Monday, March 31, 2008

Wakefield Plantation - HOA Too Strict? You decide.....


Well, another story has come across the wire regarding a Homeowners Association and their reign over a neighborhood. For those of you local it comes as NO surprise that we are experiencing one of the worst droughts on the record books! Those of you out of the state? Trust me - it is a daily topic of discussion among residents!

Wakefield Plantation is a 2,200 acre development in North Raleigh. It is a mixed development community that encompasses condos, townhomes, cluster homes and single family homes that range from the low $200's up to $5,000,000. Some of the community amenities include TPC golf courses, tennis courts, community pools and many other recreational facilities. Wakefield Plantation prides itself on being aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Common areas are constantly maintained, pruned and groomed.

There are restrictive covenants that the residents of Wakefield Plantation must abide by. They address many items such as what kind of fence you can install on your property, where you can park your vehicles, etc. For the most part, these restrictive covenants help the community maintain it's conformity. However.....

Wake County has started encouraging the use of rain barrels of homeowners to capture rain to then be reused for purposes such as landscaping. One current resident of Wakefield Plantation decided that rainbarrels would be a water conserving effort that he and his family could utilize to do their part during this drought. Michael Dadian purchased and installed 8 rain barrels on his property in February. Just this past Friday David learned that most of his rain barrels will need to be removed. Why?

“To maintain the visual impression, especially from the street, for our
community,” Greg Barley, with the Wakefield Plantation Homeowners Association, said of the reason behind the rain barrel limit. (to read the entire article please visit WRAL)

This puzzles me in light of a few other recent decisions that impact Wakefield Plantation such as Wakefield Plantation - Will there be new zoning? It would seem according to that decision that the purpose of re-zoning is to protect the water supply of the Neuse River at the old Burlington Mills textile plant.

While I can argue for HOAs and against HOAs, I personally think that, in light of the current drought, restrictions should be somewhat relaxed IF it is to conserve water. Here is another post that came out a few months ago regarding HOAs and water - Please file this under "You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me!"

Where do you stand on HOAs? I would love to know - again, there are great arguments both for and against.......

Conservatively shucking.....

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

The current HOA Board and PPM need to go! They are taking the good concept of maintaining the "curbside" appeal of a neighborhood overboard. I am curious to know when PPM's contract is up and when the current Board term is over--I'll be on the lobbying committe to have both replaced. Too much money is spent each year on things that the residents could come together and accomplish such as landscaping at the entrace to the neighborhoods. We could develop our own convenants and remove the discrentionary review process-publishing what is NOT allowed is easier to enforce-- most freestanding homes in Wakefield Plantation are priced at +$300K- owners will not degrade their own property values. DOWN WITH PPM!!!

Anonymous said...

The Management company is hired to do what the board tells them to. Only people ignorant about how things work think that kicking out the management changes things. if you don't like the board's choices, kick out the board. and don't just sit on your ass whining about it- go do it.

And residents COULD do entrance way landscaping themselves but do they want to? Do they know anything about plants? LIkely, they'll do it once and then give up (then bitch to the board when the landscaping isn't maintained). Your post is entirely ridiculous.

P.S. Developing your own covenants takes more than kicking out the board and p.p.m. - it takes the signed agreement of 75%+ of the homeowners. Idiot.

Anonymous said...

Easily I acquiesce in but I contemplate the collection should secure more info then it has.

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