A Drive Through The VOCC On Christmas Eve.

Every year at this time, people get into the holiday spirit by decorating their homes.Taking a drive on Christmas Eve 2015, around the VOCC and you will feel the Holiday Spirit. Many of the homes are decorated with Christmas decorations and colored lights.

Some neighbors even teamed up and made a light show completely synchronized with music that played via your car radio as you drove by. The homes painstakingly ran lights into a controller and even decorated the Half Cul-De-Sac and included it in the show! This was by far the best decorated homes in the community. 

 

There were so many homes in the VOCC that showed off their Holiday Spirit. Some of the homes had cut outs and others displayed dazzling lights.  

Here are some pictures of a few of the decorated homes in the community, in no particular order. 

Thank you to all the homes that decorated their yards. If you would like more community information be sure to visit VoccProud.com

The HOA Raises Dues to $550 a Year, How does the VOCC Compare To Other Communites?

The HOA board raised dues from $520 to $550 at the last HOA meeting. The HOA justified it by stating that the landscape maintenance and pool cost have both gone up.

How does $550 a year in dues compare to other communities around us?
Communities located between Landing blvd and Bay Area Blvd. on the South side of 518 and their HOA dues

Cedar Landing	$ 250 / ANNUALLY
Clear Creek Meadows	$ 300 / ANNUALLY
Rustic Oaks	$ 355 / ANNUALLY
Claremont Park	$ 425 / ANNUALLY
Villages of Oak Creek Colony	$ 550 / ANNUALLY

How will this affect your resell? 
Buyers that are looking for homes will usually shop around neighborhoods that are of like kinds, this means that they will shop by sq ft, community, amenities, price, and cost of living.

Compare the VOCC to Adjacent Communities
When you compare our community with the others that are located between Landing Blvd. and Bay Area Blvd., you can see that we are the most expensive in terms of HOA dues. When you compare the amenities of the surrounding communities, our community is right in line with some and not others.


The VOCC has a community pool, a public path, a playground and a green space. These are the things that make our community desirable.

Rustic Oaks
Rustic Oaks has a Swimming pool, Public path, multiple playgrounds, Basketball Court, a public park (with Tennis courts and soccer fields), and a green space. Their dues are $355 a year.

The cost of living in Rustic oaks is now $200 a year cheaper than the VOCC and Rustic Oaks has more amenities.

Claremont Park
Claremont park has a swimming pool, Green spaces, private paths, and playground.
The cost of living in Claremont park is now $125 cheaper a year than the VOCC and has about the same amenities.

At $550 a year in Dues, The VOCC is now categorized with larger communities.
The VOCC is now placed in competition with West Over Park and Magnolia Creek. How do we compare to those Communities?

West  Over Park 
West Over Park has 5.5 acres of recreation that includes a rec center, soccer field, multiple playgrounds, ponds, paths, green spaces, and a great pool with many amenities.

The HOA dues in West Over Park are $650.

Magnolia Creek
Magnolia Creek is a master planned community that is complete with Pool with great amenities and a Golf Course.

Should the VOCC be in the same category as these other communities that have so many more or better amenities?

Will this raise in dues have an effect on your resell value? Time will tell.

Raising Dues

At the last meeting of the HOA board, the directors discussed raising dues. The discussion was the preliminary discussions to the 2016 budget. The talks were brief and really concentrated on how much the HOA could raise the dues at one time. The Board can raise the dues as much as $52 from the current $520 a year dues to $572.

My question is why do we need to raise our dues?  In the past the HOA has presented the community that with the current dues of $520, the HOA has $5,000 surplus that the HOA can move to the Reserves and still has a $9,000 surplus remaining for "capital improvements".  http://home.earthlink.net/~vocc2/2013_HOA_Assessment.htm

The HOA dues are based on our operating budget. Our Major expenses for every year is approximately $32,000 in Landscaping, $30,000 in pool services, $7,600 in contract and $3,600 in "administrative fees" for the management company.

Our community has not changed other than the new path, so why is the board needing more funds to maintain the community? The Green space has not changed, the Pool has not changed, and the manager has not changed. Why do we need over $12,000 more in revenue? (242 Homes * $50 = $12,100)




    

 

Common Area Changes and Lawsuits

As most of the Members know, the VOCC is currently in litigation, part of the claim is for placing a park and path in the restricted reserve and the changing the use of said restricted reserve.  

This lawsuit has been the subject of several Home owners during the Home owner input session at the Monthly HOA meeting and most members do not seem to realize how serious this lawsuit is and what it has to do with. 

Will the VOCC win this case? There is no way to tell for sure if the VOCC will win or loose, however we can look at other court cases to see how other HOAs have fared in similar situations. 

There is an article from a California court case that is very similar to the lawsuit that the VOCC is currently in. The article is almost word for word what has happened in the VOCC. This of course, does not mean this is how the judge in Texas will rule in our case.

The case starts off with an HOA that decides to change a common area that in this case was a community slope. The slope was restricted to landscape use and the HOA converted it into a Park, complete with a walkway with little or no input from property owners that lived adjacent to the newly constructed park. 

The HOA in this California case attempts to use their governing documents as the reason the HOA could change the use of the land and construct the park, the Judge did not agree with the HOA's claims. The result was a lawsuit that cost that community over 1/2 million dollars. 

Here is a link to the article. http://www.hindmansanchez.com/resources/article/common-area-changes-require-input-owners-compliance-governing-documents/


What's the VOCC Case about:
The one of the lawsuit's claim is less to do about the placement of the playground or path and more to do with the changing the use of the restricted reserve or in our case the non use of the restricted reserve and the added burden that this change in use has created to the property that is adjacent to the playground.

Background of the VOCC Case
The play ground placement was a hot topic at the time and here's a few excerpts from the Annual meeting minutes that are available at: http://vocc.info/2013-02-21_General_Mtg_Minutes.pdf

The Opposition (this does not include all of the opposition's comments)

"The community was not notified of the purchase or location of the play structure."

"The builder’s master plan had the playground by the pool."

"The builder promised homeowners that no building would be placed on the green space."

"Homeowners on the greens pace paid a premium to live there"

"The opposition believes they have been asked to watch or "police" the structure, or at least they have a sense of added responsibility"

The Proponents (this does not include all of the proponent's comments)

"75% of the community is within 900 feet of the proposed site"

"Modern builders place pocket parks in communities which are spread around a neighborhood, some close to homes. "

"...the Board concedes that VOCC was not "master planned" for pocket parks and we are retrofitting"

"The play structure has already been purchased and was scheduled to be installed February 20."  

"The Board agreed to postpone installation to hear opposition feedback."
 
"...builder promises made twelve to fifteen years ago are no longer binding"

"Per our governing documents, the Board has full authority to make an independent decision on project purchase and placement and is not required to notify the community beforehand on such decisions."

Note:The most relevant line from the minutes of this annual meeting is that our HOA claims that our governing documents give it the authority make independent decisions on project purchase and placement.These are similar to the claims that the HOA in the California case quoted and the Judge in that case and the Judge in the appeals case struck down these claims as a legitimate reason to change the use of a property.

The Yahoo Group VOCC1

The playground placement was also the subject of several emails on the now deleted Yahoo Group by several members. Some of the emails were for the placement and some were against the placement, a copy of the a few of these emails are available at http://voccproud.com/p/2-19-2013MembersRespondToPlaySet.pdf

"I also cannot attend tonight due to a business commitment. About 2 years ago replacing the playground equipment was voted down at the home owners meeting. When I posed this recently privately to the board, I was basically told the board can make these decisions regardless of what we think."

"I see on Feb 2012 “baby pool shade cover and permanent message sign are the primary neighborhood projects at this time.” My first notification of the placement of the playground was when utility flags and stakes were placed outside."

"I have read all of these emails from the first day the playground was talked about and I think the location is perfect for many reasons."

"Why can't the play ground go in the middle of the trees opposite across the parking lot from where it used to be? It is a bigger space and it has parking. It doesn't have to go in the same exact spot as the old one. It is no closer to the street than the proposed site."

"I think a centrally located play structure is a great idea for our neighborhood. Putting it in over by the pool means almost everyone has to drive to it. Putting it on the greenway off Biscayne Bend provides the easiest access for the most people."

"...I think the safest place is by the pool the majority of the people it is going by are not
against a playground just the location it adds responsibility to some homeowners that do
not have young children 3 driveways back up to it there's just a lot of concerns that
should be heard I honestly felt before we'll it's not by me so why get involved then I realized how much it will affect the homes directly by it & the traffic I genuinely believe it is not a safe location it is very close to the road 3 driveways face it I don't know why anyone would have problems w it going by the pool..."

By reading the minutes that are posted online and the email exchanges from the Yahoo group, one can see the similarities between the California case and the one that the VOCC is currently litigating.

The issue is not really the placement of the playground. The issue is the changing the use of the restricted reserve or in this case the non-use of the reserve and the adding a burden on the homes that are closest to the new park.

How much is this costing the VOCC? 
If the HOA wins great, The lawsuit will not cost the HOA anything as we can seek attorney fees! 

We also have insurance to help us out in the cost. As per a meeting with the HOA Board in September of 2014, if we are sued for the placement of the playground, the law suit will only cost the HOA $1,000, however recent post on Next door.com suggest that this lawsuit is costing us much more. https://villagesofoakcreekcolony.nextdoor.com/news_feed/?post=14792798

If the HOA looses, how will the HOA pay for the damages?

This may be done with a special assessment as the HOA has about 40K in the reserves. This means that every Home owner may have to pay an extra assessment in order to pay for the damages of the case.

If the damages are similar to this California court case ($500,000) that could mean that every home owner could potentially have to pay $2,066.11 ($500,000 damages / 242 Homes) in a special assessment on top of the normal dues of $520.00.  

Looking for Bloggers

We are excited to announce the launch of our brand new blog! We encourage you to bookmark the page or add the link to your favorites. We are currently looking for volunteers to contribute articles about our blog. 

The blog is a great way to keep members and the public informed about what is going on in our community. 

If you are interested in contributing and becoming a blogger, please email info@VoccProud.com

The Blog content, will appear on the Home page of the VoccProud.com and will link directly to the blog. The goal is to keep content fresh on the site so that members will come back.

Topics can be anything that pertains to the community
1. Social activities
2. Home values
3. Improvements in the community
4. Community awards or recognition for services (IE boy scouts hard work)
5. Anything that relates to the community.

Everything should have a positive spin,the blog is meant to promote the good things happening in the community. Only things that we are proud of... No foul language or personal attacks are permitted.
 

Do not forget to check out The Official Village Of Oak Creek Colony Proud Website for more updates!