UPDATE OUR CC&Rs AND BYLAWS WITH A FULL RE-WRITE

By

The State of California emphasizes Governing Documents should easy to understand. Proposals should include:

  • Here’s the old
  • Here’s the new
  • Here’s why we need this change.

Keep it simple.

We have studied this approach for our community for over four years now. Adopting a full-rewrite simply appears to be an impossible challenge.

Here are some talking points:

  1. It’s all or nothing. You can forget about those key updates embedded in a full re-write. We are back to square one for everything if it fails.
  2. Do new CC&Rs really add value?  Practically speaking, We do not see this holding significant standing for the Coto community.  Ask a Realtor, when is the last time you or anyone you know purchased a home based on CC&R’s?
  3. California already updates CC&R statutes that we comply with. These constantly updated statutes always supersede Community documents. New CC&R’s are like a new car on day one, and we all know what happens with used cars (no offense to the Automotive industry).
  4. Community CC&Rs should focus on specific community aspects that we can control. Leave the heavy lifting of maintaining statutes to our County and State governments.
  5. Many of you may not know that, while our CC&R update needs 50%+1 of the membership (215 members) to adopt, our Bylaws require 75%, or 322 members to adopt. With 75% being a bar so high, the courts would likely allow us to fudge a bit, but it is very high bar none-the-less. Remember, a full re-write includes updating the CC&Rs AND Bylaws.
  6. Finally, this is by far the most expensive approach. For the last 7 or 8 years, several heartfelt attempts to update our Governing Documents, with mounting legal fees in tow, have failed.

To summarize, we believe this approach, in its most perfect presentation, remains a Bridge Too Far.   We would love to hear from you.