It was great to see many homeowners last night at the Annual Meeting. We just barely made quorum, so thank you to those who showed up or sent in your proxy! For those that showed up, we did have a really great and collegial discussion about Meadowglen. We appreciate your participation and input!
For those of you who did not attend, my Annual Report is below for your consideration. As always, if you have any questions for myself or the Board, please send them along to BOD@meadowlen-hoa.com.
2022 President’s Report
Compared to the last couple years, this was a really quiet year! I don’t need to regale you on the events of the pandemic, but last year was exceptionally busy with changing of management companies, the clubhouse flooding, and the truck vote.
This year the absolutely biggest change in Meadowglen didn’t come from within the community, but handed down from the State. This summer CO legislature passed 5 bills that impact HOAs. If you recall, there was a considerable amount of shenanigans with other HOA’s in our state where they were foreclosing on properties and generally being unreasonable. The State reacted and passed a number of laws that more clearly outline the scope and authority of HOAs. All 5 laws did go into effect 8/10, and we’ve been operating under those rules since then.
The bill with the most changes to our operations is:
HB22-1137 changes parts of CCIOA (Colorado Common Interest Ownership Act) and Title 13 of the Colorado Revised Statutes (which covers delinquencies and violations). The key takeaways for our community include a fairly significant change in how violations are handled including:
- changing our 7 day cure period on violations to 30 days, meaning that before a fine is imposed up to 60 days has elapsed on violations (when you include the courtesy notice, and then fine threat letters). However if a violation poses a health and safety risk, then we can impose a 72 hour cure period.
- This bill also caps the total violation amount to $500, which isn’t a big departure from our previous policy.
- limits HOAs to only allow liens on the property for delinquency and not violations. In the past,
- For all collections and delinquency, if the homeowner doesn’t respond to a courtesy notice, then a notice has to posted on the door of the home which will incur an additional processing fee
- Limits the interest charged on delinquent accounts to 8% (which is actually an increase for us, from 5%).
In general, this bill both increases the management and processing costs for us, and limits our ability to quickly correct violations.
The second most impactful bill for our community is:
HB22-1139 – HOAs Cannot Regulate Use of Public Rights-of-way – which does as the title suggests prohibits associations from regulating public streets.
- Meadowglen has a long history on the prohibition of trucks, and recreational and oversized vehicle parking, both in the driveway and street.
- Last year we amended this covenant to allow for 1 moderately sized pickup truck in the driveway.
- Moving forward, the HOA will only be able to enforce parking of all vehicles on the lot itself.
- All street parking violations must go through Arvada Code Enforcement
The other smaller bills do impose other changes for us:
- HB 1040 – Home Owner’s Reasonable Access to Common Areas – Specifies notice requirements if an amenity is temporarily closed (tennis courts)
- HB-1314 – Towing Carrier Nonconsensual Tows – we haven’t needed to tow vehicles, but this law outlines the req’s for towing operators when a vehicles is parked on private property. HOAs are prohibited from towing vehicles with expired plates, and HOAs must give 24 hour notice before a vehicle is towed.
- SB22-059 – HOA Voting Proxy Limitations – specifies the expiration date for proxies if not otherwise stated
After these bills were passed, Advance HOA was very proactive about making sure every HOA had a response plan. They hosted information sessions with lawyers to give an overview. The Board met with our legal counsel to ask pertinent questions and we drafted new policies to cover enforcement and collection. There is also a policy that covers Board meeting operations which covers parts of the transparency bill and what needs to be discussed at open meeting sessions versus executive session.
You may also remember that the State passed legislature last fall covering xeriscaping, flags and signs, record keeping, and solar panels. After reviewing the laws and identifying what works best for Meadowglen, we passed 4 policies to cover these topics and they went into effect April 15, 2022. We also ensured that the ARC Design Guidelines reflected these new policies before the Spring Walkthrough.
Moving away from legislation and policies, the next hottest topic was that Waste Management started enforcing their policy of only picking up waste inside of their containers. In 2020, the City of Arvada changed to a single hauler trash system, signing a 2-year contract with Republic Services. This went into effect July of 2021. We received lots of feedback that we wanted to continue service with WM, so we signed a 3 year contract with them to cover the duration of the Republic contract. When we signed the contract it did include a clause stating that for safety and efficiency purposes they were changing to a fully-automated system, meaning that they would only pick up trash in a WM provided bin.
Fortunately, but maybe adding to the confusion, they continued to pick up bagged trash until this spring. In April they posted notices on bins that they would no longer pick up bagged items and we heard from many folks through the summer months on how much of an inconvenience this is with yard waste. As we approach fall, I imagine this will be another common complaint. While I completely agree on the inconvenience, there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it from an HOA perspective. Due to the contracting changes, there are now only 2 servicing options, WM and Republic Services. Republic charges $6.26 more per month for equivalent services from WM (96 gal trash + recycle), and they also only pick up the bins. Other alternatives are that Arvada offers the Leaf Recycling events through November, and you can setup extra bins with WM for $5/month that is billed separately.
The board discussed getting dumpsters at the clubhouse, but that doesn’t solve the problem that you would need to haul your bags somewhere other than your home. And in the past when we provided a dumpster it was abused, overfilled, items were left next to it, and we don’t know who used it (Meadowglen or outside neighbors). You are also welcome to go in on a dumpster with your neighbors if you would like that to cover that seasonal waste.
Looking forward, at the November meeting Arvada City Councilmember Randy Moorman will join us to answer your questions. There is a submission form on our website for homeowners to use to submit questions.
Next year we have a couple of exciting capital projects including assessing the “resilient flooring” in the clubhouse basement.