re: Swimming. Boating. ATVs Bicycles (you get the point.)

One sign was torn down and thrown into the lake.

Periodically we hire off-duty policemen to work security to check that people live in the community (we are not a gated community).

That slows them down for a while, but one of the problems was that many "claimed" that they did not know it was a "private" area.

So we just finished erecting a 4-rail fence around it so that they can see at a glance that it is "private."

We will see if that does or does not cut down on trespassers. We know that we cannot eliminate them, but if we can reduce the ATV traffic and some of the other more noxious activities, we'll consider it a win.

I will check the plat. Thanks for this information!