On-Street Parking

Here is the summary of the situation regarding On-Street Parking in Elk Ridge HOA.  It is a Google Doc so you can comment inside the doc or on FB or here on elkridgehoa.com or by emailing bod@elkridgehoa.com.

http://bit.ly/OKGc2G

The link will take you to the current version of the document, but here is a static version of it.  The

On-Street Parking in Elk Ridge HOA

HOA Basics:

• The Homeowner's Association is comprised of all the homeowners in the community.
• The Board of Directors is composed of fellow homeowners who are not compensated for their time or efforts.  They can only receive reimbursement for items purchased on behalf of the HOA.  Elections are held annually for 2 or 3 spots depending on the year.  Rarely has there been more people running than spots available.  You must be a homeowner to be on the board, although you need not reside in the community.  ie. You may be a landlord.
• The property management company’s services are engaged to handle day-to-day requests as well as compliance inspections, collection of dues, paying of billings, etc. Many people confuse the property management company as being the HOA because they conduct most of the HOA’s business at the BoD’s direction.
• Avante homes created the Elk Ridge HOA in 2003 and created a Declaration of Covenants, Conditions, & Restrictions (CC&Rs) for the community.  All properties in the community are bound by the CC&Rs.  The streets, sidewalks, parks and landscaping are all common elements.  All properties share ownership of the common elements equally.  A copy is available here: http://bit.ly/1d6qKD5

Parking Rules:  

Section 9.24 of the CC&Rs state:

No automobile or permitted vehicle may be parked overnight on the streets within the Property or for more than 24 hours on any public or private street within the Property.

In addition, the By-Laws list as the duties of the Board of Directors:

Direct the removal of vehicles improperly parked, or otherwise in violation of the Declaration generally, on property within the Project, pursuant to NRS 487.038;

*Note, there is a Nevada Revised Statute that prevents the HOA from preventing certain utility vehicles like SW Gas from being parked on the street.

Parking History:

Avante Homes initially had full control of the BoD and did not enforce the parking rules.  There have been some comments by some neighbors and one board member that some of their sales people may have indicated that the parking rules wouldn’t be enforced.  They may have been telling others that the rules would be enforced.  All the BoD has to go by now is the documented CC&Rs.

The parking rules in the CC&Rs have been enforced throughout the past 10 years, but enforcement has been sporadic.  In the first couple years of the HOA, the BoD discussed enforcement of them but believed a volunteer would be necessary to go around and tag cars in violation.  No volunteers were available and most of the enforcement came due to complaints by homeowners.

Additionally, it is difficult to enforce the parking rules through letters from the management company because it is difficult to determine which vehicles belong to whom.

Over time, more and more people have begun to park on the street full time.  Relatively early in the community’s existence the HOA had to designate the areas in front of the mailboxes as fire lanes because the USPS was threatening to stop delivering mail due to cars being parked in front of the mailboxes.

Recent Events:

Homeowners have continued to complain about the number of cars parking on the street as their primary parking location.  Additionally, it has come to the attention of the board that the company we are contracted with for towing does offer a service to come out and tag cars in violation of our CC&Rs for towing.  The cost of this service would be covered by the profits the towing company would make from towing cars.

The complaints in conjunction with the newly discovered method to enforce them reignited the conversation.

In the February 2014 newsletter, the board solicited feedback regarding a towing policy.  We received 1 reply from a homeowner up until Monday Feb 17th.  On Monday, a homeowner and board member put letters on only cars that were parked on the street soliciting additional feedback and we got 7 more emails.  At the Wednesday annual meeting, we had the most turnout of all time with ~20 homeowners represented to speak in the open forum about the parking situation.

Summary of Viewpoints Presented Thus Far:

For better enforcement

• Homeowners have a reasonable expectation that the board will enforce the CC&Rs that everyone agreed to when they purchased property in the community.  It is the responsibility of the purchaser to read and understand the CC&Rs and make sure they can abide by them when they decide to purchase a home in the community.
• Vehicles in excess of what may be parked in homeowners’ garages and driveway may be parked outside the community on the public streets.
• The parking restrictions are not special or unique in that the CC&Rs generally are considered to be a hardship and inconvienant to those that wish to violate them.
• Cars parked on the street are an eyesore and decrease property values and/or make it less resalable.
• Our community was not designed to have cars parked on the street as a regular parking location.  Due to the size of the streets, it is dangerous to have cars parked on both sides of the street thus allowing moving traffic less room to maneuver.
• Visibility of pedestrians is reduced by the vehicles.
• Street sweepers are unable to clean all of the street due to vehicles.
• The remainder of the CC&Rs are generally enforced reasonably well and this one shouldn’t be an exception.

Against enforcement

• Homeowners’ homes do not suit their needs and they require additional parking (this was stated in several different ways).
• They have no room in their garage and/or have more cars than what will fit in the space they have.
• Some driveways are too small either in width, resulting in difficulty in getting out, or in length, resulting in them violating the CC&R regarding parking on the sidewalks.
• As families grow, more children will begin to drive and require parking.
• The parking restrictions are more inconvenient to more people than other restrictions.  The parking restrictions may not be special or unique in that the CC&Rs generally are considered to be a hardship and inconvenient.  However, our community was not physically designed and laid out to restrict street parking.  
• Homeowners should not be held to restrictions that they did not understand or were unavailable to them when they purchased the home, or were told by sales agents and/or Avante builders would not be enforced.
• A lack of street parking would decrease property values and/or make it less resalable.
• Even though vehicles in excess of what may be parked in homeowners’ garages and driveway may be parked outside the community on the public streets, this option is not one everyone can use.  There were four handicapped people at the February meeting alone (out of 20 or more present), and more handicaps will develop as our homeowners age.
• There are also some other sections of our Covenants and Restrictions which we also do not enforce for various reasons:
• We do not enforce Section 9.17 about keeping garage doors closed except for “periods reasonably necessary.”  (Hard to enforce “reasonableness.”)
• We do not enforce Section 9.23 about Leasing or Subleasing.

Options:

Here is a list of possible options to consider.  More options are welcome.

1. Continue a policy of only enforcing due to complaints and have an uneven enforcement throughout the community as well as, in the eyes of some, the board not performing their duties as outlined in the By-Laws.
2. Mark all the curbs without sidewalk as fire lane and tow as necessary.
3. Engage our current towing company to begin some increased level of towing.  The level of increase could be somewhere between towing overnight parkers once or twice a month before the streets are due to be cleaned and towing overnight parkers as frequently as the towing company is willing to come out and walk the community.
4. Issue street parking permits that allow on-street parking for a fee.
5. Alter the CC&R language to allow some increased level of on-street parking.  This could vary between removing all parking restrictions including the ones about commercial and recreational vehicles or just allowing on-street parking in some areas of the community like sides of homes on corner lots or in front of the parks.

The difficulty with altering the CC&Rs is that it requires an affirmative vote from 126 homeowners.  If we only receive 20 replies and all 20 vote for altering the CC&Rs, the vote would fail because it falls short of the 126 required.  The same is required for capital expenditures and has only happened once previously and only that time due to the persistence of a volunteer homeowner.

The up side of altering the CC&Rs to allow on-street parking is that a future BoD could not limit it without again going through the process of changing them.

This could be a great opportunity to make additional alterations to the CC&Rs at the same time.  There have been complaints about the inability to have basketball hoops on the street and complaints about the gates.  The gates could potentially be removed completely, saving the HOA thousands of dollars in utility and repair costs.  Additionally, it could be an opportunity to put more capital improvements into the common park.