Recently home owners in the community received proxy forms for 2 proposed amendments.  The response was quite frankly miserable, and has caused our vote to be tabled until the next HOA meeting.  This lack of response is a serious problem and I’m going to do my best to explain why.

Item #1  The Trees

Our current covenants require every single yard in the neighborhood to have four (4) Live or Laurel Oak trees and one (1) Spanish Magnolia tree.  If you go out into your yard right now and see less than this number, your home is in violation.  We have consulted our attorney on this and his response is that we must enforce this rule…and it applies even if you have a signed ARC form (as I do) from a previous board giving you permission to remove them.  Your home and mine are still in violation, and unless we plant the 4 oaks and 1 magnolia tree, we will be fined!  All this will start happening in January 2019. 

The only way the board can avoid doing this to the community is to get the Item #1 approved before that time.  We don’t want to fine anyone, but we have a legal responsibility to enforce the covenants and cannot do so selectively.

A number of home owners have already sent in their proxy, but it’s still not enough.   As our covenants now read: with 220 homes in the community it takes 147 YES votes to get an amendment passed.  As of right now we’re short of that number of responses, and that’s before we start counting Yes or No.   I urge each and every home owner who has not voted (or maybe one who didn’t understand the consequences) to please send in their proxy as soon as possible.

Item #2  The requirements to pass an amendment

As stated above it’s currently very difficult to make changes, to our governing documents.  But there are changes that need to be made. Our covenants still contain a lot of confusing language.  Some of the text only applies to the builder, and if interpreted in the ‘worst-case’ way would allow Maronda Homes to come back and take over the community simply by purchasing a single home. I don’t think anyone wants that.

Item #2 is proposed so we can make future changes possible.  It reduces the number of required votes from a 2/3 majority of all home owners to a 2/3 majority of ‘home owners who vote‘.  A yes vote still counts as a yes, and a no vote sill counts as a no. And yes votes must still beat no votes by 2 to 1 for an amendment to pass.

The difference is that positive change will no longer be blocked by people who don’t care enough to voice an opinion.

My Role in This

As a board member and a home owner, I’d like to see both of these pass.  I want to keep my Foxtail Palm trees right where they are.  I’d also like to see our governing documents keep up with the times.

If you need a proxy there should be some on our sign out front.  You can drop them off with any board member, or send them to Space Coast Property management.  Feel free to use the contact form if you have any questions.

Sincerely,
Nicholas Fiorello
1173 WOC