Welcome to the Forum.
First and foremost you need to check with your local County Records and obtain a copy of your CCR's (also see if Bylaws or other documents were also filed). Your Title Insurance documents should list the Book and Page Number when they did your title searches. Because you are potentially going to have some battles ahead which I will show you shortly I would place an extra copy into a 3-Ring binder. As you read take a highlighter (I used Orange for Developer) and every time you see the word "Developer" or "Declarant" highlight that word.
Then go here: http://delcode.delaware.gov/title25/c081/index.shtml
Print out your State HOA laws and also place those into your binder. Read them and also same as CCR's use same color highlighter and again highlight the words "Developer" or "Declarant".
When I saw your post I remembered that your State based it's HOA statutes on UCIOA (Uniform Common Interest Ownership Act) same as my state so while our State Laws are slightly different they are also very similar. When you stated the Developer was still controlling the HOA I looked to see if your laws had similar statement to mine with regards to said control and YEP it does
.
§ 81-303 Executive board members and officers. States in following section:
(c) Subject to subsection (d) of this section, the declaration may provide for a period of declarant control of the association, during which a declarant, or persons designated by the declarant, may appoint and remove the officers and members of the executive board.
Regardless of the period provided in the declaration, and except as provided in § 81-223(g) of this title, a period of declarant control terminates no later than the earlier of: (i) except as to a nonresidential common interest community, 60 days after conveyance of 75 percent of the units that may be created to unit owners other than a declarant; (ii) as to units for residential purposes, 2 years after all declarants have ceased to offer units for residential purposes for sale in the ordinary course of business;
(iii) as to units for residential purposes, 2 years after any right to add new units for residential purposes was last exercised; (iv) as to a common interest community other than a condominium or cooperative, at such time as may be required by other applicable laws; or (v) as to nonresidential units in a common interest community that is subject to this chapter, 7 years after all declarants have ceased to offer nonresidential units for sale in the ordinary course of business; (vi) as to nonresidential units in a common interest community that is subject to this chapter, 7 years after any right to add new nonresidential units was last exercised; or (vii) the day the declarant, after giving written notice to unit owners, records an instrument voluntarily surrendering all rights to control activities of the association. A declarant may voluntarily surrender the right to appoint and remove officers and members of the executive board before termination of that period, but in that event the declarant may require, for the duration of the period of declarant control, that specified actions of the association or executive board, as described in a recorded instrument executed by the declarant, be approved by the declarant before they become effective.
To fully explain above here is the definition of "Unit":
(48)
"Unit'' means a physical portion of or 3-dimensional space in the common interest community designated for separate ownership or occupancy, the boundaries of which are described pursuant to § 81-205(a)(5) of this title, and shall include all improvements contained within the space except those excluded in the declaration. A unit may include 2 or more noncontiguous spaces. If a unit in a cooperative is owned by a unit owner or is sold, conveyed, voluntarily or involuntarily encumbered, or otherwise transferred by a unit owner, the interest in that unit which is owned, sold, conveyed, encumbered, or otherwise transferred is the right to possession of that unit under a proprietary lease, coupled with the allocated interests of that unit, and the association's interest in that unit is not thereby affected.
Then we look at § 81-205(a)(5):
(5) In a condominium, a description of the boundaries of each unit created by the declaration, including the unit's identifying number; or,
in a cooperative, a description, which may be by plats or plans, of each unit created by the declaration, including the unit's identifying number, its size or number of rooms, and its location within a building if it is within a building containing more than 1 unit;
Essentially in a Single Family subdivision a "Unit" is a LOT as noted on the Plat. Unless the Plat contains more land and the CCR's reserved a development right for the future land to be subdivided and added to the subdivision as more "Units" or lots ... Then after the Plat was filed (potentially 2001 as you noted in your comment), the Two Years of having any right to add new "Units" has Expired and would be the earlier of all other options listed
.
LOL ... In my last HOA where we had to sue our Developers this was one of our points among many listed ... While we are in Colorado the Judge agreed with the homeowners on this point and based on how we presented the point. If similar to our situation and no new units can be added, then the Developer looses control of your HOA in 2003 (again, based on your dates noted). You will need to obtain copies of your documents to verify. Now ... while the homeowners potentially control the HOA the developer WILL still have his Reserved Development Rights until such date as they expire which will be noted in your CCR's and should absolutely be respected. This can vary ... In my new HOA the developer only reserved for 10 years and which has expired. In my last HOA the developer reserved for 20 years. You need to review your CCR's to see what your developer reserved and the timeframe. Also, under UCIOA the reserved time frame must be an ending date ... it cannot be an automatically renew date so I imagine your State law will be similar.