Taking of Property

I think that if the bus riders live in the Association and have a right to use the fenced off area then they need to take their complaints to the BOD and seek a remedy. If it's people from outside the Assoc. then they're just out of luck.

So, in effect, your board has restricted the use of a common area. Sounds illegal to me. Time for people to make some noise.

I suppose the Board could argue that they have provided a "path" for the walkers. Tall bushes could have done the job, too. along with a nice stone pathway. I can't believe it's just the kids using this pathway. It's probably a very well used shortcut for getting thru the complex.

On the last two questions --

Picture a common area sidewalk going East.
The row of TH's is North of that, i.e. on the left of that sidewalk.
The sidewalk ends at the fence dividing us and the adjoining community.
The end townhouse on the left has land along the existing sidewalk and their front walk connects to the sidewalk.
Only our backyards are fenced, so the front yard and side yard are accessible to the yard maintenance people.

If you turned left (North)at the fence and walked along it, you would be walking on association property. Before, if you walked along that fence line you would connect to a street and the bus stop. Now you run into a fence that has been placed East West between the existing fence and the backyard fence of the homeowner.

Essentially what it does is just close off the area from anyone walking there, but it is accessible to maintenance workers and the homeowner. It is not a large enough slice of area to play ball or anything, perhaps the common area part of it is 8-10 feet wide but probably 60-75 feet long. If one wasn't intent on enlarging the homeowner's yard, a sidewalk could have logically been built along there, connecting the current sidewalk to the county sidewalk that is now on the other side of the fence. Of course, sidewalks are more expensive than a section of fence, but it would have made sense.

Hope this clarifies ----

I don't know why the fence wasn't built inside the common area -- on the lot line of the homeowner's property. This way the bus riders could have continued to use the area to get to their homes and the homeowner wouldn't have to see them. Of course all this Monday morning quarterbacking isn't going to do any good as I'm sure the BOD isn't going to take the fence down, right?

Mary, the fence is going in the opposite direction (perpendicular)but that is an interesting thought.

As far as grass growing, it will be interesting to see whether any does. There are exposed roots from trees in the neighboring community and the area is quite shaded.

The thing that concerned me the most is that to enhance one homeowner's situation (which he knew when he bought his house) many people were inconvenienced and will be for all time. If one worries about the path being worn there (we are a community of 195 homes, and the way the bus stops are set up it is mostly the evening commuters that use the path -- there can't be that huge a number of them)I think building a walkway of some variety would have been more equitable and within the spirit of our documents.

It seems I am more concerned about the association giving away property than others. I know before I got on the board a homeowner in an end unit (end of two groups of houses, so middle really) didn't like people cutting through (known as walking on the common area) and so he planted some bushes. The board did not do anything about it. Those bushes completely disrupted the traffic flow and made it so people could not take their trash out easily to the area in front of their own house. Therefore they put it on a neighboring street, and let me tell you when people are putting trash out where they won't see it, they are far less good about following the rules. Also, there were some commuters back there and they had to walk an extra three blocks. So, they drove and parked their cars closer to the entrance to the community. Again -- more problems were created. I always wished we could have seen into the future a bit, and weren't so busy at the time, because if so, we probably would have cut down the darn bushes. That is what should be done and the area returned to the people of the community. At least that is my opinion, but I interpret laws and rules quite literally and think that the board must follow them, as they require the homeowners to follow the rules.

Here's one for you.....how about this. House sits next to a drainage area (whch the developers called a park) Severe decline from his back yard into a 75 foot area behind his house. Each time it rains, his back yard would slowly erode down and start to slip under his back fence. The area had alot of hills and was difficult to mow and was nothing but weeds.

The HOA went to him and asked if he would be willing to take this area into his back yard and care for it. He took his back fence and swung it so it made this area a part of his back yard. There was no good use for this area for other homeowners. The resident leveled and sodded this area and has reduced the amount of runoff and erosion.

Thoughts?

He has taken it as his backyard - it has been this way for 6 years. His liability insurance covers that area as it is completely seperated from the common property. If he sells the house, it will go to the new owner. This was something that was agreed upon by the HOA board for the improvement of that area. After some research, it was determined that the "park" area belonged to the developer who never turned it over to the HOA. The developer has gone bankrupt and cannot be found (by us or the tax offices). So technically, it cannot be sold by the HOA.

Nobody, to our knowledge, has a problem with this matter in the neighborhood. Just wanted to throw it out as a unique situation.