Common area/property use permits

Does anyone have any experience or methods for allowing common area use by permit only? We have a problem empty HOA field that we want to force people to sign up to use. The reason is because we have kids from the community and outside the community who use the field and do not "behave" properly. We do not want to close the field down, but want to make sure that a responsible adult is there who we can hold responsible. This person would sign up and be permitted to use the field and be responsible for the kids behavior. If they are there without a permit, the police would have some power and so would we.

Our docs allow us to regulate the common areas. We just want to put in a workable system for permitting the use of the field and to be able to have a system that allows the users to prove that they have a permit when confronted. Some homeowners may call the police when there are kids screaming profanity, throwing things at property owners, breaking tree branches, etc. When there is a crowd of 10 - 20 kids we can't identify the culprits and none will squeal. So it is either close the field to all or have someone there to take responsibility for supervision. I am sure that there is only a few trouble makers. The goal is to try and make the parents responsible for their kids.

You've pretty much stated what you want to do.

Your BoD could enact a policy -- write it up and file it with the minutes. Something along the lines of:

) The Common Areas are the property of the HOA.
) Use of the [field/courts/Common Areas] is by permission only. [Do you want to restrict all Common Areas or just this Field?]
) In order to use the [field/courts/Common Areas], a responsible owner/member must register in advance for a specific time slot with the [Secretary/Grounds Chair]. [You could specify family member, household member or resident, if the term owner/member is too restrictive in your HOA; some HOA's consider the name title holder the Member, while others would consider a spouse or adult resident acceptable -- it's really a matter of how this is applied, more than how the deed restrictions are written. A "member" or "owner" and spouse will almost always be an adult, but if you have 18-year olds that you don't want running things, you could set a minimum age.]
) Use of the Common Areas by Members without prior registration may incur a penalty of $xxx at the discretion of the [BoD/Grounds Committee].
) Upon complaint of vandalism, violence, excessive noise or disruptive behavior, the [BoD/Grounds Chair] may issue a written warning to the owner registered for the time slot. If the use is not registered, or upon further complaint, law enforcement may be contacted.

Of course, you want to run this by your local Police Dept to see if they are OK with it, and to ask how they would handle such a request from the HOA or a homeowner. You may want to require some sort of verification in the policy, to guard against malicious complaints. But the main point is to forbid unsupervised use.

This policy requires the kids to get an adult to help them, or else they can't use the field. If they do so without getting an adult to volunteer, then they are all trespassing and the police aren't required to identify the bad apples in order to deal with the problem. I think that's what you are looking for.

Using the word "may" and basing this "upon complaint" means that homeowners could choose to only call when there are problems (or they could call whenever someone uses it without permission).

You asked for experience and methods. I have no experience, so someone else might see problems with my suggestion or have better ideas.

I'm just curious....what is the original purpose of this land? Was it designed to be used as a recreation area? Or was it intentionally not developed for another purpose?

How? How is the land commonly "used" by all homeowners?