HOA rules come under attack

By Sophia Fischer   sfischer@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers QUIET TIME--The Country Vistas III neighborhood in Oak Park is dead quiet on Sunday afternoon. The HOA forbids any outside recreational activity in the common areas. Liability is at stake. Although Oak Park is known as a family-oriented community filled with children, one neighborhood forbids kids from playing outside and some homeowners are angry.

Country Vistas III, a quiet development of about 147 town houses and single-family homes off Oak Hills Drive, is ruled by a homeowner association whose bylaws prohibit recreational activities on common area sidewalks, streets, driveways and/or landscaped areas.

There is also a "residents' right to quiet enjoyment" rule. Several residents who have children are frustrated by the regulations, which they see as restrictive and unfair.

"This is not a 55-plus community, but the rule is that children should not be seen and not heard," said Apinder Bal, a three-year resident.

In October, Bal had a birthday party for her 12-year-old son. The kids played soccer, had a scavenger hunt and hoisted a piñata outside.

"I had a couple of rude phone calls saying 'if you need to have functions like this, then you need to move,'" Bal said.

When children do play outside, they are yelled at by an association board member and told to go back inside, according to Sherri Wentworth, who has lived in Country Vistas for 10 years. On several occasions when her daughter was outside playing, one resident in particular would come out to yell at her. If the girl had friends with her, he'd yell at all of them, Wentworth said.

"For a board member to feel that he can go and scream directly at kids and scare them is not right," Wentworth said. "I was very angry with him for not coming and telling me, but when I did talk to him he laid into me and said that he took his son to the park and we should all do that, too."

Relatives recently purchased a tetherball set for Wentworth's daughter. It was set up at the side of the house. Wentworth planned to roll it back into the garage at the end of the weekend. The morning after the set was erected, Wentworth found a sign stuck to it stating that it violated community rules and if it wasn't removed immediately it would be confiscated, Wentworth said.

"I don't know how they've gotten away with this, but it's absolutely absurd," Wentworth said. In November, resident Cari Erickson received a letter from the association warning her that if her son and his friends continued riding their unicycles, bikes and skateboards through the community, she would be fined.

"If I had gone through the CC and Rs with a fine-toothed comb before I closed on this house, I wouldn't have moved there," Erickson said. "This is not a way to live."

Several board members contacted refused to comment, deferring questions to property manager Robin Shadduck of Management Solutions in Camarillo. The whole situation needs to be taken in context, according to Shadduck.

Children may play outside but they must be supervised, she said. Some children were riding bikes and skateboards in the community, which could be dangerous if cars come through, Shadduck added.

"There are liability issues. These streets are not owned by individual homeowners. It's the association that gets sued," said Shadduck, acknowledging that there have been no lawsuits.

Shadduck points out the park, the nearby high school and open space facilities as areas where children can play.

The complex is made up of short cul-de-sacs surrounded by clusters of homes set close together. Not much traffic comes through, Erickson said.

"As a single mom, I like to know that my kids are close to home," Erickson said. "I can't be there to take them to the park."

Shadduck denied that there were any rules that prohibit children from playing outside. However, the association rules include the following: "Any recreational activity on common area sidewalks, streets, driveways, or landscaped areas is prohibited. Reserved for pedestrian use only. Residents right to quiet enjoyment rule. No loitering. Loitering violations will be determined on an incident-by-incident basis by the board."

"This is a homeowner association community. People move in and want homeowner rules," Shadduck said.

Erickson, Bal and Wentworth have attended board meetings over the years to complain about the restrictions. An attorney at one meeting told Wentworth the association could be sued if a child was hurt in the complex. There was also concern about the possibility of sprinklers in the common areas being broken by children playing.

"It all came down to cost and fear of legalities. I just couldn't believe it," Wentworth said.

Desa Pavitch, who has lived in the community for 20 years, has never experienced problems with children playing outside and was unaware of the ruling. Her neighbor occasionally plays catch outside with his daughter, a pastime Pavitch has no problem with.

"It's a very quiet area," she said while walking her dog on a recent afternoon.

The rules were not always so restrictive, according to resident Derek Gardner. In 1979, when the development was built, the bylaws stated that "Each member shall be entitled to use and enjoyment of the common area and facilities." That wording was changed in 1997 to the current restriction on recreational activity. Such strict rules are unnecessary, Gardner said.

"Neighbors are quite able to police themselves. If a child is being unruly or destructive, you tell the child to knock it off or tell their parents," Gardner said. "This guy going around enforcing the rules, making the kids' life a misery, is the Grinch that steals the kids' childhood fun."