This month’s article is by Matt Wood, the Vistoso Community Association (VCA) Vice President and Governing Documents Committee Chair. Last year I was Treasurer and Chair of the Finance Committee.
The Board of Directors (BOD) is working overtime to find a suitable office space for our staff as the current building was sold as part of the former Vistoso golf course property sale and we must vacate the premises. As soon as we have a new space, we will announce the new location to all members.
One of the key focus areas for this year is updating our infrastructure. That includes updating the Covenants, Conditions & Restrictions (CC&Rs). All homeowners in our association must abide by this document.
Unfortunately, the current CC&Rs are badly outdated they contain confusing language and wording that is no longer considered legal. The CCRs were originally written 35 years ago in 1987, and updated in 1989, 1995, and most recently in 2001 (to address the change in the law on political signs), it now contains over 100 pages of “legalese.”
The Governing Documents Committee worked with an attorney specializing in Homeowners Associations (HOAs), to revise the CC&Rs to remove any unnecessary and outdated language.
Their efforts produced a proposed CC&Rs document of 35 pages. The revision did not change anything substantial; it’s less cumbersome and user-friendly. The proposed CCRs are easy to read and find the answers to our member’s questions.
The challenge we face is that 75% of all voting members (not just 75% of those who voted, but 75% of all eligible votes – over 7,100 votes) must agree to change the CC&Rs. This is a formidable task, given that we had a 21% voter turnout for the last BOD election in March 2022.
Over the next several months, we will be working with the Communications Committee, all 20+ Sub-HOAs, and as many community volunteers as we can to “get the word out” on
- 1. the importance of each member’s vote, and
- 2. the need to support updates to make the CC&Rs readable and relevant for today’s VCA members
Matt Wood
Vice President