HOA revolt — is board overzealous?
January 7th, 2008, 12:28 am · 2 Comments · posted by Bill Vogrin
Dozens of residents of Woodmen Pointe neighborhood on the north side of Colorado Springs are upset that members of the homeowners association board are aggressively enforcing neighborhood covenants, or rules all agree to live by.
Here is a map of the neighborhood taken from www.FlashEarth.com.
Some don’t like rules ordering them to keep their garages clean and park their cars inside. Others object to being told to mow their grass, pull weeds or stain their fences. Particularly objectionable to some is the HOA board’s practice of walking around photographing violations. They are feeling harassed and some are demanding the board resident.
Read the Woodmen-Pointe-covenants.pdf and see what some believe are draconian rules which should be rewritten.
Neighbors clearly are conflicted over the Woodmen Pointe HOA and its enforcement policies. Consider this letter to the board from resident Dottie-Pope.pdf
Here is a series of letters the board recently sent residents in response.pdf to residents Bruce Brian and others who are campaigning to oust the board and ease the covenant enforcement.
January 10th, 2008 at 11:36 am
Hello Mr. Vogrin,
I appreciate your covering this story about Woodmen Pointe - I hope that shining the light of day on our issues will help keep the “fight” clean and above-board. However, some of the comments already made to you, and which you have printed, are duplicitous at best, and outright lies at worst. This “uprising” has been coming on for at least a year, and I personally told one of the Board Members you quoted in your article about it last summer. I suggested she resign then, and suggested to her that this could get very ugly. I also talked with her at length about the tone and attitude of the Board, including the FINES they began levying last summer - YES, FINES! The Board started fining their neighbors $50.00 and then $100.00 for infractions such as not moving trash cans off drive-ways fast enough, and for a few bladds of grass over 2″ tall in rocks alongside sidewalks. When I spoked to (the same) Board Member about this outrageous conduct, she indicated it was because the Board wanted to impress on the neighborhood that they had POWER - the only thing a resident needed to do to get relief was TO RESPOND to the violation letters and EXPLAIN the situation, and they would then take further (even relief) action! THIS IS THE CRUX OF THE PROBLEM!
January 10th, 2008 at 6:41 pm
Further comments:
Complicating this whole sordid mess is that Haley Inc takes 3 weeks to get out letters. By the time letters reach “violators”, most of the issues are already resolved by the homeowners, themselves - no action was really necessary. So why does the Board continue, you ask? Good question. The mail(s) passes itself over and over again, and issues get bigger and bigger, and usually are not BIG at all. It’s BAD management by this Board - plain and simple. That’s why they have to go. Power-hungry and bad management. What a shame - and this is a really good-looking community, with really nice people in it. Too bad this Board has had to ruin a really good thing. Just think, they should be taking bows now instead of being ousted. Again, bad management.