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HOAs: Phony Decmocracies - Part 1

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Contributed by: Jan Jackson on 10/21/2007

Has anyone reading this ever read the book "1984" by George Orwell? If so, you will see many facets of that "1984" society in this first of a series of posts (see below) which you can read concerning the "new" concept of homeowners associations HOA(s) and common interest communities (CICs). That concept is not really "new" though. It's just the latest attempt by the power-and-money seekers among us to control everything we do and say in what's coming to be known as "private dictatorships."

And it all starts where we live.

This newest attack on the freedoms and liberties of homeowners comes when they live in a community called "New Town." And the most "successful"of these "New Towns" is named "Kentlands." Kentlands is located in Gaithersburg, Maryland.

It is the latest attempt of the power-and-money seekers among us to remove normal, i.e., relatively free of psychological and psychiatric problems, homeowners / American citizens from the "messiness" of a true democracy in our country and force us all to live in these dictatorial "New Towns."

As we all know -- or should know -- we are supposed to be living under a Constitutional Federal Republic form of government. But if the power-and-money seekers are nationally successful in legislatively removing all of us from our normal communities, i.e., not an HOA or CIC, as they were with their socially and financially destructive to homeowners HOA/CIC communities, the ultimate fate of all homeowners in this country will be to live in dictatorial Kentlands-type "New Towns" (or worse) for the rest of their lives.

How far away from the basic principles upon which this country was founded are we freedom-loving citizens willing to go?

Jan

"I am not bound to win, but I am bound to be true.
I am not bound to succeed, but I am bound to live by the light that I have.
I must stand with anybody that stands right, stand with him while he is right, and part with him when he goes wrong." -- Abraham Lincoln

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AHRC News Services
An Editorial

The Tragedy Of Kentlands
Onerous covenant controls on residential properties and the entire town

September 17, 2007

By Robert Metcalf

Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania -
I came across a most disturbing concept the other day. Just outside of Washington, DC there lies the community of Kentlands. http://kentlandsusa.com This is what is known as a "New Town". A "New Town" is the more onerous extension of your basic common interest development. Not only are residential properties covenant controlled, but the entire town as well.

Every property, be it residential, commercial or "public" (I use that term loosely) is bound by deed restrictions and governed under the "Business Judgment Rule." While this concept is certainly not new (I suggest everyone read Privatopia: Homeowner Associations and the Rise of Residential Private Government by Evan McKenzie for a comprehensive history of New Towns), Kentlands has incorporated a new twist, that in my opinion, is the saddest commentary yet on just how far away from the basic principles on which this country was founded the "New Urbanists" have taken us. Even the name, Kentlands, has a vaguely Orwellian tinge to it.

Kentlands was conceived in 1988 and according to its own website "is the most successful and largest neo-traditional New Urbanist project in North America." If you click on the photo section ( kentlandsusa.com/kentlands/community.php?mode=content&t=ce_content&id=5) of the website it indeed does look the part, extremely clean and welcoming, in a "Stepford Wives" sort of way.

During my "visit" to the site, I noticed something called the "Kentlands Citizens Assembly". Aside from the fact that it sounds like something extracted from an episode of Star Trek, I was interested by the use of the word "Citizen". In my experience HOAs had "members", but never "citizens". I started to search the website and came across this document, the "Kentlands Citizens Assembly Members Handbook"

( kentlandsusa.com/kentlands/docs/MembersHandbook.pdf).

Once you get by the introductory paragraphs that contain the obligatory property description and benign "corporate speak", designed to soften the blow that results from a purchaser realizing that he or she is more employee than resident, you come to this remarkable passage:

"What definitively sets Kentlands apart from other homeowners associations (HOAs), though, is its democratic system of community governance. Because HOAs must, by Maryland law be organized under the laws that regulate business corporations, they are required to be governed by a board of directors (trustees). The typical result is an essentially autocratic system of governance, one to which many homeowners object because of the lack of public participation and absence of checks and balances."

Upon reading that, I thought to myself, this should be interesting, how are they going to address that?

[to be continued]

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