Traffic and safety issue

We are an Florida HOA of homes.

Our roads and streets are private and the previous board did not want to sign an agreement with the city to enforce traffic laws.

We now have a growing problem with people (kids) riding mini bikes and low rider powered vehicles on HOA streets, sidewalks and on private property. These vehicles do not require any type of driver's license.

Traffic laws and even common courtesy is not being followed and there is a growing concern that one days someone will run over one of these bikes with a car / truck.

These powered bikes have no lights and are no easily visible.

More than once accidents were only averted by a diligent driver.

Can the HOA develop and enforce safety rules and traffic restrictions without doing covenant changes and votes by all homeowners? I would suspect that only penalty would be a fine against the homeowner.

Has any other HOA dealt with this problem?

Thanks

Not on the board but I do advise the board on a number of issues

I do sit on the ARB and the Fining Committee

Nothing prevents the current board from signing such an agreement.

Signing a similar agreement is what my previous Association did.

What Tim and Kerry said.

If some of these kids live in the community and you know who they are, you might send a letter to all of those households, advising the board is looking at ways to sanction people who don't operate these things safely, so they've been warned. In my community we adopted the city and county traffic and parking rules as community rules, and that gave the police authority to come in and ticket people as needed. We also have off duty police officers as our security officers - they don't come through 24/7, but will make periodic drive-throughs and address things like cars with expired tags. So you should definitely look into getting that agreement signed with the police department if it's still possible to do so.

If you want to adopt the city traffic rules as your own, you may be able to do that through a board resolution - have your attorney check the documents to see if it's allowed.

You could also write something on your website or newsletter (preferably both), asking people to notify the board when they see this - time and date stamped photos are especially nice. You will also need the names of the witnesses in case this gets escalated to some sort of legal action.

We are a Florida HOA with private roads and our sheriff's deputy regularly tickets people for running stop signs on our parkway. The board can adopt rules and regulations to limit the types of vehicles being used on the roads. For example, we have a golf cart policy where we require all golf carts to be registered and all drivers must be over 16 and licensed. Our rules also prohibit motorcycles (we actually don't enforce that one) but if we were having a problem with mini bikes or other vehicles we could adopt rules on that.

Just because you have private roads doesn't mean you have no power. I personally would call the police or sheriff's department and ask for advice. Our fire marshall actually volunteered to ticket and tow vehicles that park in front of a fire hydrant by our pickleball courts! We find our local departments want to help us!

So our Board met last night and I brought up this issue.

While they agree that something needs to be done, they also recognize that kids will be kids and we cant regulate fun.

Those of us who are old enough to remember, we all had big wheels and rode those with wild abandon.

But technology has surpassed common sense.

Do any of your HOA's have rules about mini bikes, etc?

Thanks

So our Board met last night and I brought up this issue.

While they agree that something needs to be done, they also recognize that kids will be kids and we cant regulate fun.

Those of us who are old enough to remember, we all had big wheels and rode those with wild abandon.

But technology has surpassed common sense.

Do any of your HOA's have rules about mini bikes, etc?

Thanks

It's true kids will be kids - but kids don't have the same judgement and impulse controls as adults (we were all young and stupid and fortunately we're still here to learn from our mistakes!)That's why you strike a balance between having fun and making sure the kids and the people around them don't get hurt.

How about checking what your city or county says about mini bikes and adopt their rules, e,g. no riding on the sidewalks? They can be adopted via a board resolution with an effective date. You'll also need to explain to everyone how it will be enforced with appeal rights. I might add parents will be held responsible for the action of the kids (shouldn't be any fair housing issues there because everyone's subject a violation notice.

PS- don't accept anonymous complaints on this. These may very well wind up as taking legal action, so you'll need witnesses. A few complaints may really be a dispute between neighbors which I think the board should usually stay out of. As you review complaints, you'll figure out the difference.

The city has no rules on this topic