08-07-2012, 01:01 PM
I attended what I thought was going to be a routine Neighborhood Watch meeting last Saturday, and the HPPOA Board President June Conant was given the last few minutes to speak to us. She told us of a proposal to assess all property owners in HPP $500 per lot for five years. This would raise over $20 million which would be used to pave the rest of the roads over those five years. A lottery system would determine which would be paved first. This is just a proposal at this point, and it is on the August 15 HPPOA board meeting agenda as item VI., section D, Finance Committee - Special Assessment. According to June, if approved by the BOD, this would be put to a vote of the property owners. It should be noted that the threshold for enactment would be a majority of a minimum of 600 mail-in votes returned. Thus, as few as 301 votes our of over 8,000 possible could get this enacted. Apathy could really bite us this time.
The rationale for this proposal is the dust issue which has resulted in the State threatening to fine HPP for "fugitive dust." If HPP puts this to a vote, they can say they tried to do something about the dust. There was some lively discussion at the meeting, with most there voicing skepticism on several levels. Given the wildly inaccurate projections of paving costs given at the time of the $12M bond election, some of expressed doubt as to whether we could be sure the proposal would cover the cost. Others have expressed a lack of confidence in the present BOD and management to competently oversee such a big project.
A possible alternative is to contest in court the legality of applying a regulation designed to be applied to construction sites and industrial locations to a subdivision. This would allow HPP to bring up the fact that there are county, state, and federal roads with dust issues. We should at least get a consultation with an attorney who specializes is such cases before we spend $20M, IMHO.
The proposed assessment could cause the delinquency rate on association fees to skyrocket from the current level of 12-15% and actually reduce the association income. That could theoretically force a default and put HPP back in receivership. Of course, I know people who think that would be just fine. Let a judge run the place. Democracy, as practiced in HPP, is not a pretty thing.
The rationale for this proposal is the dust issue which has resulted in the State threatening to fine HPP for "fugitive dust." If HPP puts this to a vote, they can say they tried to do something about the dust. There was some lively discussion at the meeting, with most there voicing skepticism on several levels. Given the wildly inaccurate projections of paving costs given at the time of the $12M bond election, some of expressed doubt as to whether we could be sure the proposal would cover the cost. Others have expressed a lack of confidence in the present BOD and management to competently oversee such a big project.
A possible alternative is to contest in court the legality of applying a regulation designed to be applied to construction sites and industrial locations to a subdivision. This would allow HPP to bring up the fact that there are county, state, and federal roads with dust issues. We should at least get a consultation with an attorney who specializes is such cases before we spend $20M, IMHO.
The proposed assessment could cause the delinquency rate on association fees to skyrocket from the current level of 12-15% and actually reduce the association income. That could theoretically force a default and put HPP back in receivership. Of course, I know people who think that would be just fine. Let a judge run the place. Democracy, as practiced in HPP, is not a pretty thing.