SCHOA--some ideas

Not necessarily. I may be on the board of SCHOA next year, but I can still express my own opinions. I will not divulge anything confidential regarding SCHOA. I will not do anything that conflicts with my SCHOA responsibilities. I see this as a learning experience and an opportunity to give back to the community. I see Talk of Sun City as an opportunity to express opinions, learn about different points of view and even learn some of the history of Sun City.

I have been quiet recently due to a new medical condition that consumes a lot of my time. Not because I've grown disinterested.

 

I would bet that you didn't really read the CC&Rs. There is nothing that specific in them. But for most newer communities there can be a whole lot of restrictions on Color of exterior paint, walls, landscape and more. But not here. It's common sense for the most part. Keep you exterior maintained and don't become a hoarder (lots of junk, including parking non working vehicles in the street). I don't believe SCHOA wants to be the nit picking neighborhood police. The biggest issues are probably reported by neighbors.

Enforcement of CC&Rs is through the deed restrictions with the ultimate resolution requiring the courts. Anyone in this community has the right to identify a violation of the CC&Rs and make a formal complaint to the violator. What some people may perceive as HOA violations are legal violations (not leashing your dog, or cleaning up). But for a true CC&R violation, the path is difficult, if your neighbor resists coming into compliance. Taking someone to court is expensive and a drawn out process. SCHOA tries to help in this, as it has built up experience and an understanding of the CC&Rs and enforcement. What about the home without a resident that is 55+? They do exist. Do you know how to bring that situation into compliance? I believe most homeowners don't have a clue and rely on a simple call to SCHOA.

None of this reflects an official SCHOA position. It's information that I have obtained since I move here, by reading the CC&Rs (multiple times), attending multiple open SCHOA meetings (Board, Traffic & Safety), etc. My initial quest after moving here was to find out how RCSC and SCHOA differ.

I won't claim to know it all. But I do have a better understanding of where the boundaries are. RCSC is NOT SCHOA. SCHOA is NOT RCSC. They have very different roles in this community. There is little overlap and it starts with knowing the roles. RCSC and SCHOA are not community government. Maricopa County is our government. We rely on the Maricopa County Sheriff to enforce the laws. The county is Huge! We are not the only neighborhood within it. Sun City is not an incorporated City.

RCSC and SHOA have a very different set of issues. Yet these issues affect most all of us that live within Sun City.

 

Oh, I've read them! The only point I was making is we don't want them to go crazy like some other HOA communities.

I agree that SCHOA keeps Sun City in very good shape, but it still kinda baffles me that if any SC resident can report a violation then why isn't every SC resident required to join SCHOA? They all reap the rewards of SCHOA's enforcements but refuse to support them financially? But I get it, the RCSC is strictly all about the recreational facilities while SCHOA is about the community home restrictions!

As a side comment and I may be way off base but, I would like to see SCHOA get together with the local Chamber of Commerce's and try to occupy many of the vacant storefronts in the many strip-malls with a variety of stores. That's one attraction Sun City West has over us is that you can do a lot of shopping for everyday items within Sun City West! Years ago Sun City had many more shops than it does now. It seems like now, every vacant store front ends up being some sort of medical facility whether its hearing aids or cannabis/marijuana outlet? We use to have a very nice Trader Joe's on the corner of 99th and Thunderbird that became a Family Dollar! I think we can do better than that?

You know the old folks, they would rather do all their shopping within the walls of Sun City rather than fighting the crazy traffic on Bell Road!

Just say'n...it would make Sun City more attractive!

 

Ok. I get that. The original Sun City did not have the experience of understanding the future issues of a planned community. The deed restrictions do allow for a mandatory RCSC assessment. I don't know how that came about. The key is RCSC gets a property assessment (like a tax). The other deed restriction for single family homes did not envision a management function for the HOA. Newer communities have combined the RCSC with the HOA into a single entity. So the newer entities have the concept of common element across the board. Things like the newer HOA owning entrances to the community, private parks, golf courses, recreation centers, etc. There is ownership involved.

SCHOA owns nothing in the community. They own their office building, but no common facilities. The islands on 103rd and 107th avenues are owned by Maricopa County. Same for those on Peroria Ave and Alabama Ave. SCHOA has not authority over anything.

RCSC owns a lot of property and infrastructure.

Check out SCHOA's mission statement:
“To preserve Sun City property values through the fair and consistent application of the CC&Rs (Conditions, Covenants and Restrictions).”

Everything else SCHOA does is beyond that simple mission. The only ultimate enforcement of CC&Rs is through the courts (not limited to SCHOA being the only party able to file a case).

• Sun City is a fragmented community within some simple boundaries.
• Sun City is not incorporated (Maricopa County is the corporate legal entity over Sun City with a lot more homes and businesses outside Sun City).
• Sun City is a Post Office (85351 is all Sun City homes and businesses; 85373 is some Sun City homes and some Peoria).
• The boundaries for Sun City (as we call ourselves) is the agregation of residential developments built by Del Webb. There are a few exceptions in Phase 3 where some residential homes were built on vacant residential plots that Del Webb didn't build. But all are within the planned community that Del Webb defined and filed.
• There are 57 or 58 actual single family home HOAs within Sun City. I just learned this yesterday. I have more to learn on this.
• There are over 300 COAs in Sun City (Condominium Communities)
  
• There are close to 40,000 residents of Sun City.
• There are approximately 17,000 Single Family Homes (SCHOA's domain)
  
• SCHOA has over 4600 members (from the single family homes and COA residents.
  
• There are 32000 members of the RCSC.
• 9.9% of Sun City residents live at or below poverty level (per Sun City CAN at SCHOA new resident meeting 2021)
• Sun City Independent has a circulation of about 23,700 (as of 3/14/21)
• RCSC Email Blasts go to 12,000 (per inquiry to RCSC - 11/12/21
• RCSC printed 5000 copies of Sunviews in September 2021 and 8,000 copies in October 2021. Sunviews was distributed with the Sun City Independent through December 2020 (stopped in 2021 due to cost).

I can go on and on. I may be off on some of the numbers, but the general perspective would be the same.

Back to SCHOA

• SCHOA took lead in fighting EPCOR consolidation for Sun City. This is beyond the Mission Statement.
• SCHOA involves itself with many entities within Sun City and Sun City West (some sort of leadership council in the Northwest Valley). I don't know any specifics but SCHOA tries to get us representation in areas where only city governments are involved.
• SCHOA Traffic and Safety Committee gets Maricopa County (MDOT), AZDOT, Maricopa Sherriff, Posse, Fire Dept, Prides and more together to help with issues that SCHOA does not control.
• SCHOA Foundation - non profit: Has program to help members who cannot afford to clean up their properties; Had all the walls in Sun City painted, which SCHOA doesn't own; Is building up funds for the next time.
• SCHOA's annual budget is probably less than 10% of the RCSC Budget. (I don't know for sure).
• SCHOA revenue from Voluntary Members: $25/member times 4,600 members is $115,000. It's managed to find other sources of income to supplement this.
• SCHOA had $200,000 for the project to update CC&R's in the community. COVID-19 halted this project. If and when this may continue, is unknown. It is a monumental task that would likely take 2 years.
• SCHOA would require 100% of the home owners in Sun City to approve a mandatory assessment for membership (not likely to happen).

So SCHOA does more than it's mission statement. If it were only the CC&R enforcement, my coming job as a board member would be much easier.
But Sun City is a fragmented community with many parts. There are benefits to being unincorporated. But there are also problems that are not easily addressed.

FINAL DISCLAIMER - This is information I had prior to running for the SCHOA board. There is nothing confidential in this information.
I wouldn't have run if I didn't have a deep respect for what SCHOA does for the community.[/QUOTE]

 

Mike, what is the process for SCHOA to get the CC&R's revised and updated? Who votes to approve such amendments? I seem to have heard about potential changes for a couple of years but they never seem to get implemented?

 

This is from memory prior to COVID and the project being put on hold. SCHOA had a CC&R Committee. I was not on it. First, you have to make changes that most people would approve. Most of what SCHOA was trying to do was eliminate conflicts in the documents. So most changes clarified where there was conflict. It's basically a door to door project. You don't just send a document and ask people to sign and return. See my thread on Apathy in Sun City..

There were differences of opinion (legal and other) as I recall. It's not just a simple majority of single family home owners. It has nothing to do with being a SCHOA member. Its about changing the deed restrictions. One opinion was 100% approval is required. Another was 51%.

There is not just one Single Family Home HOA. There are 57 or 58 HOAs. The approval needs to go by each HOA. Each of the HOAs has to meet the majority voting requirement.

Just a thought on this, which I have not discussed or heard discussed: Could each HOA be treated independently? So approval would occur by HOA?
I don't know. I need to research how these HOAs work. From what I'm told, 90+ percent of the Deed Restrictions across these HOAs are the same. I don't know the differences and don't know the impact of any differences. There are issues if SCHOA has different CC&Rs for different communities.

There is a lot to this project. Jim Hunter was the driving force behind this. He's not on the SCHOA board or committees (to my knowledge). Covid may have require SCHOA to do some back tracking on this project. It's something I've been told will be discussed by the board in 2022. But for now, its been shelved.

 

Quick clarification Mike. Single family homes aren't HOA's per se. When Sun City was developed they started filing deed restrictions as they opened, the first being New Life One. Each subsequent opening resulted in separate and distinct units. In 1998 and 1999 the Home Owners Association (before they officially became SCHOA) wrote clarifications (updates) to each of the units and had to vote them as such. It took 50% plus 1 in each unit and when Ben and i were first elected those cards were still kicking around the office with rubber bands on them. The process took near on two years to pass and every unit was accounted for, except one as i recall.

Consequently, while the units are unique in number, they all have the same CC&R's. There are a handful though that are different and have their own. Both Viewpoint Lake and Dawn Lake have their own CC&R's and Rancho Estates has their own.

I served on the committee to rewrite them and Jim Hunter put in an enormous amount of work. He was the catalyst behind the changes and when he left, the air went out of the room. The problem of course is the lengthy, time consuming and expensive process to get to where he wanted to go. The bigger issue was SCHOA had along the way written "clarifications" that were in fact changes to the 1999 CC&R's. The SCHOA attorney had been very specific, "a clarification cannot add to the document, only explain what it means." Board members along the way got pretty creative in their additions which put the compliance department in a really awkward position. Jim was a compliance officer before he became president and he understood what needed to be done.

The new executive director was hired to spearhead that effort. It was a daunting process and when Jim left i suspect everyone breathed a sigh of relief. We had begun mapping out a plan of attack and then the pandemic hit. By the time it kind of passed, Jim left and life changed. Now i hear there are bigger issues than passing the rewritten CC&R's.

SCHOA has been amazing over the years as long as they stay focused on their main job; enforcing the CC&R's. Unfortunately they have danced around the other stuff, like becoming the Chamber of Commerce and acting as the right arm of the republican party. That kind of stuff is more fun, less work and so the role of the board is to try and keep them on task. While the organization was never supposed to be political (other than turning to the County or occasionally an elected representative), we've had board members and staff who feel the need to promote elected officials to garner their support.

Just as an aside, Ben Roloff and i were elected in 2006 and the board we were working rebuilt the organization. The staff had become complacent and the community was angry at us for non-action. We told the staff we were going to help them become successful and they all quit within two weeks (except the head of compliance who stayed with us for 6 months). We changed the entire operation and within the first year we had increased membership to over 9000 households. Since that time membership has dipped dramatically. i was stunned to see 4000 members, we had been hovering between 6000 to 7000 but that was with all kinds of gimmicks that included free memberships to new home owners.

SCHOA's main income stream (beyond member dues) was the yearly phone book. When that contract finally ended, as land lines became passe, they had built their current program of providing at the point of sale, home inspections which is substantial. You will want to understand the details of how that works. Sorry for the length of this, but SCHOA has a long and storied history including a time when voluntary membership was in the 80% range...but that's another story for another time.

 

Thanks for the helpful history lesson!!

 

I understand why these three communities would have unique CC&Rs. Its good to know that everyone else shares the same CC&Rs. I still need to get clarification on what it takes with regards to votes to change the CC&Rs (clarification and/or additions/revisions). This project may get revived. For now, the CC&R Committee no longer exists.