Homeowner Associations

THE STORY IN The Sun on Sunday that revealed sloppiness, and perhaps worse, in the Columbia Association's bidding process should give pause to the many smaller, quasi-governmental homeowner associations around, from Crofton to Odenton.In Howard County's Columbia, one of the nation's largest planned communities, the semi-public association that builds and runs recreational facilities must make immediate changes to restore confidence that it is properly spending millions of dollars it collects yearly from homeowners.

Barry Blyveis said it more eloquently than I could ("CA should not be exempt from Homeowners Association Act," letter, Aug. 9), but I would just like to add: What safeguards are going to be in place to protect the CA lien holders once CA makes these changes they say they need? Now at least there is legislation to protect those of us that own property that is controlled by CA. What guarantee do we have that similar legislation will be in place to give us the information we request about the use of our dollars?

Area homeowner associations are scrambling to protect scenic views in their neighborhoods now that the FCC has sent a clear signal that homeowners have a right to install television antennas and small satellite dishes on their properties."

Racial diversity was one of developer James W. Rouse's founding principles for Columbia, the 43-year-old planned community in Howard County where people of every ethnicity and income level were to live side-by-side in suburban comfort. But while members of many different cultural backgrounds have made their home in Columbia's meandering villages, there is little racial diversity among those who govern the unincorporated town. The 10-person board of directors of the giant Columbia Association, which collects and spends $60 million a year for pools, gymnasiums, tennis courts and landscaping, is all white.

Buzzuto & Associates has received the Pillars of the Industry Award for Environmental Planning and Preservation from the National Council of the Multifamily Housing Industry & and Registered Apartment Managers Program.Buzzuto was honored for tree preservation and land planning at Beacon Place at Kentlands, a 240-unit luxury apartment community in Gaithersburg, Montgomery County.C. E. Wheeler Custom Builders of Upperco has been selected to participate in the Southern Living Custom Home Program, which gives it exclusive rights to a collection of house plans designed by Atlanta residential designer Stephen Fuller.

The Columbia Council, a 10-member elected body that oversees the Columbia Association, is considering a policy that strictly limits individual council members in seeking information from agencies such as school boards and county governments.Under the proposed policy designed to avoid requests that "could create an embarrassment," according to the proposal members would need council permission before asking agencies for information about matters outside the village they represent.The proposal, debated during last night's council meeting, would even cover requests for information about village boards and associations, which receive Columbia Association funding.

In 2001, Carol Anneliese "Lisa" Marquardt was teaching Spanish part time when she became passionate about saving a Lutherville forest from developers. She says she contacted dozens of politicians and spent hours negotiating with lawyers. Although Marquardt, 49, lost the battle to save the forest, she emerged from the experience convinced that residents need legal expertise and better communication with elected officials. She enrolled in law school at the University of Baltimore, graduated and passed the bar. Now she is running for the Republican nomination for the Baltimore County Council seat representing the 2nd District, which includes Pikesville and parts of Owings Mills and Lutherville.

AN AUDIT of the Columbia Association's purchasing practices verifies many of the findings of an investigation by The Sun last spring. Although the association tightened some of its procedures shortly after the stories were published, the review advises there is more to do.The three-month audit by Raffa & Associates of Washington found sloppiness in the way goods and services were bought by the quasi-governmental organization that manages Howard County's planned...

Negotiations between a developer seeking to dig a quarry in Jessup and residents near the site began peacefully, but have turned into a battle among neighbors.Residents are feuding about a community agreement supporting developer Kingdon Gould Jr.'s plan to dig the quarry on what is known as his "Chase property" -- a nearly 600-acre site east of Interstate 95, west of U.S. 1 and south of Route 175.Mr. Gould is scheduled to present his proposal before the Howard County Board of Appeals on Thursday, and tension among residents has been increasing during the past several weeks.

Harford sent a draft of its trash recycling plan to the state for review last week but it ran into some last-minute opposition over a proposed $60-per-ton waste disposal fee.The County Council, in a review of the proposal last week, said it backed curbside pickup of bluebags filled with separated newspaper, glass, cans and other garbage from homes and businesses, as called for in the plan.But during a three-hour council hearing Tuesday night on the proposal, the $60-per-ton fee to support a new solid waste fund and encourage recycling was challenged by haulers and some representatives of homeowner associations.

Susana Tregobov dries clothes on a line behind her Timonium townhouse, saving energy and money. But her homeowners association has ordered her to bring in the laundry. The crackdown came after a neighbor complained that the clothesline "makes our community look like Dundalk." Ms. Tregobov and her husband plan to fight for their right to a clothesline, but the odds are against them. Although Maryland recently passed a law protecting homeowners' rights to erect solar panels for generating electricity, it is still legal here for communities to ban solar clothes-drying.

Seeking to address complaints about abuses in Maryland's growing number of homeowners and condominium associations, a state task force is calling for greater local oversight of these quasi-governmental bodies, which essentially tax their residents to take care of swimming pools, playgrounds, trash pickup and other community services. But at least a few members of the 23-member task force complained yesterday that the group did not go far enough in protecting residents from abuses by their homeowners or condo association boards, which have the power to fine owners or even seize and auction off their homes for unpaid fees.

In 2001, Carol Anneliese "Lisa" Marquardt was teaching Spanish part time when she became passionate about saving a Lutherville forest from developers. She says she contacted dozens of politicians and spent hours negotiating with lawyers. Although Marquardt, 49, lost the battle to save the forest, she emerged from the experience convinced that residents need legal expertise and better communication with elected officials. She enrolled in law school at the University of Baltimore, graduated and passed the bar. Now she is running for the Republican nomination for the Baltimore County Council seat representing the 2nd District, which includes Pikesville and parts of Owings Mills and Lutherville.

The Russett Community Association, which represents about 10,000 residents in western Anne Arundel County, wants its own police officer. The community is covered by regular patrols from the county's Western District, and residents hire private security to patrol their suburban streets. But community leaders say they want an on-duty county police officer who will stay in their neighborhood and address their specific law enforcement needs. And they're willing to pay for it. "The idea is the officer can only leave if there is an officer down, or to get gas," said Timothy Reyburn, the president of the community association.

The Alliance for a Better Columbia is accusing the Columbia Association board of violating a number of rules under the Maryland Homeowners Association Act and is threatening to pursue legislative or judicial avenues to make it comply. Members of the watchdog group have been complaining that the board does not follow the state law that applies to the Columbia Association, the homeowners group that manages the planned community's amenities and collects an annual fee from property owners.

Accusing their colleagues of an abuse of power, several board members of the Columbia Association, which governs the huge homeowners group, are raising protests that some of their meetings are being illegally closed to the public. Board member Barbara Russell, one of the original residents of the 36-year-old planned community, is leading the charge. She claims that the board is shrouded in secrecy as she attempts to garner community support to make CA -- one of the nation's largest homeowners associations -- conduct more of its business in public and document its executive sessions appropriately.

We all have different conceptions of hell.Some people imagine it is being trapped in an elevator with Pat Buchanan.Personally, I imagine it is spending eternity in a homeowners' meeting.The Community Associations Institute estimates that 80 million Americans live in "common interest communities," run by condominium, co-op, or homeowner associations.Which explains a lot about the rise of lunacy in our culture.Years ago, I used to live in a high-rise condo. I went to one meeting, which was taken up debating whether the building should hire a concierge.

Sari McLeod read them off as if they were the plagues of ancient Egypt. "Dogs. Trash. Kids. Parking. Maintenance issues on houses," she said. Of all the issues that can rile a community, those are the five that can pit neighbor against neighbor or homeowner association against homeowner. But McLeod, a seasoned professional community association manager, doesn't believe in confrontation. She believes in communication as the way to resolve neighborhood problems. "Communication is the biggest key to any organization, much less a community association," said McLeod, who works for the property management firm Wallace H. Campbell Co. "Instead of coming across as a police state, [board members should]

EAST WINDSOR, N.J. - The dissenting homeowners at Twin Rivers, a vast 1970-vintage housing development of 10,000 residents on the exurban plains here, say their homeowner association autocratically denies them the rights that most citizens take for granted. The homeowner association says that if the dissidents dislike like living here, in central New Jersey, they should move. Now the handful of dissenters, backed by the state chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union, are suing the homeowner association in a lawsuit that could change New Jersey law and prove influential in other states as well.

A telephone survey shows that the Columbia Association may have rebounded from a period of tumultuous leadership, with slightly more than half of the town's residents responding that they're getting their money's worth from the liens they pay. Mason-Dixon Polling & Research interviewed 807 adults and found that 52 percent of Columbia residents are satisfied with the quality of the homeowners association's services that are partially funded by assessment fees....